Lightning apparently will not strike twice for Kyle Larson at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In the two years since he won at the track for the first time in the Cup Series in 2022, he’s faced a variety of issues at the track. This year, though, those issues may impact his entire season.
In 2023, as defending winner, Larson looked to be en route to another victory, winning the first stage and running third in the second. But, trying to make up position on Ryan Blaney entering pit road, he overcooked the entry and hit the sand barrels that protect the edge of pit wall. That broke the suspension on the No. 5 machine and sent the team to the garage.
In 2024, this year, Larson was also running up front and contending for the win, but this time it was multiple issues that sidelined him. First, early in the race, while trying to fend off Tyler Reddick by running against the wall, Larson appeared to have a tire go down and he made contact with the wall and had to make repairs. Then, with just a few laps to go, Larson spun out while battling for the lead with Ryan Blaney after making an aggressive three-wide move as the pair navigated around the lapped car of Austin Dillon.
The spin caused one of the roof flaps to deploy, and when a roof flap deploys a diffuser flap also automatically deploys. This is all part of an effort to keep the cars on the ground and avoid flips, but the flap does not automatically go back up. Instead, Larson’s crew had to get under the car to put it back up on the pit stop during the caution that came out for his spin, which cost him six spots on the racetrack.
Ultimately, Larson was never able to get back to the lead and finished 13th after getting mired in the pack during the final restart with under ten laps left in the race.
“Yeah, I mean you’re making split-second decisions,” Larson explained the decision to go three-wide with the lapped car of Austin Dillon in the battle for the win.
“Austin did nothing wrong. I was just hoping that he would see me coming as the No. 12 [of Blaney] got to his inside, and maybe he’d run a lane off the wall just to give me some clean air. He continued to run his line. I had a little bit of a hole, and I was trying to shoot the gap to get in front of the No. 3 and get to the wall quickly to either hopefully stay on the outside of the No. 12 or build a run to have a shot at him in [Turns] One and Two.
“But yeah, it just didn’t work out. I was going as hard as I could. The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team did a great job rebounding after the flat tire.”
The result means that, despite his six wins on the season – double any other driver’s total – Larson is trailing in the Playoff standings. He leaves Homestead seven points behind the cutline, and he will have to make up that gap with either a solid points day or a win at Martinsville. It’s not something that Larson seems to be particularly confident about.
“Yeah, we’ve been strong at Martinsville at times, so we’ll see,” he said. “It’s not my best track, but I’ve been a lot better there since I joined Hendrick Motorsports. We just need to qualify well and give it our best shot.”
It’s a big departure from last year, where despite his DNF at Homestead, Larson didn’t have to worry about the Playoff picture because he was locked into the final round thanks to his win in the first race of the Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Larson’s unlucky in Miami once again, but this time it could really sting.
