NASCAR at Kansas live updates: Kyle Busch flies off late restart, holds on to win

The NASCAR Cup race at Kansas Speedway is today. The Buschy McBusch race starts at 3 p.m. on FS1.

The race is 267 laps (400.5 miles) with stages ending on laps 80, 160 and 267. All times are Eastern.

Check back here for live updates throughout the race and follow NASCAR reporter Alex Andrejev on Twitter at @AndrejevAlex.

Race results

Stage 3

6:20 p.m., Lap 267: Larson spun Blaney off the restart and they both slid into the wall. They both saved their cars but fell well off the pace. That allowed Kyle Busch to run to the front, take the white flag and take the race! The first win of the year in the Cup series for Kyle Busch, and his second win of the weekend (he won the truck race Saturday).

6:17 p.m., Lap 265: We go green with a scheduled two-lap shootout to determine the winner at Kansas. Kyle Busch chose the inside, Blaney on the outside. Kyle Larson went for the outside, with Truex on his left. Keselowski and Elliott are Row 3.

6:14 p.m., Lap 262: NASCAR has determined we’ll have a two-lap shootout to finish this one, meaning we’ll run seven laps under this caution. Will this be the final caution, and the only two-lap shootout scheduled?

6:07 p.m., Lap 258: Green green green with 10 to go. Kyle Busch gets the jump on Kyle Larson for the top spot. But then a big wreck in the middle of the field. Christopher Bell goes around and collects a few cars to bring out yet another caution.

Stenhouse and Preece are the cars most affected here, but this might also be a very good thing for Larson, who got caught on the outside line on that last restart. He might not have a choice, though, as he’ll restart 3rd as Ryan Blaney passed him, also.

6:03 p.m., Lap 255: Joey Logano, who’d catapulted into the Top 10 with a two-tire stop earlier, is back on pit road for four tires under the caution. Logano reenters in 11th position. Larson, Busch, Keselowski, Blaney and Chase Elliott your Top 5.

6:01 p.m., Lap 254: Caution! Austin Dillon rides all the way up the track and contacts the wall. Cindric also collected in that, and the No. 47 car also involved. The latter is heavily damaged and brought out the caution. When we go back green, we’ll have fewer than 10 to go. Strategy, indeed.

5:59 p.m., Lap 252: Off the restart with 18 to go, Larson again goes to the outside lane with the choice. Hamlin got the better of him on the last restart, but this time Larson got the better of Kyle Busch.Ross Chastain settled into third, followed by Keselowski and Dillon.

5:54 p.m., Lap 247: Pit strategy in play here, with a host of cars pitting on this caution brought about by a backward-moving Denny Hamlin. The retsrat will come with fewer than 20 to go, but the leaders — Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney — did not pit.

5:51 p.m., Lap 245: Rocketship! Kyle Larson slingshots past Denny Hamlin and now Kyle Busch is trying to find a way around Hamlin. And does. And now Hamlin is moving backwards fast. And now the caution for Hamlin, who blew up somewhere inside and is leaving a trail of smoke. Update: its appears a blown tire is the cause of Hamlin’s slide.

5:47 p.m., Lap 238: As we restart, Kyle Larson chose the outside lane, and he jostled with Denny Hamlin off the line. Hamlin takes a lap to figure out the line, but he takes the lead over from Larson.

5:38 p.m., Lap 231: Yellow. Yellow on the track for a wayward tire from way back in the early pit stops. NASCAR waited until all of the cars had cycled through the pits before throwing the yellow, much to Buescher’s chargrin. Also likely not pleased here: Kyle Larson, who was widening his giant gap in first place by the lap. Now, the field all comes back into the pits for a yellow-flag stop.

Interesting stop for Joey Logano, whose team elects only right-side tires with 35 laps to go. He vaults into the Top 5, gaining 11 places with the shorter pit stop.

