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Kyle Larson wins NASCAR O'Reilly race at Las Vegas, extending JRM streak

Shane van Gisbergen took JR Motorsports to Victory Lane at COTA, driving the #9. One week later, Justin Allgaier in the #7 earned JRM a win at Phoenix, and a week after that, two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson drove the #88 to Victory Lane for the Earnhardt-owned team.

This is Larson's 18th career victory in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS), coming in his first start of the 2026 season.

"I finally remembered what he (son Cooper) told me and decided to go faster," said Larson after climbing from the car. My car was not handling the best, at all. I was just super tight, loaded, and I couldn't get any speed through the corners and I was just getting ate up on restarts, or really, the whole run.  But that last restart, we had some guys stay out and I had a good launch, was able to get to the middle with some clean air ... I was a bit nervous. I knew the #00 [Creed] and Briscoe were ripping the top. I tried it in (Turns) 1 and 2 once and I didn't feel good out there at all. Glad we were able to pick our way through traffic."

He beat another Cup regular to the checkered flag, finishing a couple of seconds ahead of Chase Briscoe in the #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgaier, and Sammy Smith filled out the rest of the top five. The remainder of the top ten featured Jesse Love, Connor Zilisch, Corey Day, William Sawalich, and Austin Hill

Stages 1 and 2

Mayer led the race from pole position, while Larson quickly lost several spots from the front row due to a slow start.

The first caution flew on Lap 2 as Zilisch got up into Clements in a two-car incident. There was another early-race incident in the middle of the field that soon followed, but the rest of the stage after that ran green.

Mayer remained in control, but Allgaier eventually ran him down and took the race lead. He went on to win Stage 2, followed by Mayer, Briscoe, Tay. Gray, Creed, Love, Larson, Day, Custer, B. Jones.

Briscoe had made an impressive charge through the field after starting 23rd, running far higher than most of the field.

During the stage break, Mayer's car suddenly lost power and he needed to be pushed back to the pits with a fuel pickup issue. He lost six laps while the #41 Haas team worked on the car.

Love won the race off pit road and led the way for the start of Stage 2, but Allgaier soon regained control of the race. He eventually had to deal with a charging Briscoe, who was now running right against the wall, but ran out of time.

Allgaier swept the stages, and at the end of Stage 2, he was followed by Briscoe, Tay. Gray, Love, Larson, Creed, Day, Zilisch, A. Hill, Kvapil

Stage 3

Once again, Love took the lead on pit road with an impressively quick stop. 

Briscoe got into the outside wall, and fell off the pace. He lost a lot of track position as he desperately tried to get back to pit road, initially missing it. 

At the front, Allgaier and Love swapped the lead back-and-forth with Love ultimately prevailing. 

A caution for an incident in the back of the field resulted in the entire pack come back down pit road for fresh tires and a full load of fuel. However, this stop would prove costly for Love, as his actual crew chief (Danny Stockman) fell over the pit wall trying to grab a tire, resulting in an end-of-line penalty.

It was now Gray leading the race, with Zilisch back up to second. Unfortunately, he smacked the wall on the restart, falling back a few spots before the next caution for a two-car spin on the frontstretch.

It was a split decision to pit, and Love was among those who came down pit road. He did save his final set of tires, but the fuel ensured he could make it to the finish without issue. Others did opt to take their final set, including Briscoe.

With 60 to go, Gray lost the lead to rookie driver Day, but he wasn't able to get away. Gray tried to get back to his inside a few laps later, but a bump on corner entry from Creed sent Gray spinning up the track and slamming the wall. He was livid, and drove his wounded #54 JGR Toyota back up to Creed under caution, showing his displeasure.

On the restart, a small group of cars led by Alfredo and Jones stayed out. Larson quickly surged into the race lead, followed by his protege, Day. Smith eventually moved up to second, but he was unable to challenge Larson for the lead as laps ticked away.

