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NASCAR: Larson dominates Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead

Posted by AR1 staff

Leading 199 of 267 laps, Kyle Larson beat Ross Chastain by 1.261s to win the Dixie Vodka 400 NASCAR Cup race at Homestead Miami Speedway in dominant fashion.

After being taken out by Bubba Wallace last week in Las Vegas, Larson rebounded this weekend in his #5 Valvoline Chevy for his 3rd win of the season.

Kyle Larson on NBC after winning Sunday’s race at Homestead:

“I hope you fans enjoyed that ass kicking there.”

AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon were 3rd and 4th to give Chevy a 1-2-3-4 finish.

Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-5 in his Roush Ford.

Larson, last year’s Cup Series champ, was eliminated after the postseason’s Round of 12, but his Homestead-Miami victory denied the remaining playoff-eligible drivers an automatic berth in the championship round.

Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 Valvoline Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 23, 2022 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Ross Chastain continued after a late brush of the wall to lead the playoff drivers with a second-place finish, his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet finishing 1.261 seconds behind Larson at the checkered flag. AJ Allmendinger was third with Austin Dillon fourth and Brad Keselowski completing the top five.

Martin Truex Jr. led 28 laps late in a bid for his first win this season, but a late entry into his pit stall prompted a bump from Larson on a Lap 245 cycle of stops. Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota slid backward into its pit stall. He came back to finish sixth, just ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin.

A handful of title-eligible drivers encountered trouble in the 400.5-mile race — a pit-exit spin by Ryan Blaney and a sluggish stop by William Byron, both in the final stage. But first-year playoff driver Chase Briscoe had the biggest drop, finishing last in the 36-car field after a Lap 160 wall crunch with his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

The Cup Series’ next race is the Xfinity 500, scheduled Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. The 500-lapper will determine the four drivers who race for the Cup Series title in the Nov. 6 finale at Phoenix Raceway.

QUOTES

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1

Finished 1st

You led all but 68 laps and for the Miami fans, you finally get a win at one of your best racetracks here at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Kyle, I know this was one you wanted bad. This is sort of reminiscent of last year when you guys were so dominant; maybe the best run you’ve had all year long.

“Yeah, definitely the best run we’ve had all year long. 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 I 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 No. 5 Valvoline Chevy. 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 AJ (Allmendinger) and Ross (Chastain) were racing hard behind me.

Huge thanks to Valvoline, Hendrickcars.com, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, too. I think it was a good day for Chase (Elliott) and William (Byron). But yeah, happy for our team, and we get to go race for an owner’s title in Phoenix in a couple weeks.

We’re still technically not out of it. I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team. We’re going to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”

I have to ask you about the contact on pit road with Martin Truex Jr. What was your view of what happened?

“Yeah, so I was just going behind him. He had a hard left and was hard on the brakes at the same time, and I ran right in the back of him.

My team said he was late turning into his stall, but I don’t know. 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 realize; when you’ve got debris all over your windshield, the sun is shining straight in your face, it’s hard to see your stall. So hate that that happened. He was definitely the one I was going to have to beat. He was really good that last long run, too.

What a fun day. I’ve always wanted to race here during the day at Homestead where we could rip the wall. Finally have a car tough enough for me to be able to run the wall and finish the race. A lot of fun today. Hope you fans enjoyed it, and hope we can do it again in a couple of weeks.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 KUBOTA CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 2nd

What a battle for Ross Chastain. Had a shot at the win and then it was a battle for second place. How would you describe the afternoon?

“Not the way you would have scripted it. I feel like we had a top three or four car all day, all weekend. We were a little too tight in qualifying, and come behind that with a driver that chose the complete wrong lane in (turns) 3 and 4; against everything I’ve ever trained for and prepared for.

We needed to get the car turning better from qualifying into the race. We were too tight. Phil Surgen (crew chief) and his whole Kubota team got it turning better, and pit stops were incredible again.

Our guys were rock stars on pit road, and I’m so glad to go to battle with them.

At the end of the day, I know we didn’t score a ton of stage points. We put ourselves in position at the end and just keep executing.

I almost spun off Turn 2 in front of Daniel, and I had my arms all crossed up and I just took a deep breath down the back, and thought, what can I control here? I can control not spinning out, so let’s go a little slower next time, and had a shot at it.”

Speaking of control, you can’t control what happens at Martinsville. I’m wondering how much comfort +19 is to the cut line going into that cutoff race?

“I don’t know. What’s it supposed to feel like? I’ve never been here, and for AdventHealth, Worldwide Express, Jockey, Moose Fraternity and Kubota, we’ve never been here. For Trackhouse, we’re learning all this together; we’re experiencing this together.

We’ve got a lot of knowledge in our shop and I’ll lean on a lot of teammates, both in the GM camp and inside our shop of how to approach it. But I’m a racer. We’re just going to race. Go practice as well as we can; we’ll go qualify as best we can. And I’m late all the time, so a grandfather clock might do me a little good for the rest of my life.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 ED MORSE AUTOMOTIVE CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 3rd

AJ Allmendinger, finishing third yesterday in the Xfinity race, and another podium day today. You were so good here today. Did it feel that good in the car?

“The short runs it really did. The Ed Morris Automotive Group Chevy was really hooked up on the short runs. We still kind of have to work on our long run package just in general. That’s something that’s kind of been weak for us at Kaulig Racing. But when we got that caution with 18 to go; I was like, all right, we’ve got a shot at this. We lost a couple spots on pit road but restarted eighth, and Ross (Chastain) and I had a fun battle.

I think I needed an 11-lap run to catch Kyle (Larson), but overall just proud of everybody at Kaulig Racing to get the No. 16 Ed Morse Automotive Group Chevy in the top-5 and just have another solid day.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 HUK CAMARO ZL1

Finished 4th

Is there anything more you could have done to this race car?

“I don’t know. We didn’t spend a lot of time right there in that clean air. If we got up there a little earlier, we might have been able to adjust the car and make some changes that probably could have taken us to be able to pass the next couple of cars. There were only three in front of us and at one point in that little run, I thought we were going to run them down. We gained a couple tenths on them.

Our car was pretty tight all day, but we were able to free it up and get better and better. By the end of it, we had a pretty good No. 3 Huk Chevrolet.”

Race Results

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME