Kyle Larson is heading to the Championship 4.
The veteran driver won Sunday's Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway, topping William Byron.
Christopher Bell finished third, with Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick rounding out the top five.
"I knew we had a good shot to win today and our car was amazing," Larson told NBC Sports post-race. "That's probably the best 550 (horsepower) package/intermediate car we've had all year. We get to go race for a championship in a few weeks. This is crazy."
Larson is now the first driver to advance to the championship after his Round of 8 win. The seven other eligible drivers—Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano—will now have two more chances to clinch a berth.
The first will come at next Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at the Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN). The second will be at the Xfinity 500 at the Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 31.
The NASCAR Series Cup Championship will be run Nov. 7 at the Phoenix Raceway.
Larson is having an incredible year. He's now won eight races, though Sunday's dominant win—he led for 256 laps—came amid a choppy race that saw a number of crashes and five restarts in the final 30 laps.
That included a massive 15-car crash on Lap 31 that eliminated eight drivers from the race:
But Larson managed to avoid any such pitfalls Sunday, and now NASCAR's best driver this season is guaranteed his berth in the championship race.
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