Kyle Larson wins Cup Race at Homestead-Miami

Kyle Larson, the defending series champion, collected his third win of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday. While he was eliminated after the Round of 12, his car will still be competing for the owner’s championship.

On his way to the win, he bumped into Martin Truex Jr on pit road during the final caution of the race, sending the then-leader spinning.

“I was just going behind him and he had a hard left and was hard on the brakes at the same time and I ran right into the back of him. If it was my fault, I’m sorry. I don’t think it was,” Larson said after the race.

Truex Jr did point out that the way the sun was setting in the closing laps of the race, it made it more difficult to see out of turn one.

“I did see my box late for sure,” Truex said. “So when I slowed before I turned out of the way [Larson] there. So obviously partly on me, I didn’t expect to get turned around. I’m glad nobody got hurt there.”

The 2017 Champion still remains winless with two races left in the season and already missed out on making the playoffs. For Larson, he led 199 of the race’s 267 laps while teammate William Byron only led 33 laps.

Ross Chastain finished in second, putting him in a good position based on points to help him advance to the Championship 4. AJ Allmendinger, who will return to full-time cup racing next season, ended up in third, and Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five. Martin Truex Jr was able to recover to finish in sixth, Denny Hamlin finished seventh, and Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top 10.

John Hunter Nemechek made his first Cup Series start since 2020 as he was a substitute driver in the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, filling in for Bubba Wallace who was serving a one-race suspension after a wreck with Kyle Larson last week. Nemechek looked fast early but spun during the race’s first caution and ended up finishing 27th.

Joey Logano remains the only driver truly locked into the Championship 4 with his win last week at Las Vegas. Ross Chastain is 19 points to the good in second, regular season champion Chase Elliott is third being 11 points to the good, and William Byron currently holds the final spot just five points above the cutline. Denny Hamlin is fifth sitting just five points out, Ryan Blaney is 18 points out and still winless on the season in sixth, Christopher Bell is 33 points out and Chase Briscoe is 44 points out, both in a must-win situation going into Martinsville.

The NASCAR Cup Series goes to the famous paperclip, Martinsville Speedway, for the second to last race of the 2022 Season and will be the race that decides who moves on to race for a championship at Phoenix. Alex Bowman won the race a year ago. Green flag at 2:00 pm est.