5:35 p.m., Lap 228: Yes, Chris Buescher is technically leading, but not only is Kyle Larson closing on him, but at some point he’s going to have to pit. Meanwhile, Larson had a four-second gap on Denny Hamlin. And there goes Buescher to the pits, and Larson is once again your leader.

5:31 p.m., Lap 221: Tyler Reddick with a penalty for an uncontrolled tire on the pit stop. Meanwhile, Buescher is the leader after not pitting. Stenhouse was also a late pit stop, but he finally makes his way in. So technically it’s Buescher in first, while Larson, Hamlin and Busch are back to running 2-3-4 in line where they were.

5:28 p.m., Lap 213: Here comes a good chunk of the rest of the field to the pits, and Kyle Busch with an efficient one. Larson late to pit, but comes within the same window, wanted to see the traffic clear off pit road a bit first.

5:24 p.m., Lap 208: The gaps are widening among the haves and have-nots in this one. Kyle Larson’s lead is out to nearly 2.5 seconds over Denny Hamlin. The biggest battle for the time being is back in seventh and eighth between Austin Dillon and Martin Truex Jr. Meanwhile, William Byron pits under green for tires, as we get close to the early window for green-flag pit stops.

5:14 p.m., Lap 190: Kyle Larson has widened the gap between his No. 5 and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 car, and the two of them are in pretty clean air at the front of the field as it starts to spread back out as we get past a dozen laps into the final stage. Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are 3-4.

5:08 p.m., Lap 176: Bubba Wallace nearly wipes out after a bit of bad air in the middle of the track. He saved his car, but sent Alex Bowman into the wall just slightly, and Bowman had to pit with a deflating right rear tire. Bowman lost a lap.

5:03 p.m., Lap 168: Denny Hamlin just found out from his crew he has three lug nuts on one of his tires instead of four, and they’ve elected to stay out on the track as we get back to green. Three and four wide on the restart in places as Larson maintains his top spot.

Stage 2

4:52 p.m., Lap 160: Kyle Larson wins the second stage at Kansas with around six seconds over second place stage finisher Kyle Busch. This is Larson’s fourth stage win of the season, all of which have been at 1.5-mile intermediate tracks.

Denny Hamlin finishes the stage in third. Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Kevin Harvick round out the top-10 for points.

4:45 p.m., Lap 145: Kyle Larson re-takes the lead with 15 laps to go. He gets around Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who hasn’t yet pitted. Stenhouse pits shortly after, as does Daniel Suárez as the last driver on the lead lap to pit. Kyle Busch in second place is 7.6 seconds behind Larson.

4:34 p.m., Lap 135: About half the field is running a lap down, as Kyle Larson gets ready to retake the lead. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. still leads but he hasn’t made a pit stop yet. Among those a lap down is Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Chase Briscoe, Aric Almirola and Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, Corey LaJoie and Cole Custer.

4:26 p.m., Lap 120: Green flag pit stops are underway. Denny Hamlin is the first at the front of the running order to pit under green, and the Chevrolets of William Byron and Kyle Larson follow, among others. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the race leader, followed by Erik Jones, Daniel Suárez, Anthony Alfredo, Michael McDowell and Cole Custer. Cody Ware spins coming to pit road, but the race stays green. He will have to do a penalty pass-through for a commitment line violation.

4:21 p.m., Lap 105: Martin Truex Jr. in fourth says he’s “Still sliding the front a little more than I want for the long run.” His team replies that they’ve got him and that he just ran the fastest lap. He’s about a second back from third-place runner Brad Keselowski. The running order is Kyle Larson, Keselowski, Truex, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Kurt Busch.

4:14 p.m., Lap 92: Martin Truex Jr. jumps from 13th to eighth after the restart, then he drives up to fifth over the next few laps. Kyle Larson continues to lead.

4:09 p.m., Lap 85: After the pit stop, Kyle Busch loses two spots on pit road, as Kyle Larson gains a spot, as does Tyler Reddick, whose No. 8 team has gained him three spots through two pit stops.

