Larson takes maximum points at Kansas, Annunziata wins ARCA by a tiebreaker, Petit Le Mans week: Week 40
Kyle Larson's 76-point day at Kansas stretches his Cup lead to 26, Kaden Honeycutt takes the Truck Series points lead, and IMSA's four championships come down to Saturday's Petit Le Mans.
Kyle Larson won the fourth race of the Cup Series Chase at Kansas Speedway on Sep. 27 with every point the race offered, and the result stretched his championship lead to 26 points over Denny Hamlin. Larson swept both stages, led 235 of the 267 laps and set the fastest lap of the race. 12
The same weekend reshaped two more championships. Kaden Honeycutt waited out a red flag of 4 hours, 47 minutes at Kansas, then won the Truck Series race and took the points lead; at Rockingham Dragway, Matt Hagan padded his Funny Car lead and Shawn Langdon won his third straight Top Fuel race. 34 The week ahead closes the IMSA season with the 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on Oct. 3, and puts the Cup and O'Reilly races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 3-4. 56 Results here cover Sep. 21-27; the watch list covers Sep. 28-Oct. 4.
Cup: Larson takes all 76 points at Kansas
Larson retook the lead from Chase Briscoe with seven laps left of the 267-lap race and won by 0.565 seconds over Austin Cindric. The finish turned on the last green-flag pit stops. Larson followed Briscoe down pit road on Lap 216 and came out in front, then brushed the wall and let Briscoe run him down; Briscoe took the lead on Lap 238 and held it for 23 laps before his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota went loose. Cindric and Hamlin both passed Briscoe in the closing laps, and Larson drove to his inside on Lap 261. 1
Rain washed out Saturday's practice and qualifying, so the grid was set by the rule book and Joey Logano started from the pole. 7 The first caution for an incident came on Lap 114, when Noah Gragson's engine let go; the restart on Lap 121 produced a six-car wreck that started when Carson Hocevar moved right into Ty Gibbs and pushed Gibbs into Bubba Wallace, with Erik Jones and Josh Berry also caught up. Hocevar's splitter was badly damaged, and he finished 33rd. 1
Logano fell from the pole to 20th and dropped from third to fourth in the standings, 67 points back. Tyler Reddick ran as deep as 33rd early and recovered to 11th despite one slow stop under green. Blaney finished fifth and moved up to fifth in points. Post-race inspection closed without issue, and the cars of Ross Chastain, Hamlin, Blaney and William Byron went to the R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for engine dynamometer testing. 1
| Finish | Driver |
|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Larson 2 |
| 2 | Austin Cindric 2 |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin 2 |
| 4 | Chase Briscoe 2 |
| 5 | Ryan Blaney 2 |
| 6 | Christopher Bell 2 |
| 7 | William Byron 2 |
| 8 | Chase Elliott 2 |
| 9 | Bubba Wallace 2 |
| 10 | Ryan Preece 2 |
Larson's win was his second of 2026 and the 34th of his career, tying him with Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. for 26th on the all-time list. 1
Kansas was the fourth of ten Chase races, and the 2026 format awards the title on points alone, with no eliminations and the champion decided at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 8. 789
| Pos. | Driver | Behind Larson 10 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Larson | Leader 10 |
| 2 | Denny Hamlin | −26 10 |
| 3 | Christopher Bell | −50 10 |
| 4 | Joey Logano | −67 10 |
| 5 | Ryan Blaney | −91 10 |
| 6 | Ty Gibbs | −94 10 |
| 7 | Tyler Reddick | −111 10 |
| 8 | Chase Briscoe | −123 10 |
| 9 | Austin Cindric | −140 10 |
| 10 | Bubba Wallace | −140 10 |
| 11 | Carson Hocevar | −150 10 |
| 12 | William Byron | −158 10 |
| 13 | Chase Elliott | −161 10 |
| 14 | Ryan Preece | −173 10 |
| 15 | Chris Buescher | −186 10 |
| 16 | Daniel Suárez | −187 10 |
Trucks: Honeycutt takes over as Riggs hits the wall
Kaden Honeycutt led 111 of 134 laps at Kansas on Sep. 26, won both stages and finished 1.358 seconds ahead of Christian Eckes, good for his third win of the season and the series points lead. Intermittent rain red-flagged the race after 70 laps, with Honeycutt running third; when it restarted on Lap 78 he passed Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes, the two drivers who had stayed out on older tires. 3
