What Happened?
One week after Christopher Bell snapped a 33-race winless streak at the Southern 500, it was Kyle Larson‘s turn to break his 51-race drought on Sunday (Sept. 13) at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Alex Bowman finished runner-up, Joey Logano finished third, William Byron finished fourth and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.
Austin Dillon, Connor Zilisch, Carson Hocevar, Denny Hamlin and Austin Cindric finished in the sixth to 10th spots, respectively.
What Really Happened?
The defending champion not only got his first win of the season but nabbed 73 of a possible 76 points at Gateway, which puts him only nine points behind Hamlin for the points lead.
Larson’s massive points swing from seventh up to second was also made possible due to the absolute chaos we saw on Sunday afternoon with the carnage affecting most of the Chase field.
The only two drivers that never really had to deal with adversity or incidents were Larson, who led 80 laps and won a stage along with the race itself, and Logano, who won the other stage and led a race-high 96 laps.
Logano trimmed 21 points off his deficit to Hamlin and now sits 51 points behind first in the standings.
Aside from them, a combination of crashes and brake failures plagued the Chase field, which shook up the standings and allowed Hamlin to stay in the points lead despite his quiet ninth-place, 33-point day.
Ryan Blaney had a shocking end to his race as he lost his brakes and crashed out of the race with 85 laps to go after finishing fourth in both stages.
Then, with just under 30 laps remaining, Chase Elliott lost his brakes as well and took out Chase Briscoe in the process, knocking them both out of the race.
From there, the end of the race was filled with multi-car accidents that included other Chase contenders like Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, and Tyler Reddick. Chris Buescher also lost his brakes to force overtime after he struggled to find speed throughout the event.
Overall, Larson capitalized while others missed a crucial opportunity to gain on Hamlin, especially Blaney and Bell since they both had top-five capable cars.
Chevrolet made up eight of the top 10 finishers through the attrition, including Byron, who battled back from damage he received during a crash at the beginning of the final stage.
With the Bristol Motor Speedway night race looming next weekend, there’s a good shot we see another hectic race on the iconic short track, as many contenders are going to be looking for bounce-back results after being wiped out at Gateway.
Who Stood Out?
I want to give a big shout out to Bowman for not only his strong, runner-up finish and helping his teammate return to victory lane at a crucial time, but for also fighting through a difficult time in his life.
Bowman lost his beloved dog, Finn, before the weekend started, and in his emotional post-race interview with USA Sports, he revealed that he didn’t really want to come to the track this weekend.
It’s already been a hard year for Bowman after he missed races due to vertigo and announced that 2027 will be his last full-time year in Cup. Now, he has to try to navigate through this devastating loss. His result on Sunday is something I hope he can smile about in these coming days.
Also, Bowman’s successor at Hendrick Motorsports, Zilisch, was able to come away mostly unscathed, finishing seventh at Gateway in a season where he has had a ton of misfortune.
Who Fell Flat?
Josh Berry‘s top 10 streak came to an end after he was involved in a late crash with Chase contenders, finishing 28th, 16 laps down.
Other drivers outside of The Chase that were involved in crashes today include Shane van Gisbergen, Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson, Riley Herbst, Zane Smith and more.
It was safe to say this is in contention for the wildest race of the season, and this was definitely the wildest Cup race in track history as it broke the caution record by a landslide.
Paint Scheme of the Race
For the second time this season, the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports car driven by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brought the green and black Clemco Chevrolet to the track.
In Stenhouse’s 500th career Cup Series start, he spun around in the opening laps of the race before ultimately ending up in the 26th at the tail end of the lead lap.
What’s Next?
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race is up next for the Cup Series for the third race of The Chase at Bristol.
TV coverage will begin on Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA. Bell is the defending winner at the track.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
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