Kyle Larson wins NASCAR race at Homestead, first Cup Series victory of the season

It was Kyle Larson’s NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the Hendrick Motorsports star prevailed.

The driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet worked through the field throughout Sunday’s Cup Series race and passed Alex Bowman — his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, who started on the pole and led late — during the final laps to earn his first victory of the season.

Larson, who won an entertaining Truck Series race Friday night and led Saturday’s Xfinity Series race before a late caution, only led 19 of 267 laps Sunday. Bubba Wallace put together one of his best shots at his first win in three years, leading 56 laps during the final stage of the Straight Talk Wireless 400 before Bowman got around him — and Larson sped past his teammate to reach Victory Lane.

“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. ... 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.”

Bowman finished in second place, Wallace posted a P3 finish, Chase Briscoe came in fourth and Denny Hamlin took fifth.

Results from the NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead

Lap-by-lap updates of the Straight Talk Wireless 400

Lap 267: Kyle Larson wins at Homestead!

Lap 266: Kyle Larson takes the white flag!

Lap 260: Alex Bowman scrapes the wall in Turn 4, and Kyle Larson speeds past him to take the lead!

Lap 258: Kyle Larson passes Bubba Wallace for P2! Could be a battle between the Hendrick Motorsports drivers in these final 10 laps.

Lap 250: Alex Bowman’s lead is roughly a second over Bubba Wallace, who’s been told his team expects Bowman to fall back. Chase Briscoe and Kyle Larson are both within two seconds of Bowman as well.

Lap 243: Your Top 10: Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon and Ryan Preece.

Lap 235: Alex Bowman takes the lead back from Bubba Wallace! The No. 23 car scraped the wall, and Bowman got around him for the lead.

Lap 234: Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace go side-by-side for the lead!

Lap 230: Kyle Larson hits the wall, and Chase Briscoe gets past him for P3! Bubba Wallace remains the leader, looking to win his first race since 2022.

Lap 226: Bubba Wallace’s is lead is more than a second. Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin round out your top five behind him.

Lap 216: Back to green! Bubba Wallace jumps in front of Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman for the lead.

Lap 214: William Byron and Austin Cindric get pit road penalties for speeding.

Lap 209: Figures to be a lengthy cleanup for the No. 12 car, whose engine just blew up as it had been running in third place. This is the first time Ryan Blaney has recorded three straight Did Not Finishes in the Cup Series, following another engine issue at Phoenix and an accident at Las Vegas.

Lap 207: Ryan Blaney’s engine blows up! He’s led 124 laps in this race.

Lap 194: Bubba Wallace continues leading, with Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney both within one second of the No. 23 Toyota. Denny Hamlin is 2.2 seconds back in fourth, and Alex Bowman runs in fifth.

Lap 187: Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Alex Bowman are out in front of the field. Carson Hocevar went to pit road with an issue and is now going to the garage.

Lap 178: Bubba Wallace passes Kyle Larson for the lead.

Lap 175: Back to green! Kyle Larson jumps out in the lead.

Lap 171: Chase Elliott gets penalized on pit road for not being single-file.

Lap 168: Denny Hamlin beat Kyle Larson for the stage win after the two drove through the field and got by Ryan Blaney.

Earning points following Stage 2: Hamlin, Larson, Blaney, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Carson Hocevar and Tyler Reddick.

Stage 2

Lap 165: Denny Hamlin wins Stage 2!

Lap 162: Denny Hamlin passes Ryan Blaney! Kyle Larson moving up toward the front as well.

Lap 156: Ryan Blaney continues leading, with William Byron pulling closer as we come up on 10 laps left in the second stage.

Lap 137: Ryan Blaney is dominant today, now leading by roughly three seconds.

Your Top 10: Blaney, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Carson Hocevar, Chase Elliott and AJ Allmendinger.

Lap 128: Daniel Suárez spins by himself coming onto pit road! No caution comes out. Kyle Larson pitted a lap after Denny Hamlin; Josh Berry led the next lap before he and Joey Logano came to pit road. Ryan Blaney is the leader once again.

Lap 119: We’ve got some green-flag pit stops with under 50 to go in the second stage! Ryan Blaney leads a group down pit road as Denny Hamlin briefly moves into the race lead.

Lap 105: Ryan Blaney maintains his lead, Denny Hamlin has moved up to second place, and Alex Bowman still runs in third.

Your Top 10: Blaney, Hamlin, Bowman, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Carson Hocevar, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and AJ Allmendinger.

Lap 97: Ryan Blaney retakes the lead from Alex Bowman after restarting on the second row.

Lap 88: Back to green! Carson Hocevar made it to the front during the stage break and brings us back alongside Alex Bowman.

Lap 83: Your points-getters after Ryan Blaney got the opening stage win over pole-sitter Alex Bowman: Blaney, Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, William Byron, AJ Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Noah Gragson and Joey Logano.

Stage 1

Lap 80: Ryan Blaney wins Stage 1!

Lap 78: Behind Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe runs in P3, and Kyle Larson has surged into fourth place.