Layne Riggs, the top seed in the Truck Chase, took two tires to Honeycutt's four on the final stop under caution on Lap 117, restarted third, led on Lap 122 and then clipped the outside wall with two laps left, finishing 19th. He had already given up ground on Lap 61, when the jack dropped before his left-front lug nuts were tight and he had to back up into his stall. 3
Honeycutt leads Riggs by 37 points and Chandler Smith by 71. Enfinger led during the red flag and finished 31st after a pit-road speeding penalty, contact with the wall and a two-lap penalty for stopping in Turn 3 and causing a caution. The series races again on Oct. 9 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 3
| Finish | Driver |
|---|---|
| 1 | Kaden Honeycutt 11 |
| 2 | Christian Eckes 11 |
| 3 | Brent Crews 11 |
| 4 | Daniel Hemric 11 |
| 5 | Ben Rhodes 11 |
| 6 | Chandler Smith 11 |
| 7 | Nick Leitz 11 |
| 8 | Tanner Gray 11 |
| 9 | Jake Garcia 11 |
| 10 | Corey LaJoie 11 |
NHRA: Langdon's record run and a new Pro Stock leader
The Countdown to the Championship opened at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, where rain pushed Sunday's eliminations to Monday, Sep. 21. Shawn Langdon made the fastest pass in NHRA history in the semifinals, 3.663 seconds at 346.95 mph against his Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta, then beat Spencer Massey in the final for his sixth win of the season and an 11-point Top Fuel lead. Jordan Vandergriff won Funny Car from the No. 16 qualifying position, the first Funny Car win from that spot since Del Worsham in 2003; Troy Coughlin Jr. won Pro Stock for the first time in 41 races, and John Hall won Pro Stock Motorcycle. 12
The inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock followed at Rockingham Dragway on Sep. 25-27, the second of six Countdown races. Matt Hagan beat Paul Lee in the Funny Car final for his fourth win of the season and the 59th of his career, and he leads Vandergriff by 84 points. Langdon won again, leaving first with a .024-second reaction time and holding off Kalitta's quicker 3.722 with a 3.739 at 342.73 mph, the first 340-mph run at Rockingham; Langdon's Top Fuel lead is 25 points over Kalitta, with Tony Stewart 155 back. 4
Greg Stanfield took the Pro Stock lead by beating rookie Cody Anderson on a holeshot, and he stands 31 points ahead of Matt Hartford and 39 ahead of Dallas Glenn. Richard Gadson won Pro Stock Motorcycle after his Vance & Hines teammate Gaige Herrera left early in the final, and Gadson's lead over Herrera is 64 points. Stavrinos won Pro Mod at Rockingham and left with that class's points lead. 413
The series moves to World Wide Technology Raceway outside St. Louis on Oct. 2-4 for the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals, with two qualifying sessions Friday, including a night session, two more on Saturday and eliminations Sunday from 9 a.m. CT. FOX carries the finals from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. ET in most markets, and from 2 to 4 p.m. ET in the others. 14
IMSA: four championships in ten hours at Road Atlanta
The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship ends Saturday, Oct. 3 with the 29th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and three of the four class championships sit inside 47 points. A full 54-car grid is entered — 11 Grand Touring Prototype, 11 LMP2, 14 GTD PRO and 18 GTD — and every car runs three drivers for the first time since March's Sebring race. 515
Jack Aitken leads Laurin Heinrich by 147 points in GTP and takes the title with a finish of ninth or better, as long as the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen starts the race. LMP2 is a four-point gap between Tom Dillmann and Jeremy Clarke, of Inter Europol Competition, and the CrowdStrike Racing by APR pair of Alex Quinn and George Kurtz. In GTD PRO, Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg lead Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen by 47 points and Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell by 53. In GTD, Russell Ward and Philip Ellis lead Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher by six. 15
The race also decides the Michelin Endurance Cup, whose points are paid at the four-, eight- and ten-hour marks, and the manufacturer titles: Cadillac leads Porsche by 136 in GTP, Chevrolet leads Ford by 68 in GTD PRO, and Mercedes-AMG leads Aston Martin by 94 in GTD. The Jim Trueman and Bob Akin awards for Bronze-rated drivers carry invitations to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Orey Fidani leads Brendan Iribe by 30 points in the GTD fight. Two GT3 cars make their last scheduled IMSA starts, the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 and the Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. 515
The green flag falls at 12:10 p.m. ET, with NBC's first three hours starting at noon and coverage continuing on NBCSN from 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Peacock streams the whole race in the United States, and IMSA.tv carries it outside the country. Qualifying runs Friday from 2:15 to 3:35 p.m. ET. The Michelin Pilot Challenge closes its season Friday with the two-hour Fox Factory 120, where the top three in Grand Sport sit within 40 points, and the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge runs its two 45-minute finals on Thursday and Friday. 516
GT: AF Corse wins again at Barber, Gidley seals SRO3
SRO America's penultimate weekend ran at Barber Motorsports Park on Sep. 25-27. Matias Perez Companc and Frederik Schandorff won the three-hour GT World Challenge America race in the No. 12 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, the team's second win of the season, and Michai Stephens and Mikael Grenier finished second for JMF Motorsports to keep the Pro points lead. Aaron Telitz and Todd Coleman won Pro-Am for Archangel Motorsports' first win in the series, a result that moved GMG Racing back on top of the Pro-Am standings by six points. Jay Schreibman and Oswaldo Negri won the Am class. 17
Memo Gidley won the second GT America race at Barber and clinched the SRO3 championship, after Joel Cortes took his first win in the series in the opening race. Ricca Autosport swept the Race 2 podium in TC America. The SRO America season ends at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Oct. 8-11. 1819
ARCA and short tracks
- ARCA Menards Series finale, Kansas Speedway, Sep. 25: Carson Brown passed Gio Ruggiero on the last lap to win the Menards 150 by 0.512 seconds, his fourth win of 2026 and his first on a 1.5-mile oval, while Ruggiero's second place gave Joe Gibbs Racing the owners' championship. Thomas Annunziata finished fifth to take the drivers' championship on a tiebreaker over his Nitro Motorsports teammate Jake Bollman, who had led by 16 points going in and was collected in a crash before halfway. Brown drives for Richard Childress Racing in the O'Reilly series next season. 20
- ARCA Menards Series West, Madera Speedway, Sep. 26: Hailie Deegan passed reigning champion Trevor Huddleston on the final lap of overtime for her fourth career West Series win, 2,667 days after her last one in 2019. Huddleston's second place extended his points lead, and Kenna Mitchell finished a career-best third. 21
- ValleyStar Credit Union 300, Martinsville Speedway, Sep. 26: Caden Kvapil led the final 30 laps to win the 200-lap Late Model Stock race and the Virginia Triple Crown, ahead of Corey Heim, Treyten Lapcevich and two-time winner Lee Pulliam. 22
- World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, California, Sep. 22-26: Carson Macedo won at Kings Speedway, Donny Schatz at Bakersfield Speedway and Corey Day at Ventura Raceway, the series' first visit there. Day had finished second on the first two nights, then set a track record in qualifying at Ventura and won his second World of Outlaws race of the season. The series runs the $75,000-to-win J&S Classics National Open at Williams Grove Speedway on Oct. 2-3. 23
- 4-Crown Nationals, Eldora Speedway, Sep. 26: Rico Abreu won the High Limit Racing feature, and Daison Pursley won the USAC Silver Crown race in which C.J. Leary clinched the Silver Crown title. 2425
- Weather: A nor'easter pushed Riverhead Raceway's Championship Weekend from Sep. 26-27 to Oct. 3-4, the Long Island track's 10th rainout of 2026, and Stafford Speedway's 53rd NAPA Fall Final moved from Sep. 26 to Oct. 2. 2627
Announcements and rules
- Erik Jones stays at Legacy Motor Club: Jones signed a multi-year extension to keep the No. 43 Toyota, the team announced at Kansas on Sep. 27, which completes a 2027 lineup with Josh Berry in the No. 42 and Riley Herbst and puts Legacy in three chartered Cup cars for the first time. 28
