After a dominant day from Ryan Blaney, it was Hendrick Motorsports leading the charge at the end of the NASCAR race. A late pass with roughly 30-laps to go over Bubba Wallace seemed to put Alex Bowman in a guaranteed win. Disappointingly for the 48 team, teammate Kyle Larson took the lead with less than ten to go thanks to a late charge and held on for the victory.
Larson was trying to be the first driver since 2017, and second driver ever to sweep a weekend (Kyle Busch at Bristol in 2010 and 2017), but fell short thanks to a loss on Saturday, giving “Yung Money” a two-out-of-three weekend.
The victory is also Laron’s 30th career win.
Stage Winners and Xfinity Fastest Lap
Ryan Blaney won stage one, while a fast Denny Hamlin took the stage two victory over Larson. Not surprisingly, Wallace earned the Xfinity fastest lap point on lap 218.
Final Results from Homestead-Miami
Top Three Storylines
Below are three notable storylines from the weekend’s action.
Bubba Wallace & Toyota
It’s safe to say that Wallaces has been the number two driver at 23XI since Tyler Reddick joined the team. This season, the Alabama native has been put on the spot, and so far has delivered. The number 23 Toyota currently sits seventh in Cup points, only three spots behind Reddick. While he did not gain the win this weekend, Wallace’s recent run’s at 1.5-miles puts good faith in him to possibly earn a win this season.
In the grander scheme of things, Toyota’s day was great. A stage win and five drivers in the top 15 for the manufacturer has helped put a solid list of Camrys within striking distance of the Hendrick Chevys for the top spot in the regular season title.
Team Penske
Obviously Blaney’s engine blowing up would not put the team on the list of terrible performances, but something has to give. The early portion of the season has been terrible for the Penske blue ovals. Understandably there is no need to worry, especially when a back-to-back-to-back champions banner hangs in the team’s shop. Hendrick is having a dominant season, Toyota has figured out how to put great runs together, but Penske seems to not have an answer for Cindric or Logano.
While each driver was involved in an accident or mishap, maybe Lady Luck needs to find her way over to the Roger Penske Mustangs. The driver that needs the most luck is Ryan Blaney. The 12 driver went six years without blowing an engine, but has now blown two engines in three weeks.
Trackhouse Racing
The “home” track for Ross Chastain treated he and his teammates poorly this weekend. NASCAR’s season on 1.5-mile ovals has started and Trackhouse seemed to have an answer last week about how well they can perform on the cookie cutter style tracks. It seems though that consistency does not travel for the team, and it showed. While Shane Van Gisbergen has not been expected to win on ovals, he is needing a good run somewhere to make himself a serious contender for a title.
