Kyle Larson passes Chase Briscoe with 7 laps left to win for the fourth time at Kansas Speedway

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Kyle Larson passed Chase Briscoe with seven laps to go after having ceded the lead to him earlier in the final stage, and the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion capped a dominant Sunday at Kansas Speedway by driving his No. 5 Chevrolet to victory lane.

Larson broke his own track record by leading 235 laps in the race. But after losing the lead to Briscoe with 30 to go, Larson ended up having to get back around Briscoe, who ultimately fell behind Austin Cindric and Denny Hamlin over the final couple of laps.

Larson also won the first two stages, giving him a 26-point cushion over second-place Hamlin after four races in the Chase playoffs.

The Hendrick Motorsports star had been good but not great for much of this season. But after snapping his 51-race winless streak a couple of weeks ago in St. Louis, and finishing second to Joey Logano last week at Bristol, his consistency has paid off: Larson is the only driver in the revamped postseason format to have finished in the top five in each of the first four races.

Cindric spent much of the day stalking Larson but was never able to get around him. He might have been the fastest car on the track at the end, too, but he was too far back of the race lead to produce much of a challenge for the victory.

It was a similar story for Hamlin, who had begun the day a single point back of Larson in the standings. He spent the first stage right on his tail but was never able to challenge for the lead, and a decent day left him losing plenty of ground anyway.

Persistent rain earlier in the weekend washed out practice and qualifying, leaving the starting lineup to be set by a combination of the results at Bristol and owner points. That left Larson in the enviable spot of starting alongside Logano on the front row, and the just as fortunate position of having had so much success at Kansas that missing out on practice really didn't matter.

The win was his fifth in the Cup Series at the track, tying Hamin's record, and he's been in the top two in seven of the past 11 races.

One week after Carson Hocevar's bump sent Ryan Blaney into the wall at Bristol, leading to a pit-road fracas, the driver of the No. 77 Chevrolet was involved in another caution. This time, after running near the front through the opening stage, Hocevar appeared to get bumped from behind on a restart, sending him into Bubba Wallace in a spin that collected several other cars.

Hocevar wound up finishing 33rd. Blaney started 25th after qualifying was rained out and wound up fifth.

The team co-owned by Jimmie Johnson announced the signing of Erik Jones to a multiyear extension to continue driving the No. 43 Toyota. The move provides some stability to Legacy Motor Club, which is replacing John Hunter Nemechek with Josh Berry in the No. 42 next season, and will have Riley Herbst driving the No. 84 that Johnson had driven in select races.

The NASCAR Cup Series continues its stretch of three straight races on 1.5-mile ovals with Las Vegas next Sunday. Hamlin won the race there in March, when he overcame a pit-road speeding penalty in the first stage to pick up his first win of the season.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing