If you bought a ticket to Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday night, congratulations—you got every penny’s worth, and then some.
Because in a display of sheer racing brilliance, Kyle Larson did what Kyle Larson does. He roared through the NASCAR Truck Series field, shot past Layne Riggs on the final lap, and won by just over a second. But that? That doesn’t even begin to tell the story.
No, this race had heartbreak, disbelief, and gut-wrenching disappointment. Corey Heim had it won—until he didn’t. Riggs had his shot—until he didn’t. And Ross Chastain? Well, he spent most of the night looking like a contender, only to fade into the background when it mattered most.
Riggs was in the mix early, finishing third in Stage 1. But then, disaster. He overshot his pit stall, rejoined the field buried in 13th, and had to claw his way back. He fought his way up to sixth in Stage 2 and found himself leading—until Larson came knocking.
Then there’s Chastain. Like Larson, he’s just a visitor in the Truck Series, but he sure made his presence known, leading the second-most laps of the night. And yet, when it all came to an end, he was shuffled back to sixth, wondering what could have been.
But if anyone had the right to feel completely gutted, it was Heim. He owned the race. He swept both stages. He led the most laps. And when he took the lead with 11 to go, it looked like a done deal. But then, for reasons only the racing gods understand, his Toyota simply… stopped. One second, he’s in control. The next, the engine cuts out, the dash goes black, and he’s coasting. He resets the system, the power returns—then vanishes again. He finally managed to coax the truck home in third, but by then, the damage was done.
“Yeah, it stinks,” Heim said. “I feel like we were lights out, the best truck tonight. Think we should’ve won the race by six, seven seconds at the end there.”
“I don’t know exactly what was going on,” he added. “Never really had an issue like that. I’d be totally fine, and the engine would just hard cut on me. Dash would go black and have no power until I fully cycled it. So, I was coasting for six seconds trying to turn the power switch and turn it back (on). I don’t know.
“Felt I ran a really good race, saving tires and would mow them down on the long runs there… This just stinks pretty bad.”
And then, of course, there was Larson. Who did what Larson does.
On lap 91, entering Turn 1, he made a lunge under Riggs for second, got loose, and went for a lazy spin. No harm, no foul—except now, he had to start all the way back in 22nd. And that’s when the fun began.
Like a man possessed, Larson started carving through the field. He and his Spire Motorsports teammate, Ty Majeski—who had his own pit road nightmares—threaded their way forward, making three-wide moves that made the rest of the field look like they were standing still. Suddenly, Larson was back in the top 10. Then the top five. And on the final lap, he made the move that sealed the deal.
It was his third Truck Series win in his last five starts. Four wins in just 16 career Truck races.
And even he admitted that if Heim’s truck hadn’t gone on strike, things might have turned out differently.
“I’m not sure what happened,” Larson said of Heim’s issues. “But that worked out in our favor for sure… I don’t think I would have gotten to him. Obviously, I would have gotten to second, probably, but it’d been tough to get to him.”
Next up for Larson? The Xfinity Series race on Saturday. Then, back to his full-time job with Hendrick Motorsports on Sunday. Could he pull off the weekend sweep?
“I don’t know,” Larson said. “I felt like the truck race was probably going to be the toughest to win, you know, just I’m not that experienced in them. The runs are typically shorter, and I feel like I need long runs like that last one to get going.
“I feel better about Xfinity and Cup, but the competition just gets tougher and tougher as you’re getting on in the weekend, so we’ll see.”
Typical Larson. Humble, but lethal. And if history tells us anything—it’s that when you least expect it, he’ll find a way to win.
Anyone seen the broom?
RACE RESULTS
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.