1 win at Homestead already under his belt, Kyle Larson eye’s a triple-header sweep

By Canadian Press on March 22, 2025.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Kyle Larson is tired of his weekends at Homestead-Miami Speedway ending in disappointment.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver has won a NACAR Cup Series race and Xfinity Series race in his career at the South Florida track, but he mostly just remembers the heartbreaks there, which recently came in a disappointing 13th-place finish in last year’s playoff race.

This year, Larson has already secured a victory at the 1.5-mile track, where he’s competing in the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck races. Larson rallied from a late-race spinout to pull off a comeback win in the Truck Series on Friday, and he’s eyeing more.

Kyle Busch is the only driver to sweep a triple-header weekend, accomplishing the feat at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2010 and 2017.

“To join him in something like that would be pretty special,” Larson said. “More than anything I just love the opportunity to race. I love Homestead. … I felt like it was a prefect weekend to run all three. And to win all three would be great.”

Larson has five top-five finishes in 11 Cup starts in his career at Homestead — two driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He’s led the most laps (626) of any active driver, and his 12 stage wins in the Next Gen car is a series best. No other driver has more than five stage wins.

Busch said Larson has a good shot at a sweep given how well he drives in Homestead, which was in the playoff rotation the past three years but has now been moved to a regular-season race.

“I did it first,” Busch quipped, before adding, “This is his place. He’s known to be super good here. Super comfortable running the wall, so you get a lot of benefit from that.”

Larson finished fourth in 2021 and won the race in 2022 but left frustrated the past two years.

He was out of the race at Lap 214 in 2023 after slamming into the pit road barriers trying to overtake Ryan Blaney for the lead. Last year, Larson’s winning chance ended when he spun while racing Blaney for the lead with under 20 laps to go.

“I feel like every time I go there (to Homestead) you leave disappointed because you feel like you have the best car or truck, and things don’t work out,” Larson said. “Whether it’s mistakes on my end or ill-timed cautions combined with a hiccup on pit road, or whatever late in the race, and you end up losing.

“Literally all but maybe two or three races at Homestead I felt like we had the best car, best chance of winning, and we don’t have the wins to show for it.”

Rule clarification

NASCAR sent out a clarification to race teams in all three national series on pitting in another team’s pit stall after Christopher Bell stopped in the pit stall of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe to have a loose left wheel tightened during the Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas last weekend.

If a vehicle gets service in another team’s pit stall to fix a safety issue, it will receive a flag status penalty, NASCAR said, and they’ll either have to restart at the tail of the field or receive a pass-through for pitting outside the assigned pit box.

The left-front wheel was loose on Bell’s No. 20 Toyota when he was exiting pit road last week. If the wheel came off after he exited pit road, Bell would have been penalized two laps and had two pit crew members suspended for the next two races. He stopped in Briscoe’s stall for service instead, was dinged for pitting outside the box and only had to restart at the back of the field. He finished 12th.

NASCAR listed tightening loose wheels, removing a fuel can or a wedge wrench as examples of safety issues.

Hamlin’s new sponsor

Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday that the organization signed an agreement with Progressive Insurance to sponsor Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota Camry in 18 NASCAR Cup Series races this season, starting with Sunday’s race in Homestead.

Progressive’s name and blue branding will be displayed on Hamlin’s car and race suit, and his crew will wear Progressive branded gear.

“It’s good for them (Joe Gibbs Racing) to have an anchor partner,” Hamlin said, “and certainly for my fans’ sake, they’re going to be able to identify me week-to-week. And I think that’s something that certainly is very important. So feeling out those 18 races is going to be a big deal for myself and Gibbs throughout the year.”

On the pole

Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman won the pole for Sunday’s race while driving a No. 48 Toyota that promotes the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled, which just wrapped up its inaugural season in Miami.

It’s the sixth career pole for Bowman, who was followed by Josh Berry — the winner at Las Vegas last weekend — Noah Gragson, Briscoe and William Byron.

Odds and ends

Larson (+375) is the BetMGM Sportsbook favorite, followed by Tyler Reddick (+600). Larson’s 1,286 total miles led on the 1.5-mile tracks is almost double that of any other driver. Bell is second with 614. … Reddick won the race last year, while Hamlin leads active drivers with three wins (2009, ’13, ’20).

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Alanis Thames, The Associated Press

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