Kyle Larson capped off a remarkable weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway by winning Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400, securing his second victory in three days after Friday’s Truck Series triumph.

Despite leading only 19 laps in the 400-mile event, Larson demonstrated his exceptional long-run pace in the closing stages, methodically working his way forward from fourth place with 15 laps remaining to claim his 30th career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

“It was far from perfect. I gave up a spot and a half, almost two spots there by getting in the wall too many times,” Larson admitted after the race. “I knew I wasn’t going to get the best restart there. I knew I wasn’t good on the short runs and just thought if I could hold off [Hamlin] and [Reddick] behind me, I could get ringing the top.”

The decisive moment came with fewer than 10 laps to go when race leader Alex Bowman, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, made a critical error while trying to maintain his advantage. Bowman got too high entering Turn 4 and made contact with the outside wall, opening the door for Larson to blast past on the inside and drive away to a 1.205-second victory.

“Just had to keep plugging away at what I know and what’s good for me,” Larson said. “So just proud of myself, proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work there today between damage on pit road, qualifying bad, bad restarts, all that stuff.”

The win was particularly satisfying for Larson after Saturday’s heartbreak in the Xfinity Series race, where he dominated but lost the lead on a late restart. “One of the coolest wins I think in my Cup career just because of the heartbreak I’ve had here, the heartbreak yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good,” he reflected.

Bowman, who won the pole and showed tremendous speed throughout the afternoon, was devastated after falling short while leading late. “I guess I choked that one away,” Bowman said. “Just burned my stuff up. Saw [Larson] coming, so moved around a little bit… I pulled it off the wall too far right there and ended up hitting the fence pretty bad. I hate that for this Ally No. 48 group. They deserve better than that.”

Bubba Wallace completed the podium in third place after leading inside the final 40 laps before being passed by both Hendrick Motorsports drivers. Chase Briscoe delivered a strong fourth-place result for Joe Gibbs Racing, while teammate Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, and Justin Haley completed the top 10.

William Byron, who still leads the Cup Series points standings by 36 points over new second-place driver Larson, had his promising day derailed by a pit road speeding penalty during the final round of caution flag pit stops. After running in the top five for most of the race, Byron could only recover to 12th position.

Ryan Blaney suffered the most devastating outcome of the day, with a blown engine ending his race after dominating the first two-thirds of the event. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion was credited with a disappointing 36th-place finish, continuing a difficult start to his title defense.

With the win, Larson now sits second in the Cup Series standings, with Hendrick Motorsports drivers occupying the top three positions as Alex Bowman rounds out the trio. The victory also guarantees Larson a spot in the NASCAR playoffs later this season.

The NASCAR Cup Series continues next weekend at Martinsville Speedway for the Cook Out 400 on Sunday, March 30, at 3:00 PM ET on FS1.

Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images