NASCAR photos for Headline Surfer / ABOVE: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, wins the NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, on Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images). LEFT: Larson poses with his son, Owen, with the winner sticker on his car in victory lane (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images). BELOW: Larson celebrates his first NASCAR win of the season on the roof of his car (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Kyle Larson is winless no more in the NASCAR racing season after taking the checkered flag in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Larson took advantage of a mistake by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Alex Bowman, who slammed his pole-winning No. 48 Chevrolet into the outside retaining wall with just six laps to go.
That's all Larson in the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet needed to pass him for the race lead and the checkered flag.
“I knew me coming towards those guys they were going to start moving around and making mistakes, and I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex [Bowman], he may make a mistake, and he caught the wall there, and I got around him easier than I expected to,” Larson said. “Still had to work hard, though," Larson continued. "My balance in clean air was really loose, just like those guys were. Hats off to the whole team.”
That's all Larson in the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet needed to pass him for the race lead and the checkered flag. “I knew me coming towards those guys they were going to start moving around and making mistakes, and I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex [Bowman], he may make a mistake, and he caught the wall there, and I got around him easier than I expected to,” Larson said. “Still had to work hard, though," Larson continued. "My balance in clean air was really loose, just like those guys were. Hats off to the whole team.”
Bowman, who started from pole position, led 43 laps and was obviously disappointed even in a second-place outcome, coming so close to his first victory of the year.
“Guess I choked that one away for sure,” Bowman said, revealing he actually hit the wall harder the lap before he got passed. “Just kind of burned myself up. Saw the 5 [Larson] coming, so I moved around a little bit."
Bowman added: “Man, I hate that for this Ally 48 group, they deserve better than that. Just a couple mistakes there. Felt like we were okay all day there.”
Bubba Wallace finished third, leading a season-high 56 laps in the No. 23 Toyota. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe finished fourth in the No. 19 Toyota – the afternoon proving to be season-best finishes for Larson, Bowman, Wallace, and Briscoe.
Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five finishing order and won Stage 2 – his 15 laps out front are the most of the year for him.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney was by far the day’s most dominant driver, whose No. 12 Ford led a race-best 124 laps only to suffer an engine failure with 60 laps remaining. A huge blast of smoke burst out of the car as it slowed abruptly onto the front stretch from a top-five position.
Blaney ended up 36th of the 37 cars, the 2023 season champion suffering his third straight DNF of the year.
“I didn’t have any warning,” said Blaney, a runner-up in the previous two Homestead races. “When I got back to wide open down the front, that was all she wrote. Just stinks."
Blaney continued: "Really fast Ford Mustang, led a lot of laps, lost a little bit of track position with stuff on pit road, but got back to third, and it was a great race between me, Bubba, and Larson. I’m sure Denny [Hamlin] was going to get back into it, it was going to be quite a battle in the last 60 laps or so."
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for the first short track race of the season, the Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Byron is the defending race winner.
Finishing Order:
- (14) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 267.
- (1) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 267.
- (9) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 267.
- (4) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 267.
- (23) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267.
- (11) Chris Buescher, Ford, 267.
- (10) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 267.
- (20) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 267.
- (31) Ryan Preece, Ford, 267.
- (21) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 267.
- (17) Zane Smith, Ford, 267.
- (5) William Byron, Chevrolet, 267.
- (30) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
- (12) Joey Logano, Ford, 267.
- (28) Erik Jones, Toyota, 267.
- (3) Noah Gragson, Ford, 267.
- (2) Josh Berry, Ford, 267.
- (18) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 267.
- (8) Austin Cindric, Ford, 267.
- (26) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 267.
- (22) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 267.
- (33) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 267.
- (7) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 267.
- (27) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 267.
- (13) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 267.
- (32) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 266.
- (34) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 266.
- (24) Cole Custer, Ford, 266.
- (16) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 266.
- (29) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 266.
- (25) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 266.
- (35) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 266.
- (19) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 265.
- (36) Cody Ware, Ford, 265.
- (37) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 263.
- (6) Ryan Blaney, Ford, Engine, 207.
- (15) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, Engine, 184.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 131.876 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 2 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.205 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 27 laps.
Lead Changes: 27 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: A. Bowman 1-8; R. Blaney 9-32; J. Berry 33; Z. Smith 34-36; K. Larson 37-40; R. Blaney 41-71; A. Bowman 72; R. Blaney 73-83; A. Bowman 84; C. Hocevar 85-88; A. Bowman 89-94; R. Blaney 95-117; D. Hamlin 118-124; K. Larson 125; J. Berry 126; R. Blaney 127-161; D. Hamlin 162-168; W. Byron 169; K. Larson 170-172; D. Hamlin 173; K. Larson 174-176; B. Wallace 177-212; A. Bowman 213; B. Wallace 214-215; K. Larson 216; B. Wallace 217-234; A . Bowman 235-260; K. Larson 261-267.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Ryan Blaney 5 times for 124 laps; Bubba Wallace 3 times for 56 laps; Alex Bowman 6 times for 43 laps; Kyle Larson 6 times for 19 laps; Denny Hamlin 3 times for 15 laps; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 4 laps; Zane Smith 1 time for 3 laps; Josh Berry 2 times for 2 laps; William Byron 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 12,48,19, 5, 2,24,16, 21,4, 22.
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11, 5,12, 24, 23, 48, 2, 9, 77, 45.
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