Creed eventually moved into second, and then Briscoe passed him, but while they battled, Larson drove away. Briscoe tried his best to run down his fellow Cup driver, but couldn't make a dent in Larson's multi-second lead as the race reached its conclusion.

Las Vegas NOAPS Results

cla # driver manufacturer laps time gap int laps led retirement
1 88 USA Kyle Larson Chevrolet 200 2:34'04.908     47  
2 19 USA Chase Briscoe Toyota 200 2:34'07.465 2.557 2.557 2  
3 00 USA Sheldon Creed Chevrolet 200 2:34'11.063 6.155 3.598 1  
4 7 USA Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 200 2:34'11.272 6.364 0.209 48  
5 8 USA Sammy Smith Chevrolet 200 2:34'14.032 9.124 2.760    
6 2 USA Jesse Love Chevrolet 200 2:34'14.588 9.680 0.556 36  
7 1 USA Connor Zilisch Chevrolet 200 2:34'15.392 10.484 0.804    
8 17 USA Corey Day Chevrolet 200 2:34'16.966 12.058 1.574 9  
9 18 USA William Sawalich Toyota 200 2:34'17.854 12.946 0.888    
10 21 USA Austin Hill Chevrolet 200 2:34'19.877 14.969 2.023    
11 9 USA Carson Kvapil Chevrolet 200 2:34'22.139 17.231 2.262    
12 99 USA Parker Retzlaff Chevrolet 200 2:34'25.004 20.096 2.865    
13 20 USA Brandon Jones Toyota 200 2:34'26.651 21.743 1.647 4  
14 28 USA Kyle Sieg Chevrolet 200 2:34'27.636 22.728 0.985    
15 52 USA Daniel Dye Ford 200 2:34'30.686 25.778 3.050    
16 92 USA Josh Williams Chevrolet 200 2:34'31.645 26.737 0.959    
17 24 USA Harrison Burton Toyota 200 2:34'32.033 27.125 0.388    
18 0 USA Cole Custer Chevrolet 200 2:34'34.910 30.002 2.877    
19 32 USA Rajah Caruth Chevrolet 200 2:34'36.170 31.262 1.260    
20 44 USA Brennan Poole Chevrolet 199 2:34'05.366 1 Lap 1 Lap    
21 48 USA Patrick Staropoli Chevrolet 199 2:34'10.721 1 Lap 5.355    
22 31 USA Blaine Perkins Chevrolet 199 2:34'13.643 1 Lap 2.922    
23 07 USA Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 199 2:34'17.598 1 Lap 3.955    
24 51 USA Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 199 2:34'19.234 1 Lap 1.636    
25 87 USA Austin Green Chevrolet 199 2:34'19.588 1 Lap 0.354    
26 45 USA Lavar Scott Chevrolet 199 2:34'23.697 1 Lap 4.109    
27 27 USA Jeb Burton Chevrolet 199 2:34'28.981 1 Lap 5.284    
28 91 USA Mason Maggio Chevrolet 199 2:34'34.171 1 Lap 5.190    
29 55 USA Joey Gase Chevrolet 199 2:34'37.791 1 Lap 3.620    
30 02 USA Ryan Ellis Chevrolet 198 2:34'07.633 2 Laps 1 Lap    
31 26 USA Dean Thompson Toyota 198 2:34'12.775 2 Laps 5.142    
32 42 USA Nathan Byrd Chevrolet 198 2:34'13.472 2 Laps 0.697    
33 39 USA Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 197 2:34'38.145 3 Laps 1 Lap    
34 96 USA Anthony Alfredo Chevrolet 197 2:37'32.917 3 Laps 2'54.772    
35 41 USA Sam Mayer Chevrolet 196 2:34'28.248 4 Laps 1 Lap 32  
36 5 USA Chandler Smith Ford 184 2:26'11.599 16 Laps 12 Laps   Ignition
37 54 USA Taylor Gray Toyota 148 2:00'36.016 52 Laps 36 Laps 21 Accident
38 25 USA Nicholas Sanchez Ford 141 2:13'30.279 59 Laps 7 Laps   Fuel pump
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