NASCAR Homestead-Miami reaction: Why Ty Gibbs is struggling
Larson ran down teammate Alex Bowman to take the lead with seven laps to go and pulled away to win the Straight Talk Wireless 400 NASCAR Cup Series race.
Bowman had taken the lead from Bubba Wallace with less than 30 laps to go and had a fairly sizeable lead over the other frontrunners. But Larson's long-run speed won out at the end, especially as Bowman brushed the wall off of Turn 4 on Lap 260 to allow Larson by for the top spot.
Hendrick Motorsports has had a very strong start to the 2025 season. All four Hendrick drivers finished in the top 10 in each of the last two races, and Larson and Bowman posted a 1-2 finish on Sunday.
Here are the winners and losers for Sunday's NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami:
HOMESTEAD RESULTS: Kyle Larson is winner, plus full leaderboard
Preece surged in the final run to finish 9th on Sunday, his second straight top-10 finish after getting third at Las Vegas.
That has to be encouraging for Preece and RFK Racing in the first year of a partnership as the shop's third Cup Series team.
Up next? Martinsville, a track that Preece has run well at over the last two seasons.
Wallace may be a bit frustrated not to win after leading for a good chunk of the final stage, but the overall result is very important for the driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota.
Despite not having the results through five races, Wallace has done well in collecting stage points to temper any late-race issues.
Wallace has now led in four of six races to begin the season, and a rather calm third-place finish is a day well done for the team.
Practice data on Saturday showed Gibbs running times similar to contenders Kyle Larson and William Byron on long-run speed.
That was not the case on Sunday. Gibbs was not a factor again on Sunday, finishing 25th. It's his fifth straight finish outside of the top 20 this season.
Gibbs is struggling in his age-22 season, which is perfectly normal for most drivers. But the pressure will be on Gibbs to turn this season around. We know Joe Gibbs Racing's Toyotas have speed. Can Gibbs find it?
Keselowski is another driver whose presence in this space is as much about the start of the season overall as a middling finish on Sunday.
If you watched or attended Sunday's race and barely noticed the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, no one could blame you. Keselowski spent most of the day well off the leaders, with an average running position of 25th before finishing 26th. In fact, the most attention Keselowski got all day was as the slower car getting lapped on the bottom lane as Larson and Bowman raced for the lead in the final laps.
It's the fourth finish outside top 20 in six races in 2025 for the former Cup Series champion, whose overall slump dates back to a mediocre finish to 2024 in which he was never a true championship contender in the postseason.
Teammates Ryan Preece (a top-5 last week at Las Vegas) and Chris Buescher (top-10 in points) have been fine to start the season, though not necessarily in contention. Keselowski has neither been fine nor in contention in 2025, including on Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Homestead-Miami reaction: Bubba Wallace surges while Ty Gibbs struggles
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