Kyle Larson demonstrated his pace ahead of Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead by qualifying second. (Photo: Ricky Martinez | The Podium Finish)
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson is typically one of the pre-race favorites at most NASCAR Cup Series venues like Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Like Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from the Top Gun franchise, Larson knows how to navigate the danger zone during the heat of the battle. In this case, Larson deftly navigates the high line, near the walls of Homestead, with his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
“For myself, the advantage of running the wall is I can go really fast and I can also save my tires a lot better up there,” Larson said during his media bullpen on Saturday. “There’s less of a disadvantage now with the Next Gen car just cause the bodies are so tough where before if you sniffed the wall, you at least knew your aerodynamics were going to be way worse and most times, you’d have to pit for a flat tire.
“Now, you can scrape the wall often and be OK. You still don’t want to do that. For me, running the wall is good but that’s typically when I’m at the front. If you are at mid pack and everybody’s running the wall, then it’d be tough. Hopefully, we stay up front.”
Larson completed one of those objectives by qualifying second for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90). With a car that has competitive long run pace, the 2021 Cup champions is considered one of the masters of this 1.5-mile intermediate track.
Before Homestead-Miami Speedway moves to a spring race date in 2025, it hosts a Round of 8 race this weekend. Despite being one of the most proficient racers at this progressive banked track, he prefers when it hosts a date in the Playoffs.
“We’ve run really well here. I’d love to see it in the Playoffs,” Larson mused. “As a championship race, it’d be great. But if not, I think the Round of 8 is great for us selfishly. As far as atmosphere, it’s obviously way better when it’s the championship race. This is the first time I’ve had my motorhome here since 2019. Even the motorhome lot is empty compared to back then.
“The atmosphere is nicer.You can take the championship race any track and the atmosphere would be better. Something about the last race here was always fun. When we ran here in the spring in 2021, I don’t remember exactly how it felt but it didn’t as feel as special as even as this race does. We’d like to see it back in the Playoffs but I know it doesn’t matter what I think.”
Last year, Larson was in contention to win at Homestead before he wrecked into the barrier at pit road entry on Lap 213. Instead of potentially scoring his fifth win of the season, he wound up placing 34th.
Kyle Larson was proud of his team’s resiliency but wants to maximize on points moving forward with Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo: Ricky Martinez | The Podium Finish)
Prior to this weekend’s activities at Homestead, Larson encountered more adversities last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Starting fifth, Larson dropped to a 10th place finish in Stage 1 when he finished on scuff tires while the top 10 had fresher tires before some damage to the front clip and pit road blunders sent him down the scoring order.
Emerging from Las Vegas with an 11th place finish, Larson minimized the points loss but lamented on the possibilities at a track where he captured two victories in the past four races.
“It was a tough race but it’s also a confidence booster in that our team can having something tough come up. That was a nice,” he observed. “I feel like we left a ton of points on the table there with the end of the first stage not going well and the second stage going how it went and then overcoming to get 11th in the final stage, I feel like we left out 20 points or so potentially. That’s a bummer, but it could’ve been a lot worse. So, I was proud that we all kept our heads down.”
A racer like Larson may not enjoy or flock to the team simulator to prepare for race weekends like Homestead. Like those who prefer the great outdoors to workout rather than the gym, Larson attributes his preparation with the genuine experiences in the driver’s seat to thrive on race day, although it helped with his sixth win of 2024.
“Everybody prepares differently. Throughout my career, I haven’t really felt like the sim, most times, correlates well to what I feel in my butt and hands,” Larson explained. “So that’s why I don’t use it often but at the ROVAL, I used it and I felt like it really helped me and it helped us get our car a little bit better and helped me get into a rhythm quicker.
“We had a great weekend. We qualified well, we had a smooth race and pretty much dominated the race.”
For those wondering why Larson may not jump into the simulator for Homestead or the remaining races of the season, he prefers the experiences of being in the actual car than the simulated environment.
“I think there’s times, for me, it can help, but there’s also times where I just know that it’s probably going to do more damage,” Larson quipped. “And that’s not got nothing to do with the sim. It’s just kind of the way with the feel is for me.”
