Kyle Larson faced many challenges on Sunday but managed to secure his 30th victory in his impressive NASCAR Cup Series career. He overtook his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman with just seven laps remaining, winning the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida.
After the final caution period, Larson restarted in fourth place with 55 laps to go. Bowman quickly passed Larson and Denny Hamlin, eventually getting ahead of Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota in his No. 48 Chevrolet with 33 laps to go.
However, as Larson pushed hard in his No. 5 Chevrolet, Bowman hit the wall in Turn 4. This mistake allowed Larson to slip past and finish 1.205 seconds ahead, marking his 30th career win and giving Chevrolet its third victory in the last five races at Homestead.
Larson, who led for 19 laps, is now the third-winningest driver in Hendrick Motorsports history, behind Jeff Gordon (93 wins) and Jimmie Johnson (83). However, he had to work extra hard at Homestead. His car got hit by Josh Berry during a pit-road incident, and he also brushed the outside wall several times while racing around the 1.5-mile track.
“It wasn’t perfect,” Larson, a two-time winner at Homestead who started in 14th place, said. “I hit the wall too many times… I just had to keep pushing with what I know and what works best for me.
“It was a lot of tough work today with damage on pit road, a poor qualifying, and bad restarts. … Keeping my head down and staying focused felt good.”
After finishing second, his best result of the season, Bowman felt he let a chance for his first win of 2025 slip away.
“Yeah, I definitely messed that one up,” said Bowman, who led for 43 laps. “I kind of wore my tires out. … I got too close to the wall in Turn 4 and hit it pretty hard. My team deserved better than that.”
Wallace, Chase Briscoe, and Hamlin finished in the top five. In the 27th Cup race held at the South Florida track, Bowman led 36 other cars at the start, but he later watched Ryan Blaney, Berry, and Larson take over the lead during a caution-free start to the 267-lap race, which was the sixth of the season.
However, with just 10 laps left in Stage 1 and Blaney’s No. 12 Ford in the lead, three-time 2025 winner Christopher Bell spun out while close to the Turn 4 wall. Blaney maintained his lead on the next restart and won his second stage of the season. Bowman, Briscoe, Larson, and Austin Cindric earned the top-five bonus points in the 80-lap segment.
