Kyle Larson led a race-high 93 laps and survived a final-restart battle with Hendrick teammate Justin Allgaier to win Saturday's Andy's Frozen Custard 340 at Texas — back-to-back O'Reilly wins at the 1.5-mile and the 19th of his career. Brent Crews' fourth-place finish made him the final Dash 4 Cash $100,000 winner of the season.
Andy's Frozen Custard 340 — Saturday, May 2, 2026 · Texas Motor Speedway · 200 laps, 340.4 km
The 17-lap green-flag run from Lap 184 to the checkered was always going to belong to one of two cars. Kyle Larson made sure it was his.
Driving the No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, Larson held off teammate Justin Allgaier on the final restart and pulled away through the closing stages to win the Andy's Frozen Custard 340 — his second consecutive O'Reilly Auto Parts Series win at Texas Motor Speedway, his third overall at the 1.5-mile, and the 19th of his O'Reilly career. Allgaier — driving the No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet for JR Motorsports — closed to within bumper distance in the final five laps but couldn't find the move that would have stolen the win from Hendrick stablemate.
Race Summary
Allgaier set the tone early. The pole sitter led every lap of the opening 45-lap stage, controlled the race off the truck and looked every bit the Hendrick chassis the field would be chasing all afternoon. Stage 2 belonged briefly to Connor Zilisch, who'd worked himself into the lead before an unscheduled stop for a flat tire dropped the No. 1 Trackhouse-affiliated entry to a P21 finish. The race's narrative shifted decisively on Lap 179 when Rajah Caruth got into the wall off Turn 2, bringing out the caution that would set up the final five-lap shootout.
Larson was first off pit road. Brandon Jones, the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, lined up second; Allgaier rolled out third. When the Lap 184 restart went green, Allgaier cleared Jones in a single corner and used the high lane to chase down his Hendrick teammate. Larson held the bottom, defended the apex, and never gave the No. 7 the inside line that might have produced a slide job. Seventeen laps later, the No. 88 crossed the line a half-second clear.
Final Top 10
| Pos | # | Driver | Team | Start | Led | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 88 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | 3 | 93 | Back-to-back Texas O'Reilly winner |
| 2 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | JR Motorsports | 1 | 54 | Won Stage 1 wire-to-wire from pole |
| 3 | 41 | Sam Mayer | Haas Factory Team | 17 | 0 | +14 positions |
| 4 | 19 | Brent Crews | Joe Gibbs Racing | 5 | 2 | $100K Dash 4 Cash bonus |
| 5 | 99 | Parker Retzlaff | Viking Motorsports | 10 | 0 | +5 |
| 6 | 00 | Sheldon Creed | Haas Factory Team | 11 | 0 | +5 |
| 7 | 21 | Austin Hill | Richard Childress Racing | 7 | 0 | — |
| 8 | 20 | Brandon Jones | Joe Gibbs Racing | 2 | 0 | Lost the inside on the final restart |
| 9 | 2 | Jesse Love | Richard Childress Racing | 21 | 0 | +12 |
| 10 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Jeremy Clements Racing | 8 | 0 | — |
Key Takeaways
Larson is becoming the Texas O'Reilly fixture nobody else can solve
Two straight wins. Three career O'Reilly trophies at the 1.5-mile. Larson now joins a short list of Cup-regular O'Reilly drop-ins who treat Texas like a personal playground — and his pattern is consistent. Lead the long runs, control the bottom lane on restarts, never give an inch. The 19th career O'Reilly Series win moves him further into elite territory among the part-time entrants. The Hendrick chassis under both Larson and Allgaier carried more long-run pace than anything else in the field; the only question was which of the two would be in front when the last yellow waved.
Allgaier's Stage 1 sweep was the strongest half-race of his season
Pole, every lap of the opening 45-lap stage, then a methodical mid-race recovery that put him third for the final restart — Allgaier was the only car who looked like he could match Larson's pace, and on the bottom lane in a crossover off Turn 4 with a few more laps, the result might have been different. The No. 7 BRANDT car has been the most consistent O'Reilly entry of 2026; this was the closest he's come to converting that consistency into a fifth win.
Brent Crews collects the final $100K Dash 4 Cash payout
The rookie's fourth-place finish, from a P5 start, was the highest among Dash 4 Cash–eligible drivers and earned him the $100,000 bonus — the program's last payout of the 2026 season. Crews' run was as quiet as it was efficient: he stayed inside the top 10 all afternoon, picked up Stage 2 points (P2), and didn't put a wheel wrong. Joe Gibbs Racing now has two top-10 finishes from one race (Crews and Brandon Jones) and a young driver who's threatening to break through any week now.
Connor Zilisch's flat tire is the day's "what if"
Zilisch led the field after Stage 2 and looked like a legitimate winner before the unscheduled green-flag stop dropped him outside the top 20 with no caution to recover. The No. 1 Trackhouse entry has shown winning pace at every track type this spring; today's failure was a parts gremlin, not a setup or driver issue. Expect him at the front again next weekend.
Fantasy Recap
The chalk anchor and the leverage anchor were the same car this week — Larson's $15 FantasyJolt salary (top tier) returned 69.3 points and locked the highest single-driver multiplier-adjusted score on the slate. Allgaier at the same $15, returning 64.4, completed the easiest top-tier stack of the season for anyone who built lineups around the Hendrick pairing.
Big Winners
- #88 Kyle Larson — $15 salary, 69.3 actual FJ points (P1 win + 93 laps led + Stage 2 P4). Highest single-driver score on the slate.
- #7 Justin Allgaier — $15, 64.4 FJ points (P2 + Stage 1 win + 54 laps led). The other side of the easy A/B stack.
- #19 Brent Crews — $13, 54.2 FJ points (P4 + Stage 2 P2 + 2 laps led). Best fj_pts/$ in the value tier.
- #41 Sam Mayer — $11, 50.0 FJ points (P3, +14 from the start). Public ownership on DraftKings (45.3%) was higher than our salary tier suggested — DK got this one right; FantasyJolt's salary should rise next intermediate.
Disappointments
- #1 Connor Zilisch — $14, finished P21 with the flat tire after winning Stage 2. Best single-race "what if" of the year.
- #2 Jesse Love — $14, finished P9. Decent points (33), bad return on the price tag.
What the model called that DraftKings missed
The DraftKings GPP field owned Larson at only 26.3% ownership Saturday — a clear under-rate of the model's top-tier read on him. FantasyJolt priced Larson at $15 (the top of the cap, alongside Allgaier) and the public left him for chalk pivots like Sam Mayer (45.3% owned). The reverse-narrative play paid: Larson was the GPP-winning leverage piece for any lineup that anchored around him at his real salary.
The same pattern: Brent Crews at 9.1% DK ownership, FJ priced at $13 — a top-7 salary in our system. The public faded the rookie; the model didn't. P4 + Stage 2 P2 + Dash 4 Cash bonus made him the highest-value pick of the slate.
Looking Ahead
The Cup Series runs the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at the same track on Sunday. A few signals from Saturday carry over:
- Long-run pace was the differentiator at this track — Larson and Allgaier both treated tire saving as offense, not defense. Drivers with consistent green-flag pace in Cup practice should be elevated in your model.
- Hendrick's intermediate package is fast — Larson, Byron, Bowman, and Elliott all benefit from the same chassis development that just produced a 1-2 in O'Reilly. Cup ownership on the Hendrick stable is going to spike.
- Bottom-lane control on restarts wins races at Texas — Larson's defense on the final restart is the single most replicable strategic insight from Saturday.
By the Numbers
- Race distance: 200 laps · 340.4 km
- Most laps led: Kyle Larson (93)
- Stage 1 winner: #7 Justin Allgaier (wire-to-wire from pole)
- Stage 2 winner: #1 Connor Zilisch
- Margin of victory: ~0.5 sec
- Pole sitter: #7 Justin Allgaier
- Final caution: Lap 179, Rajah Caruth crash off Turn 2
- Top-5 by FJ salary finish positions: P1, P2, P6, P9, P21 (the Connor Zilisch flat tire alone accounts for the top-5 MAE drag)
- DK public's chalk: Justin Allgaier (54.2% owned) — finished P2
- The model's leverage call: Kyle Larson (26.3% DK owned, FJ $15) — won the race