Kyle Larson has long been a threat to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway, dazzling with his high racing line along the outside wall. However, that often came back to bite him in the end as his strong runs were generally undermined by coming up short or being overshadowed by the championship battle during Homestead’s time as the season finale.
While he has been eliminated from the playoffs, he still locked his #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into the NASCAR Cup Series Owner’s Championship Round by leading 199 of 267 laps en route to his first win at Homestead. It is his third victory of 2022 after Fontana and Watkins Glen.
“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” said Larson. “We’ve been capable of it I feel like many weekends, we just haven’t quite put it all together. Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) gave a great speech this morning and got us all ready to go and focused and did my best to keep it out of the wall. I got in the wall a few times but I could still make speed doing that.
“Amazing race car. I knew that that last run was going to be short enough where I was going to be in some sort of trouble there, but thankfully A.J. (Allmendinger) and Ross (Chastain) were racing hard behind me.”
It was not all smooth sailing for Larson as highlighted on lap 246, when Tyler Reddick wrecked to bring out a caution. As they came to pit road, Larson spun Martin Truex Jr., who was leading up to the accident, and caused him to nearly collide with his pit crew. Both drivers shared responsibility for the incident.
“My team said he was late turning into his stall, but I don’t know,” explained Larson. “If it was my fault, I’m sorry. I don’t think it was, but it’s hard to see down this pit road. I don’t know if fans and people realise when you’ve got debris all over your windshield, the sun is shining straight in your face, it’s hard to see your stall.”
Truex concurred on the sunlight’s glare reducing visibility, saying “it was definitely a little bit of both of that. It was really hard to see through these windshields right now with the sun like that and all the stuff covering it. I did see my box late for sure, so I slowed down before I turned out of the way of the #5 there. Obviously, partly on me. I didn’t expect to get turned around. Glad nobody got hurt there.”
He is the fifth driver out of title contention to win in the 2022 playoffs, joining Erik Jones (Darlington), Bubba Wallace (Kansas), Chris Buescher (Bristol), and Tyler Reddick (Texas). Larson and Reddick had qualified for the postseason before being eliminated in the previous round, while his and Wallace’s victories assist their cars in the owner points.
Chastain’s runner-up puts him in prime position to make the final round even if he does not win the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville. Conversely, Chase Briscoe crashed on lap 160 and finished last, leaving him at the bottom of the playoff standings and essentially needing a victory to advance.
“The driver just made a mistake. I was really, really loose that run, We were really tight every other run,” Briscoe explained. “That green-flag run, we tried to get really free on the other side of it and just started taking really hard. I was hanging on with everything I had. It felt like I was on ice. Honestly, I wasn’t even running hard. I was trying to just get to the caution. We kept getting freer. I got sideways and had the wheel all the way to the right and ended up head-on into the wall. It is really frustrating to have it be something of my own doing. I am better than to be crashing by myself.
“It is really unfortunate. It makes our job easier next week I guess. We don’t have to worry about points. We got to go to Martinsville and win.”
Allmendinger finished third for his best finish on an oval since a runner-up at Martinsville in 2012. He previously finished fifth at Homestead in 2010.
With Wallace serving a one-race suspension for wrecking Larson at Las Vegas, John Hunter Nemechek filled in the #45 23XI Racing Toyota. After qualifying an impressive fourth, he finished twenty-seventh in his first Cup race since 2020.
Race results
| Finish | Start | Number | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Status |
| 1 | 5 | 5 | Kyle Larson^ | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 2 | 20 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 3 | 10 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger* | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 4 | 32 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 5 | 9 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 6 | 12 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 7 | 14 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 8 | 16 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 9 | 11 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 10 | 23 | 99 | Daniel Suárez | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 11 | 2 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 12 | 1 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 13 | 8 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 14 | 3 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 15 | 27 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 16 | 18 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 17 | 13 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 18 | 17 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 19 | 26 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 20 | 21 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 21 | 28 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 22 | 6 | 23 | Ty Gibbs* | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 23 | 31 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 24 | 25 | 41 | Cole Custer | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 266 | Running |
| 25 | 24 | 48 | Noah Gragson* | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 26 | 30 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Petty GMS Motorsports | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 27 | 4 | 45 | John Hunter Nemechek* | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 266 | Running |
| 28 | 15 | 31 | Justin Haley | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 29 | 33 | 77 | Landon Cassill* | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 30 | 22 | 43 | Erik Jones | Petty GMS Motorsports | Chevrolet | 264 | Running |
| 31 | 29 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 264 | Running |
| 32 | 34 | 15 | J.J. Yeley* | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 263 | Running |
| 33 | 35 | 78 | B.J. McLeod* | Live Fast Motorsports | Ford | 262 | Running |
| 34 | 36 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 262 | Running |
| 35 | 7 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 242 | Accident |
| 36 | 19 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 160 | Accident |
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points