During his stoic quest to be regarded as the greatest driver of his generation (if not all time), Kyle Larson rarely betrays many emotions.
So when the superstar who excels in multiple racing series celebrates one of his countless victories with uncommonly expressive feeling, it‘s worth digging into the backstory — and it‘s expansive at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“One of the coolest wins in my Cup career,” Larson said immediately after winning Sunday. “Just because of the heartbreak I’ve had here.”
Hold on, heartbreak at Homestead? The track where Larson enjoys a built-in advantage for his uncanny ability to run inches from the wall at nearly 200 mph for 400 miles at a time?
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Larson holds Cup records for laps led (645) and stage wins (six) at Homestead. The expectation is that he can win every time there, but the reality is he often doesn‘t — and his record includes some embarrassing errors by a driver who can position his car in tight spots most of the field can‘t.
“Just watching him at his craft at this track, it’s like watching him at Knoxville or Eldora,” Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon said, referencing two dirt tracks where running the wall also is critical. “It’s fun, but it doesn’t guarantee wins. You don’t know when the cautions are going to come out. As good as his car and he is here, if he has any weakness, it’s short runs. … His car just doesn’t take off as good. Some of that’s setup (and) what it takes to be good ripping the wall on the long runs.”
It‘s not as if the 1.5-mile track 30 miles south of Miami has been the white whale of Larson‘s Cup career. Yet there have been some Ahab-esque elements that have tormented him — especially when untimely yellows neutralized the No. 5 Chevrolet, which ranked 24th in restart speed during Sunday‘s win.
In some ways for Larson, Homestead has been the NASCAR version of his beloved Chili Bowl, the annual indoor dirt extravaganza whose prestige Larson once compared with the Daytona 500. It took him 13 years to earn his first “Golden Driller” in Tulsa, Oklahoma, even though he often dominated the world‘s biggest Midget race.
He needed nine tries — and some big misses — to get his first win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In 2016, Larson admittedly fell asleep on the final restart and allowed Jimmie Johnson to snatch the victory that punctuated his seventh championship. In 2017, he restrained himself and stayed put in third place to let Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch battle for the win and season championship.
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And even since a breakthrough win at Homestead in 2022, the track still has haunted Larson with uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes.
In 2023, Larson bumbled while trying to seize the lead from Ryan Blaney on pit entry, smashing into the sand barrels in overt humiliation after leading 96 laps. Last year, he finished 13th after spinning with 13 laps remaining while anxiously trying to shoot a gap past Blaney and into the lead (and a berth in the Championship 4).
But none of that mattered to Alex Bowman when Larson‘s No. 5 suddenly appeared in his rearview mirror, and the “Jaws” theme music began portentously echoing in his head.
“Pressure from the baddest dude on earth and I made a mistake and gave it to him,” Bowman posted on social media about hitting the wall with seven laps remaining shortly before yielding the lead.
This is another reason that Larson could revel in the win: It‘s an “Intimidator”-style moment.
How many of Dale Earnhardt‘s 76 career victories were a byproduct of the black No. 3 Chevrolet lurking in second place?
Larson‘s victory Sunday was similarly earned through mere presence and reputation. Bowman surely wasn‘t overwhelmed by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate‘s performance.
Larson didn‘t lead the most laps or win a stage. He scraped the wall a couple of dozen times, and his car‘s speed further was hurt by a sizable hold in his left-side rocker panel from a pit collision. Crew chief Cliff Daniels‘ most crucial call was choosing to skip a pit stop for repairs that ultimately would have eliminated the No. 5 from contention.
“It was a workman-like day,” Daniels said.
And Larson had to work hard to become the 30th driver with 30 Cup victories.
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There surely will be much flashier victories ahead for the 32-year-old. In two months, he could become the first to win the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day — a legendary feat that would catapult Larson into the Andretti-Foyt pantheon.
There‘ll be time for greatness later. His second Cup win at Homestead win was more about grit — and erasing the disappointment of nearly becoming the second driver in history to sweep a NASCAR tripleheader weekend.
After a late caution and overtime restart nullified a potential Xfinity win Saturday, Larson was set on kill to start the Cup race (“I just wanted to take the green flag and kick everybody’s ass today”) but then settled into grinding it out.
“I’m proud of myself for kind of overcoming that immature mindset before the race and just digging down deep to stay in it because it wasn’t a typical Homestead for me,” he said. “I was never able to get the lead until it really mattered, where typically I lead all the laps that don’t matter except for the last one.”
The outcome indeed was unusual.
No wonder that his reaction was, too.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
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