Kyle Larson made up for the heartbreak of Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a big way Sunday. Larson staged a dominating performance leading 199 of 267 laps to win the NASCAR Cup series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the first at the track of his career in 8 starts.
But it was by no means easy, especially late in the going.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver won both stages and was firmly in control, but chaos erupted during the final round of green flag pit stops that started on 207.
Larson was leading and slowing to pit as most of the rest of the leaders had just completed their stops. But leaving pit road Ryan Blaney spun on the access road forcing NASCAR to throw the caution. Larson was able to pit under the caution, but Martin Truex Jr. and Ross Chastain were finishing up their stops as the caution came out and were on the front row with Truex leading.
Larson lined up third, with Playoff driver Denny Hamlin in fourth. The green came out on lap 217 and Hamlin was soon in the lead followed by Chastain. Larson meanwhile was falling and soon found himself in fifth.
Truex grabbed the lead with 220 and 10 laps later Larson was in second and closing. Tyler Reddick crashed hard coming out of Turn 2 on lap 246 bringing out the race’s fifth and final caution. The leaders pitted and Truex saw his race come apart.
Truex led the field down pit road and just before turning into his stall seemed to get tapped from behind and spun by Larson.
Larson went on to his stop and came out with the lead; Truex rejoined the field 19th.
The green flew on lap 250 and Larson was able to re-take the lead. He was challenged by AJ Allmendinger, then Ross Chastain, but held the point. Chastain and Allmendinger began dueling for second allowing Larson to pull away and win by 1.2 of a second.
“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” Larson said. “We’ve been capable of it I feel like many weekends, we just haven’t quite put it all together. Cliff gave a great speech this morning and got us all ready to go and focused and did my best to keep it out of the wall. I got in the wall a few times but I could still make speed doing that.”
After starting 20th, lowest among the Playoff drivers, Chastain became the highest finishing Playoff driver holding on for second with Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five.
“I feel like we had a top-3 or -4 car all day, all weekend, and a little too tight in qualifying,” Chastain said. “And come behind that with a driver that chose the complete wrong lane in 3 and 4, against everything I’ve ever trained for and prepared for. Qualified 20th, and it took us all day long.”
Truex staged a furious rally charging from 19th and finished sixth. He said that the tap from Larson on the final pit stop was only part of the reason he spun on pit road.
“It was definitely a little bit of both of that,” Truex said. “It was really hard to see through these windshields right now with the sun like that and all the stuff covering it. I did see my box late for sure. So I slowed down before I turned out of the way of the 5 (Kyle Larson) there. Obviously, partly on me. I didn’t expect to get turned around. Glad nobody got hurt there.”
Hamlin, who hit the wall several times in the final laps, survived to finish seventh.
“It was just slow on the short run,” Hamlin said. “We got the position – the track position – we were able to get the lead there, and then get second, and we just couldn’t hold it. I just didn’t have a car that would go on the short run.”
Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.
The rest of the Playoff drivers finished outside the top 10. Christopher Bell was 11th, William Byron who started from the pole and ran inside the top five much of the early part of the race faded in the second half and finished 12th; Chase Elliott was 14th, Ryan Blaney never recovered from his spin and finished 17th. Joey Logano, who is locked into the Championship 4 with his win in Las Vegas was 18th.
Chase Briscoe struggled all race long finally crashing into the outside wall and out of the race in lap 160 and was scored last.
Heading to the final race to determine the Championship 4 at Martinsville, Chastain, Elliott, and Byron are above the cut line while Hamlin is 5 below, Blaney 18 below, Bell 33 below and Briscoe 44 below.
Though he himself is eliminated from the Playoffs, with the win the No. 5 Hendrick car Larson wheeled to victory Sunday will be among the final 4 teams going for the owner’s championship in just two weeks.
“Happy for our team, and we get to go race for an owner’s title in Phoenix in a couple weeks.,” Larson said. “We’re still technically not out of it. I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team. We’re going to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”
Photos: NASCAR at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sun. Oct. 23, 2022
NASCAR Cup Series Race Results Dixie Vodka 400
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead, Florida
Sunday, October 23, 2022
- (5) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (20) Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (10) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 267.
- (32) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
- (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.
- (12) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 267.
- (14) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 267.
- (16) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 267.
- (11) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267.
- (23) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 267.
- (2) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 267.
- (1) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (8) Chris Buescher, Ford, 267.
- (3) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 267.
- (27) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 267.
- (18) Michael McDowell, Ford, 267.
- (13) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 267.
- (17) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 267.
- (26) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 267.
- (21) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 267.
- (28) Aric Almirola, Ford, 267.
- (6) Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 267.
- (31) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 267.
- (25) Cole Custer, Ford, 266.
- (24) Noah Gragson(i), Chevrolet, 266.
- (30) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 266.
- (4) John Hunter Nemechek(i), Toyota, 266.
- (15) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 266.
- (33) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 266.
- (22) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 264.
- (29) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 264.
- (34) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 263.
- (35) BJ McLeod(i), Ford, 262.
- (36) Cody Ware, Ford, 262.
- (7) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, Accident, 242.
- (19) Chase Briscoe (P), Ford, Accident, 160.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 129.612 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 5 Mins, 24 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.261 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 30 laps.
Lead Changes: 11 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: W. Byron (P) 1-26;K. Larson (P) 27-32;W. Byron (P) 33-37;K. Larson (P) 38-87;W. Byron (P) 88;K. Larson (P) 89-122;C. Bell (P) 123-126;K. Larson (P) 127-213;M. Truex Jr. 214-216;D. Hamlin (P) 217-220;M. Truex Jr. 221-245;K. Larson (P) 246-267.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Larson (P) 5 times for 199 laps; William Byron (P) 3 times for 32 laps; Martin Truex Jr. 2 times for 28 laps; Christopher Bell (P) 1 time for 4 laps; Denny Hamlin (P) 1 time for 4 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,24,19,8,3,16,6,9,12,22
Stage #2 Top Ten: 5,19,24,12,6,9,99,1,22,11
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.
- Biffle, Dorton, Sprague join NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025 nominees for the first time - April 24, 2024
- NASCAR will experiment with different tire compounds for the first time at All-Star Race - April 23, 2024
- Legacy Motor Club reserve driver Corey Heim to sub for Erik Jones at Dover - April 23, 2024