Kyle Larson wins Cup Series at
Homestead, finishes one race shy of triple-header sweep
[March 24, 2025]
By ALANIS THAMES
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Kyle Larson passed Alex Bowman with six laps
remaining in NASCAR's Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on
Sunday, giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver the 30th win of his
career at one of his best tracks.
Larson, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet, sped by as Bowman scraped the
wall on Turn 4 with the lead. Larson extended his edge to more than
a second over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, then held on to
beat Bowman by 1.205 seconds for his second career Cup Series win at
Homestead, and his second victory of the weekend.
Larson fell one race short of sweeping the triple-header weekend. He
won the Craftsman Truck race on Friday and finished fourth in the
Xfinity Series on Saturday despite leading 132 of 201 laps. He was
hoping to join Kyle Busch as the only drivers to sweep a
triple-header weekend — Busch did it at Bristol Motor Speedway in
2010 and 2017. Larson will take another shot at a sweep in Bristol
next month.
He said he was motivated by Saturday's result, when a late caution
essentially cost him a race he had dominated. It was an
all-to-familiar feeling of disappointment at Homestead despite
Larson historically driving very well there.
“Proud of myself. Proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty hard work
there today,” Larson said. “Super pumped. One of the coolest wins I
think in my Cup career just because of all the heartbreak I’ve had
here, the heartbreak yesterday. To just keep my head down and keep
digging feels really good.”
He was far from dominant on Sunday. Larson led just 19 of 267 laps,
had to climb from 14th-place starting position and overcame pit road
mishaps and bad restarts to pull off the win — his first victory of
the season and first in the Cup Series at Homestead since 2022.
“Given past history, I just wanted to take the green flag and kick
everybody's ass today,” Larson said. "I wanted to get to the lead
early and just dominate like I was yesterday. Then the green flag
flew, and it was like the opposite. I was going backwards, and
getting (mad) in the helmet.
“After 10 laps or so, I forgot about the wanting to kick everybody's
ass all race long. It was like, 'All right, let's try to and work
hard at this and get a win.'”
Bowman, who was Saturday's pole winner, finished second in the No.
48 Chevrolet. Bubba Wallace was third for 23XI Racing after leading
56 laps — the most laps he's led in a race since September 2023. Joe
Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin rounded out
the top five.
Ryan Blaney was running third when his engine blew up on Lap 207,
causing a thick cloud of smoke to cover the track and a lengthy
cleanup.
It had been a strong race for Blaney before then. He led 124 laps
and won Stage 1 after starting sixth. It was the second time in
three races that Blaney did not finish a race because of an engine
failure with his No. 12 Team Penske Ford.
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Kyle Larson, front left, celebrates with his son Owen, front right,
in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at
Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., Sunday, March 23, 2025.
(AP Photo/Terry Renna)
“It just stinks,” Blaney said. "Led a lot of laps.
Lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on pit
road but got back to third. And it was a great race between me,
Bubba and Larson. ... It was going to be a heck of a battle the last
60 laps or so, but just didn't really work out for us. We'll keep
our head up.
“It's one of those things where it's not really going our way right
now, but the good news is we're bringing fast cars.”
Pit road mishaps
While exiting pit road on Lap 84, Josh Berry's No. 21 Ford hit the
side of Larson's car, then hit Joey Logano's No. 22 Ford. Both
Logano and Berry spun then went the wrong direction into their pit
stalls to check the damage. Larson's car was slightly damaged from
the contact.
Another incident happened on Lap 172. Chase Elliott received a
penalty for not being line up single-file coming into pit road, even
though Elliott could be heard on his in-car feed saying the he had
veered left to avoid hitting someone, but gave the spot back.
Elliott, driving a No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports,
finished 18th.
Homestead’s future
Some drivers would like to see Homestead return to the postseason
after the 1.5-mile track went from hosting NASCAR’s championship
races from 2002-2019 to being out of the playoff rotation.
While Phoenix Raceway has hosted the final since 2020, Homestead was
in the playoff rotation the past three seasons before being moved to
the regular season this year.
“I certainly would like to see it play a bigger factor in our
championship, whether it's in the playoffs or just part of the
championship race or round,” Hamlin said.
Up next
The Cup series races next at Martinsville Speedway, where Blaney won
in November to punch his ticket into last season's playoff final
four. Wiliam Byron won Martinsville last spring.
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