By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
With several drivers and teams earning wins and no one in particular figured to be the prohibitive favorite, today’s Straight Talk 400 is figured to be wide open.
First Stage
Alex Bowman brings the field to the green flag and leads the first eight laps of the race before Ryan Blaney takes over. Bowman falls to third. Blaney builds his lead to over five seconds over Bowman and Briscoe and drivers enter the pits starting on lap 31. Blaney has finished second the last two years, leading 47 and 53 laps. Blaney pits on lap 34 and Josh Berry rides out front. After the entire field cycles into the pits, Blaney regains the top spot. On lap 70, Christopher Bell spins down the front stretch from the 15th position, bringing out the caution flag. Erik Jones receives the free pass. The running order to the final green flag of the stage is Blaney, Bowman, and William Byron. With five to go, Bowman regains the lead briefly as Blaney regains the top spot. Briscoe and Byron run third and fourth with Larson making a late move. After Stage One, its Blaney, Bowman and Briscoe. Blaney wins Stage One. His second of the 2025 season.
Stage Two
Carson Hocevar, 35th at the end of Stage 1, is the only driver to not pit and takes the lead, but when the flag drops, he sinks to 7th. It’s Bowman, Byron, and Blaney back to the front. Denny Hamlin’s run to a high line takes him from 9th to second and Bowman is now third as Blaney continues to lead. Hocevar continues his unexpected run in the Top Ten and continues in 7th place. The leaders pit on lap 118 including Hocevar who had slid to 9th. Hamlin assumes the lead with Larson and Daniel Suarez 1-2-3. On lap 126 with 40 to go in S2, Hamlin pits and Suarez spins in the pits. The final cars come in and the Las Vegas winner Josh Berry is the new leader. Berry and Logano come into the pits and Blaney cycles to the top spot. Hamlin appears to be here to stay and wins S2 with Larson second and Blaney third. Hocevar is a master at saving his tires and finishes 9th in the Stage. Blaney leads 124 of 166 laps combined in the first two stages.
Final Stage
Drivers figured riding the wall was going to make a difference and pit road would be a challenge. Several drivers had miscues that did not involve speeding. Suarez, Logano and others were all snagged on pit road. Bubba Wallace has gotten stronger as the race moves along and is the leader with Larson, Hamlin, Bowman, and Buescher as your Top 5. Early in the stage, On lap 185, Carson Hocevar experiences alternator problems, causing him to drop from 12th to 18th position in just two laps. He is forced to pit to address the issue. Not long after on lap 207, Ryan Blaney experiences engine failure on the front stretch, losing his third-place position. Its the first time in his career that Blaney has three DNF’s in a row. Wallace leads Bowman by 1.04 seconds with 40 laps to go. There have been only two competition cautions on the day. Bubba Wallace has now led 43 laps, marking his highest lap-leading count in a single race since the Texas event in September 2023.
The Finish Top 7 Leaders- Complete List
Bowman goes around Wallace and with 30 to go, it’s Bowman, Wallace and Briscoe. Larson and Hamlin round out the Top 5. The Top 5 run in the same order with 20 to go.
With ten to go, Bowman leads Larson by 1.08 seconds. Wallace, Briscoe, and Hamlin round out your Top 5. Larson rides the wall as only he can do and the lead is less than .5 seconds and Bowman brushes the wall. Larson goes around Bowman for the lead. Larson schools Bowman, who has not taken the extreme high line. Larson wins with Bowman and Wallace second and third. Larson is the third-winningest Hendrick driver ever behind Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Larson only led 19 laps. The Top four drivers all had their personal best days at Homestead-Miami. Larson avenges past losses with late pass to win.
Tale of the Tape
Checkered Flag – Larson avenges past losses with late pass to win
Kyle Larson only led 19 laps before winning Sunday’s race. He has led plenty of laps at the track over the years. He is considered the best all-around driver in NASCAR. His skill at riding the wall when he has to reminds me of Richard Petty, who could ride the wall and leave everyone in disbelief. Larson said this in pit road.
Q-How were you able to put it on the boards and make it so perfect that last run?
“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.”
In the Mix 1- Bubba Wallace
Wallace led 56 laps and was very classy in his response to both Larson and praising his entire team for their hard work after the race and talked about losing position to Bowman. What was the difference on that final restart and stint? “Yeah, I need to look back (at it), but all-in-all, what a day. Finally got us a good finish! But we need to go back and look at if I burned my stuff up to start there (final stint). I thought I got into a rhythm early, but that was a longer run there so thought our capability fell away. I got into the fence there and that allowed him (Alex Bowman) to get beside me and then just capability from then on wasn’t there. Hate that I messed up, but I came over the radio and said ‘I haven’t been in many situations like that to give away a race so a lot to learn today. I can’t even hang my head over that finish. Proud of the effort in race six. We’ve had fast cars, just nothing to show for it (yet). But, here we are. Got our Columbia Sportswear Toyota Camry XSE a top-three finish, so a good day.”
In the Mix 2- Alex Bowman
Alex Bowman finished second after winning the pole. Bowman led 43 laps on Sunday and outside of Blaney, had arguably the best machine all day. His teammate Larson went high to get the momentum and whether Larson schooled the 48 or not, Bowman took the extreme high line and brushed the wall and Larson went right around him. My mind is on the latter. Bowman had this to say on pit road. “I guess I choked that one away. Just burned my stuff up. Saw the 5 coming, so moved around a little bit. Not when he passed me, but the time before that I hit it hard with the right front and ended up just bending something enough that I lost a lot of right front feel and then I pulled it off the wall too far right there and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad. So I hate that for this Ally 48 group. They deserve better than that. Just a couple of mistakes there. I felt like we were okay all day. That last run was the best we were.”
Ryan Blaney blows an engine… speaks his mind
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Dent Wizard Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DID YOU FEEL INSIDE THE CAR? “I didn’t have any warning. It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front and that was all she wrote. It just stinks. We had a really fast Dent Wizard Ford Mustang. We led a lot of laps. 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.”
They Said It
Larson on his thoughts with ten to go and making the Bowman pass and a possible heartbreak scenario. “That’s what I’m thinking every time in the lead, especially here at Homestead. Yeah, just crazy. I knew me coming towards those guys, they were going to start moving around and making mistakes. I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex, I would hope that he made a mistake. He caught the wall there, and I got by him easier than I expected to.”
Still had to work hard, though.
A stat that might only interest me
From Fox Sports: Penske cars have led the most laps this season and they are 1-2-3 in this category.
This is Chevy’s Second victory of the season. William Byron won at Daytona.
Fires
The Craftsman Truck race drivers and fans were concerned about a forest fire that came close to the track. Fireman were seen draining a pond located on the edge of the track and kept the fire from drifting into the speedway.
Martinsville is Next
The Cup Series moves to Martinsville next week. FS1 will have the action.
Roy J. Akers covers NASCAR for www.skyviewsports. See the Videos, Read the stories daily.
