Larson’s Comeback Run at Homestead Halted by Late Spin and Slow Stop

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer

For the second year in a row, Kyle Larson endured an unfortunate event at Homestead-Miami Speedway while chasing down Ryan Blaney.

Only this time, Larson was able to take the checkered flag in Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400, finishing 13th and still on the outside looking in as far as the Championship 4 is concerned.

Larson’s all-around agonizing day sees him sitting fifth in points, trailing teammate William Byron by seven points heading to the cutoff race at Martinsville Speedway next Sunday.

With the day Larson had, it can be considered a better, yet unideal spot compared to what the former NASCAR Cup Series champion had to overcome all race.

After rolling off second on the grid, Larson’s rollercoaster day kicked into high gear once his right rear tire went down and hit the wall entering the backstretch. Larson brought his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet to pit road only for the carcass of his right rear tire coming off, bringing out the caution on Lap 48.

Larson finished Stage 1 in 25th, but his harrowing race had only begun.

During pit stops, Chris Buescher spun on pit road that left Larson blocked from having pit services. Consequently, Larson came out in 35th which lit a fire on the Hendrick Motorsports organization for the remainder of the day.

Slowly, but surely, Larson gradually gained spots and ended Stage 2 in 15th. As the race was drawing to a close, Larson was among the fastest cars on the track and worked his way towards the leaders.

However, various strategies began to unravel ranging from Denny Hamlin attempting to pick pocket the field during the final green flag run to Tyler Reddick hoping a timely caution will put him in a prime position for the win.

Once Reddick had no choice but to pit in the closing laps, the race was shaping up to be a battle between the now new leader Blaney and second-place Larson.

With 13 laps to go, Larson was all over Blaney for the top spot, but the lapped car of Austin Dillon interfered Larson’s momentum on the backstretch. Heading into Turn 3, Larson saw a gap and went for the fences, sandwiching himself between Blaney and Dillon.

Suddenly, slight contact snapped Larson’s car and attempted to save his car. Only for the No. 5 Chevrolet slowly spinning around to bring out the sixth and final caution of the afternoon.

Last year, Larson’s day was cut short after crashing into the sand barrels coming to pit road while trying to cut the gap on Blaney. Now, Larson’s bid of conquering Blaney saw him only lose a spot to Hamlin and brought Reddick back into the fray.

Larson didn’t fault Dillon, but wished he was aware of the situation he was dealing with Blaney as a split-second decision to make a three-wide pass became the latest turning point of this season’s NASCAR Playoffs.

“I was just hoping that (Dillon) would see me coming as (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,” Larson on the late caution.

“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.”

During the final pit stops of the afternoon, the No. 5 team’s chance of a win were further dashed as a down diffuser flap had to be readjusted to avoid aerodynamic woes slowed their stop. As a result of the costly stop, Larson’s pit time was 11.6 seconds and exited out in 10th.

The final restart fared no better as Larson was well out of contention for the win as he lost three more spots while Reddick’s bold last lap move etched him a win and a Championship 4 berth over Blaney.

As hard of an effort Larson gave, he’ll have to deliver at Martinsville, a track synonymous to success for Hendrick Motorsports over the past 40 years. Larson has one win to his name at the famous paperclip shaped circuit back in Spring 2023 and finished runner-up to Byron in April.

With the current car being difficult to produce a fun show in terms of passing, Larson noted qualifying is paramount in how the day could go in next Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC).

“We’ve been strong at Martinsville at times, so we’ll see,” said Larson. “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.”