Kyle Larson Surges Late for O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Win in Las Vegas

Kyle Larson won the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. After opening up a three-second lead on the final green flag run, Larson proved too fast to catch.

“I had a good launch, was able to get to the middle and get some clean air,” Larson said after the race. “And then I think just me being able to kind of run the line that allowed my front tires to build where they needed to just allow my car to be okay on the long run I think helped.”

For most of the race Larson wasn’t in the picture for the race lead. It was only on the final restart that the 33-year-old surged ahead. Despite contact with Anthony Alfredo, Larson found daylight in a cluster of cars and never relinquished it.

“My car was not handling the best at all,” Larson said. “I couldn’t carry any speed through the corners, and I was just getting ate up on restarts.”

Briscoe, Allgaier Come Close

Chase Briscoe delivered the best finish so far this season for Joe Gibbs Racing, placing second in the No. 19 Toyota. He made good headway using the outside line on corner exit, and at one point appeared poised to track down Larson. Briscoe’s day nearly went a very different direction earlier in the race after me made contact with the wall, but he stayed focused and battled back.

“I had a lot of fun, it was certainly fun slipping and sliding around,” Briscoe said. “The racetrack widens out and you can kind of run all over. So yeah, I had a blast.”

JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier won both of the race’s two stages, delivering a rock solid points day for the No. 7 team. Coupled with a fourth-place finish, Allgaier followed up strong after his win last week at Phoenix Raceway.

Sheldon Creed continued his recent hot streak with a third place finish, while Sammy Smith rounded out the top-five. Jesse Love, who led the third most laps on Saturday, finished sixth with Connor Zilisch managing to place seventh. The remainder of the top ten was composed of Corey Day, William Sawalich, and Austin Hill.

Sheldon Creed vs. Taylor Gray

Gray and Creed get together going for the lead! pic.twitter.com/epz3d1TIUP

— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) March 14, 2026

On Lap 148, an otherwise solid day for the No. 54 Toyota of Taylor Gray came to an early end. After a tough battle with Sheldon Creed’s No. 00 Chevrolet, Gray found himself sliding up the track and slamming hard into the outside wall.

Creed left no mystery about what happened over his radio. “You only get a few blocks,” he said. Gray showed his displeasure by pulling ahead of Creed under caution. After the race, Creed painted a softer picture of the incident.

“I don’t know if he necessarily did anything wrong,” Creed said. “I was just working on getting runs off of [Turn] 2, and got there a couple times and then he went to go block just a little bit. And yeah I just got into him. I was trying to pack some air, so obviously…I didn’t know he was that close to the No. 17…I could have cut him more of a break there and I didn’t. That’s not the way I wanted to race him.”

Gray was collected but blunt about what happened after exiting the infield care center. “I think throwing a block on them is fine, especially with 50 to go,” he said. “And then we got wrecked.”

Points Picture

With 19 more races until the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series field is narrowed to 12 Chase drivers, Justin Allgaier is 13 points ahead of Jesse Love at the top of the board. Austin Hill is 29 points out of the lead, followed by Sheldon Creed (-49) and Carson Kvapil (-64).

The last driver in the Chase as of Las Vegas is Taylor Gray, who has a six-point cushion over Jeb Burton for 12th in the standings. Brennan Poole is impressively only 13 points out in 14th, two points above 15th-place William Sawalich. In his first ever full-time season of NASCAR racing, Patrick Staropoli is just 23 points outside the Chase in 16th.

Race Results