Kyle Larson took advantage of a mistake by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman to seize a victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Larson made his winning move in the No. 5 Chevrolet on Lap 261 of 267, scooting into the lead after Bowman’s No. 48 Chevy scraped the wall.
“It was far from perfect,” Larson told FS1’s Regan Smith. “I gave up almost two spots by getting in the wall too many times. I knew I wasn’t going to get the best restart. I knew I wasn’t good on the short runs. JJust had to keep plugging away at what I know and what’s good for me. Proud of myself. Proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work today between damage on pit road, qualifying bad, bad restarts. All that stuff.
Kyle Larson beat Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman, who bobbled with seven laps remaining.
With the victory, Larson came up one win short of sweeping the NASCAR tripleheader weekend at Homestead. He won the truck race Friday and was in position to win Saturday’s Xfinity race before getting punted by Sam Mayer on an overtime restart.
“Just super pumped,” Larson said after the 30th victory of his Cup career and second at Homestead. “One of the coolest wins of my Cup career because of all the heartbreak I’ve had here. The heartbreak yesterday. Just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.”
Bowman, who started on the pole position, finished second, followed by Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin.
“I guess I choked that one away, for sure,” Bowman said. “Just kind of burned my stuff up. Saw (Larson) coming, so I moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit (the wall) with the right front and just bent something enough that I lost a lot of right front feel, and then I pulled it off the wall too far right there and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad.
“So man, I hate that for this group. they deserve better than that. Just a couple of mistakes there. I felt like we were OK all day. That last run was probably the best we were but hats off to (this team). I hate it for (Rick) Hendrick. Congrats to Kyle and we’ll try to get another win this week.”
Wallace earned a season-best third and led 56 laps in his No. 23 Toyota, which started first twice on restarts because of swift pit stops.
“It was really good,” Wallace told FS1’s Jamie Little. “We showed up here in Miami and had speed. That’s the first box you want to check. We fired off just OK, and so I was just praying for track position. My pit crew has been on fire. Tremendous amount of work has gone into the last five years of this team to get where we’re at. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re damn sure competitive each and every stop. They got us up there and gave me a shot. Our Toytoa was just a game-changer. Got out front. I didn’t think I burned my stuff up to start that last run, but I need to go back and study and obviously not hit the fence and allow (Bowman) to get there.
“All in all, hats off to my 23 group here. It’s been a grind all year long. We’ve been getting kicked in the teeth the last stage of every race. Finally close one out. This feels good. I can’t hang my head over this. It’s a good day.”
The race ended on a green-flag run of 51 laps, which allowed Larson to go from fourth to first after the last restart on Lap 217.
Ryan Blaney led a race-high 124 laps and won the first stage before suffering an engine failure in his No. 12 Ford while running third with 60 laps remaining.
“I didn’t have any warning,” Blaney told Little. “It just laid over when I got back to wide open down the front, and that was all she wrote.
“Just stinks. Really fast Ford Mustang. led a lot of laps. Lost a little bit of track position with some stuff on pit road, but great race between me, Bubba, Larson. I’m sure Denny was going to get back into it. It was going to be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so. Just didn’t really work out for us.”
Blaney finished 36th, his third consecutive finish outside the top 25. He crashed in a 35th at Las Vegas and suffered another engine failure in a 28th at Phoenix.
“We’ll continue to keep fighting,” the 2023 Cup Series champion said. “I appreciate the 12 guys for giving me just a hot rod. Incredibly fast race car today. We’ll keep our head up. It’s just one of those things where it’s not really going our way right now, but the good news is we’re bringing fast cars, and that’s all you can ask for, so keep on moving.
Stage 1 winner: Blaney
Stage 2 winner: Hamlin
Next: Sunday, March 30, 3 p.m. ET at Martinsville Speedway on FS1
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