Kyle Larson raced to his Cup Series-high sixth victory of the season Sunday to easily advance to the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs, winning on the hybrid road course/oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Larson led a race-high 62 laps in the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, beating Christopher Bell by 1.511 seconds. It was Larson’s second victory of the playoffs, but he’s the first championship-eligible driver to win in the round of 12. The playoff field was cut from 12 drivers to eight, and among those knocked out were Hendrick driver Alex Bowman for failing post-race inspection, Team Penske driver Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez of Trackhouse Racing and Chase Briscoe of Stewart-Haas Racing. Three of the four Hendrick drivers advanced.
