HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Kyle Larson found his way into NASCAR’s headlines for a second consecutive week. This time, for a much more pleasant reason.
Larson held off Ross Chastain to cap a dominant showing in the second-to-last race of the NASCAR season at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, after leading 199 of the 267 laps over the 1-1/2 mile course.
It was Larson’s third win of the season and came a week after the reigning Cup champion — who was eliminated earlier in this year’s playoffs — was intentionally spun by Bubba Wallace in an act of retaliation at Las Vegas.
On Sunday, the suspended Wallace was watching. Larson, meanwhile, was winning.
“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” Larson said.
AJ Allmendinger was third and Austin Dillon fourth, as Chevrolets took the top four spots.
Even though Larson can’t win the title, his Hendrick Motorsports team still can — very much in the mix for an owners’ championship.
The four-car field for the title race will be decided next week in Martinsville, with seven drivers heading there to compete for three remaining spots. Only Joey Logano, through his win at Las Vegas last week, has his berth clinched.
Expect chaos.
“Track position’s going to be so huge,” Denny Hamlin said. “You’re going to see aggressive driving.”
Hamlin is on the wrong side of the cutline going into Martinsville. Chastain is second, Chase Elliott is third and William Byron — the polesitter for Sunday — is fourth.
Hamlin is five points back of Byron, followed by Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in eighth.
Among the playoff drivers, after runner-up Chastain, Hamlin was seventh, Bell 11th, Byron 12th, Elliott 14th, Blaney 17th, Logano 18th and Briscoe 36th in the 36-car field.
Briscoe — a past winner at Homestead in the trucks and Xfinity series — came into Sunday looking for a big showing that would help his playoff hopes, or even a victory that would clinch his spot in the winner-take-all finale.
He didn’t make it out of Stage 2. Briscoe completed only 160 laps, going into the wall and damaging his car beyond repair.
“It’s broke bad,” Briscoe said into his radio, as white smoke billowed from the back of his Ford. His title chances are badly damaged now as well, and his only path toward making the winner-take-all finale in Phoenix is to win next week at Martinsville.
He blamed himself. Driver's mistake, he said.
“It’s like I hit ice,” Briscoe said. “Frustrating. I think that’s the first time I ever just crashed by myself. Embarrassing on that side. Of all the times for it to happen, that’s not when we needed it to happen. We know what we need to do next week now.”
NO SMOKE
NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart was originally slated to serve as grand marshal for the race. Plans changed, and country singer Kip Moore — who performed a pre-race concert — wound up giving the “Drivers, start your engines" command instead.
NEXT YEAR
Homestead occupies the same spot on the 2023 NASCAR schedule — second-to-last, just before Martinsville and the title race in Phoenix.
UP NEXT
NASCAR’s next-to-last race of the season is at Martinsville, with the final playoff spots up for grabs before the finale at Phoenix. Byron held off Logano in overtime to win at Martinsville back in early April.
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