Kyle Larson passed Denny Hamlin with four laps remaining, then kept the lead through an overtime restart to win the Auto Club 400 over Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.
Hamlin inherited the pole after Larson led a brigade of leaders down pit road to get four new tires under a caution brought out for a hard crash that saw Matt Kenseth slam into the inside wall off Turn 2 with 11 laps remaining.
Larson quickly passed Hamlin on the subsequent restart then kept it on an overtime restart set up by crash involving Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The win was the second of Larson’s career and capped a dominating a weekend where he won the pole Friday, took the checkered flag in Saturday’s Xfinity Series, then led a race-high 110 of a possible 202 laps on Sunday. The 24-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing driver had finished second in the past three Monster Energy Cup Series races.
“This is just amazing,” Larson said. “We have been so good all year long, three seconds in a row. I’ve been watching all the TV like, ‘He doesn’t know how to win,’ but we knew how to win today, so that was good.”
Martin Truex Jr., who led 73 laps, finished fourth despite staying out on old tires along with Hamlin. Joey Logano finished fifth, with Jamie McMurray sixth, rookie Daniel Suarez seventh, Kyle Busch eighth, Ryan Blaney ninth and Chase Elliott 10th.