22-03-2025
A Late Restart Ended Kyle Larson's Chances of a Three-Race Weekend Sweep, Finally Rewards Justin Allgaier
Kyle Larson was cruising towards his second win of the weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday evening when a caution came out with eight laps to go. As a Cup Series invader of NASCAR's lower series, Larson was attempting to sweep the weekend, winning Friday night in the Craftsman Truck Race, Saturday in the Xfinity Series Race, and in the Cup Series on Sunday.
After dominating the race, leading 132 of the first 198 laps, and lapping everyone up to Larson, he would have to defend the Xfinity series regulars and ultimately have his chance at a weekend sweep placed in danger when Taylor Gray spun with eight laps to go.
.@J_Allgaier comes through in the clutch!!!Homestead-Miami win ✅Dash 4 Cash win ✅Watch the entire overtime and the thrilling finish!
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) March 22, 2025
After being bumped by Sam Mayer on the restart, the Cup Series Champion would finish fourth ending his chance of becoming only the second driver to sweep a three-series NASCAR weekend. Fellow Kyle, Kyle Busch is the only driver to accomplish this feat doing so at Bristol Motor Speedway twice, once in 2010 and again in 2017.
Larson was slow to the restart zone, leading Mayer to mistime his start and get into the Cup Series Champion's bumper. A frustrated Larson wanted to make it clear, after finishing fourth that he didn't choke the win away from himself and blames Mayer's mistimed start for his loss.
"I know it looks like I choked another one away, but I can't go when my tires are off the ground," Larson said. "The No. 41 lagged back and slammed the shit out of me."
This gave Austin Hill an advantage on the restart as the bottom line fell back. Justin Allgaier was 20 seconds behind the leader before the caution had all but kissed his chances of finally winning at Homestead goodbye when the shuffle gave him an opening to race by Hill and take the lead.
Allgaier, coming off a win last weekend at Las Vegas, was nearly as dominant at Phoenix Raceway two weeks ago as Larson was this evening before a late-stage restart burned the defending Xfinity Series Champion. This week, the restart gave what it once took away; Allgaier has been good at the track but doesn't have the finishes to show for it, never recording a top five. He told CW's Kim Coon on Friday that this is one of the tracks that he wants to win the most at because of how many times it's slipped through his fingers.
Over the radio, Allgaier told his crew, "I just wanted to run good at Homestead one time."
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