Folks, the Homestead Miami weekend is wrapped up! And like always, the track did not disappoint. But this makes us both sad and happy. Sad because the ‘Straight Talk Wireless 400’ lost its playoff spot this season. Surprisingly, the venue always produces high-quality racing action, and it keeps getting demoted. Lost the championship spot in 2020 and now it’s not even part of the playoff. Look at the recent Cup Series race where Kyle Larson took the checkered flag! It saw the first full green flag pit stop of the season. You can imagine how clean everyone was racing. It even had NASCAR Legend Mark Martin impressed!
And folks, we have to give NASCAR and Goodyear credit here. They have nailed the racing product when it comes to intermediates. Even look at the Las Vegas race. The race saw 32 lead changes and it was all thanks to the tire wear. Also, they ran the same tire at Homestead and it seems to have done wonders. 27 lead changes among 9 drivers. It was like we knew Kyle Larson would be a front-runner, but till the end, it was hard to guess if he’d actually win the race. And then came that classic last-lap pass! All in all, it was a wholesome race.
Now, what made Homestead-Miami special wasn’t seeing Bubba Wallace get to the top three or watching Larson get his win. According to Mark Martin it was good to finally see a race as clean race as Homestead Miami.
He was quick to take it to X. Where he wrote, “This is what classic race fans watch @FS1@NASCAR@HomesteadMiami for. Absolutely great racing. No manufactured drama.”
The first caution came on lap 75 and there were only 4 cautions throughout the race. And those four cautions together only lasted 27 laps out of the 267. To give you context on why are we calling this race clean…look at the Vegas race. It had 9 cautions for 93 yellow flag laps out of 267. So you can do the maths on how many green flag laps we got at Homestead Miami.
This is what classic race fans watch @FS1 @NASCAR @HomesteadMiami for.
Absolutely great racing. No manufactured drama.
— Mark Martin (@markmartin) March 23, 2025
And Martin, back in his Cup Series days…was a pro on the 1.5-mile intermediate tracks. Out of his 40 Cup wins, 10 have come on such tracks. And with 56 times finishing in the top 5. So when he says it was a good race, you can take his word for it. And even if you don’t. Look at the race itself. It was literally filled with mystery. Until it was 7 to go you could not predict the winner.
Ryan Blaney led most part of stage 1 while battling Alex Bowman several times for the lead. The #12 eventually took the stage 1 win. Then Carson Hocevar decided to stay out while others pitted, so even he got to lead 4 laps in the race when stage 2 started. But then stage 2 became a battle between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. And while it was clean, the race had its share of dramatic moments. Hamlin was set to win stage 2. But on the final turn, he would have had to leave the top line to lap Cole Custer, while still keeping Larson at bay. But Hamlin showcasing his prowess kept running the top line, winning the stage by inches.
Finally, Bubba Wallace was leading the final stage with Larson on his tail and Blaney trying to catch up. But the #12 blew his engine doing that and was out of the race. By the end of it, Bowman took back the lead from Wallace. But Kyle Larson was coming in hot. He first ran down the #23 and locked on the #48. And Blaney enjoyed the fight. “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.”
All Bowman had to do for the final 7 laps was not get in the fence. But with Larson charging, he probably got a bit intimidated and gave up the lead and the win. Now, that’s the kind of race Mark Martin wants to watch every weekend. Also, what a weekend it’s been for the #5.
Kyle Larson almost gets a sweep
While Larson’s Cup colleagues were prepping for one race, he was prepping for three. Now this is a boon and a bane. Larson got practice to run the track twice before the Cup race. But at the same time, he must have been exhausted entering the Cup race which matters the most to him. But Larson is all for challenges and almost succeeded at all of them. First up was the truck series race. Corey Heim in the #11 was the most dominant truck. And Larson only ever ran 15 truck races before the recent one. Winning just three out of them. And to make matters worse, he spun out in the final stage. But Larson was adamant. He banked on his usual strategy to run as close to the wall as possible. In no time, he was in P3. And to his luck, Heim’s truck shut down. Then Larson took the lead and the win!
Then came the Xfinity Series race. Larson was in the lead with 2 to go. But on the final restart, Sam Mayer got in the back of him and he dropped to P3 with Austin Hill leading and Justin Allgaier in P2. Eventually, Allgaier took the lead and Larson finished the race in P4 as Mayer jumped to 3rd position. And then we all know how the Cup Series race went. And naturally, Larson was pumped after the weekend ended in a success.
In the post-race interview, he said, “It was far from perfect. I gave up almost two spots by getting in the wall too many times. I knew I wasn’t going to get the best restart. I knew I wasn’t good on the short runs. Just had to keep plugging away at what I know and what’s good for me. Proud of myself. Proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work today between damage on pit road, qualifying bad, bad restarts. All that stuff. Just super pumped. One of the coolest wins of my Cup career because of all the heartbreak I’ve had here. The heartbreak yesterday. Just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.”
What do you think about Larson’s performance at the Homestead Miami weekend? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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