Stage 1

3:59 p.m., Lap 80: Kyle Busch wins the first stage at Kansas driving the high line to pass Kyle Larson with three laps left in the stage. Busch won last night’s Truck Series race and today is his 36th birthday.

With six laps to go, Larson passed Brad Keselowski, who finished the stage in fourth. The finishing order for the stage is Busch, Larson, Tyler Reddick, Keselowski, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell in the top-10.

3:55 p.m., Lap 67: Kyle Larson is up to second place and chasing down Brad Keselowski for first. He briefly has the lead into Lap 64, but Keselowski takes it back. Larson possibly scrapes the wall, but the direction from his crew chief Cliff Daniels is to “keep digging.”

3:46 p.m., Lap 53: The running order is Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch in the top-five. Alex Bowman earlier reported that his battery is quickly losing power. He says he’s at team tells him to monitor it and says that at 12.5 volts is when it’s falling off.

3:38 p.m., Lap 38: Ryan Newman, making his 700th career Cup start, is black-flagged for body modifications on the previous pit stop. He is told that a crew member pulled too far on the right rear side skirt of the car. He comes back down pit road to repair it, but is currently running in free pass position and is one lap down.

Brad Keselowski, still leading, is getting direction from his team saying that Kyle Larson (up to fourth) is turning a little sooner in Turns 1 and 2, which seems to be helping him more in traffic.

3:32 p.m., Lap 30: Brad Keselowski, William Byron and Christopher Bell are the first three teams off pit road and will lead the restart. Chase Briscoe gets a speeding penalty and is told he also did not remain single file entering pit road. Matt Mills, driving the No. 55, is already two laps down. Keselowski takes the inside lane.

3:25 p.m., Lap 25: The competition caution is out on lap 25 with Kyle Larson (now seventh) and Ross Chastain, who started at the back and is now 14th, as the biggest movers. The running order is Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Matt DiBenedetto and Chase Elliott in the top-10. Denny Hamlin (started 20th) is running in 16th says he has “no grip” and that is car is “all over the place.” He’s fighting loose.

3:15 p.m., Lap 8: Pole sitter Brad Keselowski leads the opening laps at Kansas with William Byron maintaining his second place spot. Joey Logano has moved up to 23rd place from 29th. Michael McDowell, who started in third, has dropped out of the top-10 after the opening 10 laps. And Kyle Larson jumped from 32nd to 10th in less than 15 laps.

Pre-race

2:09 p.m.: NASCAR announces that three cars are dropping to the rear for the start of today’s race. The No. 42 driven by Ross Chastain and the No. 43 driven by Erik Jones twice failed pre-race technical inspection and will drop to the back, along with the No. 38 driven by Anthony Alfredo for unapproved adjustments.

Alfredo was slated to start 22nd, Chastain was slated to start 24th, Jones was slated to start 27th. Talladega winner Brad Keselowski is on the pole with William Byron in the front row. The green flag is scheduled for 3:13 p.m.

1:30 p.m.: NASCAR issues a statement confirming the death of former driver and team owner Eric McClure. He was 42 years old. His cause of death is unknown.

“We are saddened to learn of the passing of former driver and owner Eric McClure. NASCAR extends its deepest condolences to Eric’s family and friends,” the statement read.

Read the full story here.

NASCAR this weekend: How to watch the race at Kansas

• Race: Buschy McBusch Race 400
• When: Sunday, May 2 at 3 p.m. EST
• How to watch/listen: FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 267 laps, 400.5 miles on the 1.5-mile tri-oval
• Stages: Laps 80, 160, 267
• Last year’s race winner: Denny Hamlin

NASCAR Cup at Kansas starting order

More NASCAR reading this week:

• NASCAR power rankings this week: The best drivers heading to Kansas
• ‘We can’t have cars flying,’ Keselowski says in wake of Talladega win, Logano crash
• NASCAR’s electric future and an inside look at its first carbon-neutral race team

This story was originally published May 2, 2021 at 2:32 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription