Two out of three for Larson at Homestead

Kyle Larson achieved his first victory of the 2025 season in the NASCAR Cup Series by winning this Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 held at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Florida. The 32-year-old Californian driver capped off an extraordinary weekend in which he also secured a win in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on Friday.

A productive weekend for Larson

The driver of the Chevrolet No. 5 for Hendrick Motorsports capitalized on a mistake by his teammate Alex Bowman, who hit the outside wall with six laps to go. This incident allowed Larson to take the lead and cross the finish line with a 1.205-second advantage.

“I knew that as I got closer to them, they would start moving and making mistakes. I felt that if I kept the pressure on Alex, he might slip up, and when he hit the wall, I passed him more easily than I expected,” Larson commented after the race. “Still, I had to work hard. My balance in clean air was very unstable, just like theirs.”

Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, secured the 30th victory of his career. This achievement places him just behind Jeff Gordon (93) and Jimmie Johnson (83) among the drivers with the most wins in Hendrick Motorsports history.

A costly mistake for Bowman

Bowman, who started from the pole position and led 43 laps, finished in second place. The driver of the Chevrolet No. 48 did not hide his disappointment after seeing what would have been his first win of the year slip away.

“I think I definitely blew it,” admitted Bowman, revealing that he had hit the wall harder on the lap before being overtaken. “I just burned out. I saw the No. 5 [Larson] coming, so I moved a bit. I hate this for the Ally 48 team; they deserve better. It was just a couple of mistakes.”

Standout performances and disappointments

Bubba Wallace rounded out the podium in his Toyota No. 23 for 23XI Racing, leading 56 laps, his best mark of the season. Chase Briscoe (Joe Gibbs Racing) finished fourth in his Toyota No. 19, while Denny Hamlin (JGR) closed out the top five after winning Stage 2.

The afternoon proved particularly frustrating for Ryan Blaney, whose Ford No. 12 for Team Penske dominated much of the race, leading 124 laps, before suffering an engine failure with 60 laps to go. A large plume of smoke emerged from his car as it came to an abrupt stop on the main straightaway.

“I had no warning,” explained Blaney, the runner-up in the previous two races at Homestead. “It was a great Ford Mustang, really fast, and we led a lot of laps. We’ll keep fighting. I appreciate the guys on the 12 team for giving me such a fast car today.”

Championship standings

With this victory, Larson moved up to second place in the overall NASCAR Cup Series standings, 36 points behind the leader and teammate William Byron, winner of the Daytona 500. Bowman now sits in third place, 39 points behind the top, while Chase Elliott, the fourth member of Hendrick Motorsports, finished 18th and is sixth in the championship.

“I had to keep pushing. I’m proud of myself and the team for the hard work today,” Larson said. “This is one of the coolest wins of my Cup career because of all the disappointments here and yesterday.”

Larson will attempt to achieve the triple victory in NASCAR’s three national series at Bristol Motor Speedway in April, aiming to match Kyle Busch, the only driver in history to win all three races in a single weekend, a feat he accomplished twice at Bristol (2010 and 2017).

The NASCAR Cup Series will continue next Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Virginia, with the first short-track race of the season, the Cook Out 400. William Byron is the defending champion.

Straight Talk Wireless 400 Race Results

Position	Driver	Team
1	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet
2	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet
3	Bubba Wallace	Toyota
4	Chase Briscoe	Toyota
5	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
6	Chris Buescher	Ford
7	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet
8	Tyler Reddick	Toyota
9	Ryan Preece	Ford
10	Justin Haley	Chevrolet
11	Zane Smith	Ford
12	William Byron	Chevrolet
13	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet
14	Joey Logano	Ford
15	Erik Jones	Toyota
16	Noah Gragson	Ford
17	Josh Berry	Ford
18	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet
19	Austin Cindric	Ford
20	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet
21	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet
22	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet
23	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota
24	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Chevrolet
25	Ty Gibbs	Toyota
26	Brad Keselowski	Ford
27	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet
28	Cole Custer	Ford
29	Christopher Bell	Toyota
30	Todd Gilliland	Ford
31	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet
32	Shane Van Gisbergen #	Chevrolet
33	Riley Herbst #	Toyota
34	Cody Ware	Ford
35	JJ Yeley	Chevrolet
36	Ryan Blaney	Ford
37	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet