Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kyle Larson had to endure the walk of shame past Victory Lane while Justin Allgaier celebrated an Xfinity Series win. Less than 24 hours later, Larson made that same walk—but this time, it was to celebrate his own triumph.
With five laps to go, Larson snatched the lead from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman Sunday, then promptly drove off into the sunset with a 1.5-second cushion. Classic Larson. The final charge began on lap 244 with his trademark high-wire act—riding the wall, defying physics, and making it look effortless. Then, with a daring divebomb move out of Turn 4, he sealed the deal, collecting his second career Cup Series win at Homestead-Miami.
“One of the coolest wins I think in my Cup career,” Larson said. “Just because of the heartbreak I’ve had here, the heartbreak yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.”
For much of the early going, this was Ryan Blaney’s playground, and everyone else was just hoping for recess to end. The No. 12 car took control on lap 9 after starting sixth and steamrolled his way to a Stage 1 win.
Stage 2 turned into a masterclass in NASCAR strategy—a high-speed poker game where the stakes were measured in horsepower. Denny Hamlin and Larson played it to perfection, waiting for green flag pit stops like a card shark refusing to show his hand. Seven laps after Blaney blinked first, they finally pitted, and their patience paid off.
Sensing opportunity, Hamlin pounced. He took the lead on lap 162, Larson glued to his bumper. The two drag-raced to the Stage 2 finish, with Hamlin narrowly edging Larson—by what could only be described as the width of a lug nut.
But Larson doesn’t take kindly to losing, even by fractions. The moment the pit stops cycled through under caution, he flipped the script, beating Hamlin off pit road and taking control for the lap 173 restart. That’s when Bubba Wallace entered the fray. Wallace surged past Hamlin, then stole the lead outright a lap later.
Meanwhile, Blaney, who had found himself lost in the shuffle, was mounting a comeback. Unfortunately, it all went up in flames—literally—when his Ford’s engine grenaded on lap 209, turning his dominant run into a smoky, fire-spitting DNF.
Wallace would hold the lead through the next green flag pit cycle, but on lap 235, Bowman muscled his way past, looking like the man to beat. He was—right up until Larson arrived. Like a relentless tide, Larson pestered his teammate until, finally, with five laps left, he made his move and drove off to victory.
Bowman settled for second, a strong but frustrating finish.
“I guess I choked that one away,” Bowman admitted. “Just burned my stuff up. Saw the 5 (Larson) coming, so moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit it hard with the right front and ended up just bending 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.”
Wallace, after leading 56 laps, brought it home third.
“We showed up here in Miami and had speed,” Wallace said. “That’s the first box you want to check. We all know when you are a race car driver, you want to show up and be competitive. We were that.”
Chase Briscoe made a late-race charge to finish fourth—only his second top-five finish of the season, the first coming at Daytona.
“Yeah, it was for sure a chaotic day for us with the brake issues and tire vibrations,” Briscoe said. “Had three or four bad pit stops, so just had to keep coming from behind, kind of all day long but this is honestly what we needed.”
Hamlin rounded out the top five, with Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, and Justin Haley completing the top 10.
So, at Homestead, the driver who watched someone else’s celebration on Saturday night found himself right in the center of it on Sunday. From watching Justin Allgaier pop the champagne to spraying it himself, Larson’s Homestead weekend was the ultimate redemption arc. The walk to Victory Lane is always sweeter when you’ve had to take the long way around.
Next up: Martinsville Speedway. Short track. Tempers. Chaos. William Byron won there last year, but in NASCAR, the past means nothing. Buckle up.
RACE RESULTS
Photos: NASCAR at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday March 23, 2025
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.