Lap 76: Alex Bowman gets by Ryan Blaney for the lead as we come back to green! W

Lap 72: Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman lead the cars coming off pit road. Christopher Bell got into the wall to bring out the day’s first caution late in the opening stage.

Lap 71: Caution comes out! Christopher Bell spins from 15th place.

Lap 67: Ryan Blaney’s lead is roughly nine seconds over Alex Bowman with 14 laps to go in the opening stage.

Lap 44: Ryan Blaney is back in the lead, ahead of Alex Bowman by more than eight seconds, after Kyle Larson and the rest of the field headed to pit road.

Lap 37: Yet to pit, Kyle Larson moves into the lead. He’s among 11 cars on the long run, with Ryan Blaney leading the majority who pitted.

Lap 34: And here come the leaders pitting: Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry make stops on pit road. Zane Smith moves into the lead, for the moment, followed by Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott.

Lap 33: Joey Logano, Austin Cindric head down pit road, starting the green-flag stops with roughly 50 laps left in the opening stage.

Lap 23: Ryan Blaney leads Alex Bowman by roughly three seconds, and Chase Briscoe got around Josh Berry for P3.

Lap 16: Ryan Blaney still leads, while Josh Berry is battling at the front of the pack as well. Alex Bowman has jumped back into second place.

Your Top 10: Blaney, Bowman, Berry, Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, William Byron, Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger, Bubba Wallace and Joey Logano.

Lap 9: Ryan Blaney gets by Alex Bowman for the lead! The No. 48 had led the first nine laps.

Green flag, 3:14 p.m.: We’re off at Homestead! Alex Bowman jumps out in the lead from the pole.

3:03 p.m.: Bradley Chubb gets us going at Homestead! The Miami Dolphins’ linebacker gives an electric command to fire the engines. Racin’ is coming up in about 10 minutes.

2:45 p.m.: Erik Jones is the only driver dropping to the rear for the start of today’s race.

2:40 p.m.: It’s Race Day at Homestead!

Josh Berry, Christopher Bell and William Byron have won the season’s first five races — will another driver whose last name begins with a “B” reach Victory Lane today? Well, one of them is starting on the pole. Green flag is coming up around 3:12 p.m.

‘If there’s a conspiracy that’s getting me a win, I’ll take it’

Alex Bowman will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field Sunday with a new sports league’s colors painted on his car.

The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet — who won the pole position for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at 3 p.m. Sunday — is piloting a bright pink and teal paint scheme representing Unrivaled, the new professional three-on-three women’s basketball league.

Unrivaled, which crowned its first champion on Monday, is headquartered in Miami and hosts games roughly 30 miles north of Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Bowman raced to the top of the leaderboard in qualifying Saturday, during which the red-hot Josh Berry earned the other starting spot on the front row.

And with Berry, Christopher Bell and William Byron as this season’s race winners entering the sixth weekend, does the pole-sitter whose last name begins with a “B” have a shot to get to Victory Lane on Sunday?

“Yeah, there’s something every week that means we’re winning,” Bowman said in the news conference following the qualifying session. “Last week, anytime somebody for the last couple years had won three in a row, we were the guy who won after that, and we didn’t do that last week. Although we probably had a car capable of doing it if our day would have just gone OK.

“So at least we’re on the list. There’s some other guys that start with B’s too, but at least we’re the ones starting up front. And yeah, I think we’ll have a shot at it. If there’s a conspiracy that’s getting me a win, I’ll take it.”

Odds and prediction for the Straight Talk Wireless 400

Kyle Larson is the favorite to win Sunday’s race at +350 odds on BetMGM, followed by Ryan Blaney (+500), Tyler Reddick (+650), William Byron (+750) and Denny Hamlin (+1100).

Charlotte Observer NASCAR reporter Shane Connuck believes this streak of drivers who have last names beginning with a “B” ends at Homestead, picking Larson to get his first Cup victory of the season. The Hendrick Motorsports star, who won an entertaining Truck Series race Friday night and led Saturday’s Xfinity Series race before a late caution, runs well in Cup cars at the 1.5-mile track in South Florida. Larson has posted a trio of Top Five finishes in his past three races there, and a starting spot in P14 gives him a good chance at his second trip to Victory Lane this weekend. “I think I might have stolen the triple from Kyle,” Justin Allgaier said after snagging the Xfinity win.

How to watch the NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami

Race: Straight Talk Wireless 400

Place: Homestead-Miami Speedway (Homestead, Fla.)

Track Length: 1.5-mile asphalt oval

Date: Sunday, March 23

Time: 3 p.m. ET

Purse: $11,055,250

TV: FS1 & FOX Deportes, 1:30 p.m. ET

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)

Distance: 400 miles (267 laps)

Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 80; Stage 2 ends on Lap 165; and the Final Stage ends on Lap 267.

Starting lineup for the Straight Talk Wireless 400

This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Kyle Larson wins NASCAR race at Homestead, first Cup Series victory of the season."

Shane Connuck

The Charlotte Observer

Shane Connuck is a former journalist for The Charlotte Observer