Larson Rises Late On Sunday For Miami Redemption

Kyle Larson celebrates with a burnout after winning Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (HHP/David Graham photo)

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – After his shot at a tripleheader sweep disappeared 24 hours earlier, Kyle Larson wasn’t about to let Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway get away from him.

With a masterful closing surge, Larson chased down Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman in the waning moments of the Straight Talk Wireless 400, making the winning pass with seven laps left after Bowman scrubbed the outside wall and lost momentum exiting turn four.

From there, once he shot underneath Bowman, Larson drove off to a 1.205-second victory for his first Cup Series win of the year, second at Homestead, and the 30th of his decorated career.

It was far different than Larson’s usual masterclasses at the 1.5-mile South Florida oval – he only led 19 of the race’s 267 laps – but the Elk Grove, Calif., native did what he had to do to put himself in position to pounce when it mattered at the end.

“I knew (with) me coming towards those guys, they were going to start moving around and making mistakes … and I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex that he may make a mistake,” tipped Larson. “Luckily for us, he caught the wall there and I got around him easier than I expected to. Still had to work hard for that one, though.

“My balance in clean air was really loose, just like those guys were. Hats off to the whole team for fighting to get us where we needed to be.”

It gave Larson two wins of the three national series races at Homestead during the weekend, after he also won Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event in thrilling fashion.

He likely would have left with all three trophies, had it not been for an overtime finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, when an ill-timed bump from Sam Mayer cost him the lead on the final restart and relegated him to a fourth-place finish.

That disappointment was, at least, “somewhat” eased with his triumph in the headliner, according to Larson.

Kyle Larson (center) celebrates in victory lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway with son Owen. (HHP/Harold Hinson photo)

“I had to keep plugging away,” he said. “Proud of myself, proud of the team, just a lot of gritty hard work there between damage on pit road, qualifying bad, (having) bad restarts … all that stuff.

“Just super pumped. This is one of the coolest wins, I think, of my Cup career just because of all the heartbreak I’ve had here, the heartbreak yesterday. I just kept my head down and kept digging.”

With his 24th Cup Series win since linking up with car owner Rick Hendrick in 2021, Larson became the third winningest driver for Hendrick Motorsports, behind only Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (93) and Jimmie Johnson (83) on the team’s lengthy list.

After starting from the pole, Bowman finished second behind Larson, leading six times for 43 laps along the way and coming oh-so-close to his first victory since last July on the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course.

“Just kind of burned my stuff up,” admitted Bowman afterward. “I saw the 5 [Larson] coming, so I moved around a little bit. Got into (the wall) the lap before pretty good … and then just came off it too much when he got by me.

“Man, I hate that for this Ally (No.) 48 group; they deserve better than that. Just made a couple mistakes there that cost us in the end. Felt like we were okay all day, really.”

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace notched his best finish of the season in third and was a player down the stretch, leading 56 of the final 91 laps before fading late in the going.

Chase Briscoe tied his top result since joining Joe Gibbs Racing during the offseason, crossing fourth ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin.

RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher led the Ford camp in sixth, with A.J. Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, and Justin Haley filling out the top 10.

Reddick came in as the defending Homestead Cup Series winner, but was never a major factor after starting 20th and struggling to make up track position throughout the afternoon.

The day’s dominant driver was Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who led five times for a race-high 124 laps before grenading the engine in his No. 12 Ford coming to 60 to go. He ended up out of the event in 36th.

Larson rose four places in the Cup Series standings with his victory in Miami, but still trails teammate and Daytona 500 winner William Byron by 36 points after six of 26 regular season races.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where Byron led a top-three sweep for Hendrick Motorsports last spring during the organization’s 40th anniversary season.

Broadcast coverage of the Cook Out 400 is slated for Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.