- Sam Mayer returns to JR Motorsports: Mayer will drive the No. 1 Chevrolet in the O'Reilly series in 2027 with Starkey as the full-season sponsor, the team announced on Sep. 22. 29
- Superspeedway package: NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell said another tweak to the superspeedway rules is likely before the Oct. 25 race at Talladega, and that qualifying speeds, horsepower for 2027 and the way superspeedway races are structured are all under review. 30
Sep. 28-Oct. 4 watch list, in UTC
| Date and UTC time | Event and venue | Broadcast | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon. Sep. 28-Sun. Oct. 4 | SCCA National Championship Runoffs, Road America | Track and series coverage | 24 classes race for national titles, with qualifying Oct. 1-2. 31 |
| Thu. Oct. 1, 17:10 and Fri. Oct. 2, 12:30 | IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge finals, Road Atlanta | Peacock | Two 45-minute races settle that class championship. 16 |
| Fri. Oct. 2, 15:40 | IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Fox Factory 120, Road Atlanta | Peacock, IMSA.tv | Two hours decide the Grand Sport and Touring Car titles. 1516 |
| Fri. Oct. 2, 18:15 | IMSA WeatherTech qualifying, Road Atlanta | Peacock, IMSA.tv | Qualifying points tighten every class gap before Saturday. 5 |
| Fri. Oct. 2, 21:45 | 53rd NAPA Fall Final, Stafford Speedway | FloRacing | Monaco Modified Tri-Track finale, moved from Sep. 26. 27 |
| Sat. Oct. 3, 01:00 | ARCA Menards Series West Kyle Busch Classic, The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway | FloRacing | Huddleston defends his points lead after Deegan's Madera win. 2132 |
| Sat. Oct. 3, 14:00 | NHRA Midwest Nationals eliminations, World Wide Technology Raceway | FOX on Sunday; qualifying Friday and Saturday | Third of six Countdown races, with Langdon, Hagan, Stanfield and Gadson all leading. 14 |
| Sat. Oct. 3, 16:10 | 29th Motul Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta | NBC from 16:00, NBCSN from 19:00 to 02:30, Peacock | Ten hours decide four WeatherTech class titles. 515 |
| Sat. Oct. 3, 20:30 | Cup Series practice and qualifying, Las Vegas Motor Speedway | truTV | Sets the grid for Sunday's Chase race. 6 |
| Sat. Oct. 3, 23:30 | O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302, Las Vegas Motor Speedway | The CW | Third of nine O'Reilly Chase races; Sheldon Creed leads Justin Allgaier by 11 points. 633 |
| Sat. Oct. 3-Sun. Oct. 4 | Championship Weekend, Riverhead Raceway | FloRacing | Local track titles, moved from Sep. 26-27, with the NASCAR Modified 77 headlining. 26 |
| Sun. Oct. 4, 20:30 | NHRA Midwest Nationals finals, World Wide Technology Raceway | FOX, 20:30-22:30 in most markets and 18:00-20:00 in others | Countdown points in all four pro classes. 14 |
| Sun. Oct. 4, 21:30 | Cup Series South Point 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway | USA Network | Larson leads Hamlin by 26 points with six Chase races left. 610 |
Saturday carries the heaviest load: Petit Le Mans starts at 16:10 UTC and runs ten hours, Cup qualifying at Las Vegas follows at 20:30, and the O'Reilly Chase race goes green at 23:30. Cup fans get their answer on Larson's 26-point lead when the South Point 400 starts Sunday at 21:30.
References
- 1
- 22026 Hollywood Casino 400 race results
nascar.com
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6NASCAR weekly TV listings guide
nascar.com
- 7
- 8
- 92026 NASCAR Chase schedule: every playoff race, start time
sports.yahoo.com
- 10
- 112026 Race to Stop Suicide 200 results
nascar.com
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16Motul Petit Le Mans official schedule, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
imsa.results.alkamelcloud.com
- 17AF Corse USA takes second Pro win of season as Archangel Motorsports breaks through at Barber in Pro-Am
gt-world-challenge-america.com
- 18
- 19TC America powered by Skip Barber Racing School
tcamerica.us
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23Day claims wild World of Outlaws Ventura debut
tjslideways.com
- 24
- 25Pursley wraps up 4-Crown with Silver Crown win
tjslideways.com
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30NASCAR teases another rules change for Talladega
sports.yahoo.com
- 31
- 32FloRacing schedule: Sep. 28-Oct. 4
floracing.com
- 33
This story was produced automatically by a channel. One sentence is all it takes for Neodrop to keep producing for you.