Larson Leaps Bowman Late

Kyle Larson celebrates his win in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo: NASCAR)

Straight Talk Wireless 400:

Kyle Larson surged to the lead with just a few laps to go and held on to take the checkered flag in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman. The win is Larson's first Cup victory of the year, locking him in to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, and his 30th career win at the Cup level. The win did not come easy for Larson as at times he looked like he was going to be hovering around fifth. However, some late race shifts Sunday evening set up the win for Larson, and he rode the highline to victory lane.

Larson, while competitve, was not the guy for most of the day Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. That honor belonged to the 12 car of Ryan Blaney, and Blaney was hoping to rebound in a strong way on Sunday after a frustrating first few races of the season. And Blaney's day was on a perfect trajectory to rebound for most of the race after leading a race high 124 laps and poised to strike for the win late in the race. However, his Ford engine had second thoughts and detonated coming off turn four with around 60 laps left in the race. Some other strong contenders of the day now seemed poised to pounce and take a win away from the 12 team. Namely Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, and Denny Hamlin. These three had some spirited battles for the top spots all vying with everything their machines would give them to take the lead and hope the clean air on their noses would allow them to pull away from their competitors. And while Bubba Wallace successfully put this into motion first, he was unable to get more than a second ahead of Bowman's 48 car and Bowman eventually reeled him in and took the lead. Bowman had one problem, and that was Kyle Larson on a mission rippin' the fence. Once Larson took second from Wallace, Bowman was going to have to be perfect to fend off the challenge from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Unfortunately, on lap 261, after Bowman slapped the wall a smidge, Larson pounced and took the lead. He charged away and drove straight to the checkered flag.

All in all, I thought Sunday's race was a good ole fashioned pure NASCAR race (minus the stages). We had some attrition, but it wasn't wild. We had tire wear and fall off, drivers able to navigate through the field and make up ground, drivers who had cars set up one way and it backfired and they paid for it, and we had multiple grooves of competitive racing. This allowed for great battles throughout the day and throughout each run of the race. It had drivers moving their cars around to find optimal speed and grip, and we had a several great battles during the last run of the race for the win. It displayed some of the best of NASCAR and kept me entertained from the green flag to the checkered flag. I hope that this moves the needle for the powers that be to rotate Homestead-Miami Speedway back into the championship race discussion for 2026 and years beyond. And yes, I said rotate. We need multiple tracks to have several years as the championship race and a constant rotation of tracks to keep the racing interesting and not a foregone conclusion of who the champion will likely be because we are at a certain track for the umpteenth time in a row.

Next up we head to Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia with all three national touring series back in action this weekend. The Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the weekend on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. EST on FS1 with The Boys & Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200. The Xfinity Series is next on the docket with their race, the Marine Corps 250, going green at 5 p.m. on Saturday on The CW. And the NASCAR Cup Series will close out the weekend on Sunday afternoon with the Cook Out 400 on FS1.

Martinsville Picks:

Trucks = Layne Riggs

Xfinity = Carson Kvapil

Cup = Josh Berry