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