Straight Talk Wireless 400: Kyle Larson gets it done at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson had one of the best cars all day, and a late-race charge to the front ended with the Hendrick Motorsports driver in Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway, earning his 30th career NASCAR Cup Series win in the Straight Talk Wireless 400.

Larson was the only driver to do triple duty at Homestead after entering the Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series races. He went on to win the Truck Series race on Friday night for Spire Motorsports and nearly won on Saturday with Hendrick’s Xfinity Series program after finishing fourth.

However, he concluded a busy weekend in Florida by taking the most important race on Sunday in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet.

“It was far from perfect,” Larson said. “I gave up a spot and a half, almost two spots there by getting in the wall too many times. I knew I wasn’t going to get the best restart there. I knew I wasn’t good on the short runs and just thought if I could hold off the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and the 45 (Tyler Reddick) behind me, you know, I could get to running the top and the 19 (Chase Briscoe) too. Then I got in the wall and let him by. Just kind of had to keep plugging away at what I know and what’s good for me.

“So just proud of myself, proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work there today between damage on pit road, you know, qualifying bad, bad restarts, all that stuff. Just super pumped. One of the coolest wins I think in my Cup career just because of the heartbreak I’ve had here, the heartbreak yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.”

Larson is now the third-winningest driver in Hendrick team history, behind Hall of Fame drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

Larson’s teammate Alex Bowman had his best performance of the 2025 season as the driver of the No. 48 Ally Unrivaled League Chevrolet qualified on pole and led with seven laps to go until Larson passed him for the win.

“I guess I choked that one away,” Bowman said. “Just burned my stuff up. Saw the 5 (Larson) coming, so moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit it hard with the right front and ended up just bending something enough that I lost a lot of right front feel and then I pulled it off the wall too far right there and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad. So I hate that for this Ally 48 group. They deserve better than that.

“Just a couple of mistakes there. I felt like we were okay all day. That last run was the best we were. Hats off to Ally and Blake (Harris) and everybody for supporting this 48 team. Hate it for Mr. Hendrick. Congrats to Kyle. We’re going to try get another one this week.”

The driver who battled up front the most with Larson and Bowman during the race’s closing laps was 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace. Like Bowman, Wallace had a ton of momentum after being the fastest in practice and qualifying inside the top 10. Unfortunately for the No. 23 team, although Wallace led 56 laps and earned the Xfinity Fastest Lap, his 84-race winless streak continues after bringing home a third-place finish.

“Finally got us a good finish!” Wallace said. “But we need to go back and look at if I burned my stuff up to start there (final stint). I thought I got into a rhythm early, but that was a longer run there, so thought our capability fell away. I got into the fence there and that allowed him (Bowman) to get beside me and then just capability from then on wasn’t there. Hate that I messed up, but I came over the radio and said ‘I haven’t been in many situations like that to give away a race so a lot to learn today.

“I can’t even hang my head over that finish. Proud of the effort in race six. We’ve had fast cars, just nothing to show for it (yet). But, here we are. Got our Columbia Sportswear Toyota Camry XSE a top-three finish, so a good day.”

Results from the 2025 Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

It seemed like Ryan Blaney had the best car, leading a race-high 124 laps until his engine blew on Lap 207. The driver of the No. 12 Dent Wizard Ford had two straight runner-up finishes at Homestead-Miami Speedway before his 36th-place finish in this race.

This was Blaney’s third straight DNF, which is the first time the Team Penske driver has failed to finish three consecutive races in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“I didn’t have any warning,” Blaney said. “It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front and that was all she wrote. It just stinks. We had a really fast Dent Wizard Ford Mustang. We led a lot of laps. We 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 and Bubba and Larson. I’m sure Denny was gonna get back into it. It was gonna be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so, but it just didn’t really work out for us. We’ll continue to keep fighting.

“I appreciate the 12 guys for just giving me a hot rod. It was an incredibly, incredibly fast race car today. We’ll keep our heads up. It’s just one of those things where it’s not really going our way right now, but the good news is we’re bringing fast cars and that’s all you can ask for. We’ll keep on moving.”

According to Trey Ryan and NASCAR Insights, Blaney has now led over 100 laps in 15 races and has won just three. He previously started 0-11, but won his last three before the 2025 Straight Talk Wireless 400.

AJ Allmendinger earned his fourth straight top 10 at Homestead and is the only Cup Series driver with such a streak. With his seventh-place finish, the Kaulig Racing driver has now finished seventh, eighth, fifth and third at the track in the Next Gen era.

Denny Hamlin had his first race with new primary sponsor Progressive Insurance, which will be on the car for 18 total races in 2025. Hamlin finished fifth, won Stage 2 and ended up with the third most points earned in the race (42 points).

Jimmie Johnson is still ahead of Cody Ware in points despite Johnson competing in one race compared to Ware’s six starts this year.

After this race, the top eight drivers in points compete for either Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing or 23XI Racing.

GRID RANKING

 

For now, Atlanta, COTA and Phoenix race winner Christopher Bell continues to lead the Cup Series rating, followed by William Byron, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Josh Berry.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, March 30. Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

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