That is one of the more unlikely ways Kyle Larson has ever won a race.
He spun with 45 laps to go in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway racing Ross Chastain and Layne Riggs for second place behind a dominant Corey Heim.
Larson didn’t hit anything but he would have to restart at the rear of the field. This was actually the culmination of a tremendous battle between the two Cup Series contenders and the reigning Truck Series rookie of the year.
Heim then started to drive away to his second win of the season until 20 laps to go when his engine briefly and suddenly shut off. He lost the lead to Chastain but cycled his power back on and drove back to the lead.
Meanwhile, Larson found some extra speed up against the wall and was suddenly two to four tenths of a second faster than the leaders.
At this point, Heim was losing power every three laps and that eventually allowed Riggs to take the lead. Larson kept closing in and was back to the lead with two laps to go. Riggs was undeterred and threw a slider but couldn’t make it stick and Larson won the race.
Larson made up 22 spots over the final 39 laps.
“I wasn’t exactly sure if I could get back up there,”Larson said afterwards. “I didn’t have the restart I wanted, took a little bit too long to start picking them off and then just got ripping the wall and it paid dividends for me in [turns] one and two.”
He also acknowledged his fortune too.
“Not sure what happened to the 11 [Heim], but that worked out in our favor for sure,” Larson said. “I don’t think I would have gotten to him [otherwise]. Obviously, I would have gotten to second, probably, but that would have been tough to get to him. That last run was a lot of fun.”
What did happen, exactly?
“I feel like we were lights out, the best truck tonight, think we should’ve won the race by six, seven seconds at the end there,” Heim said. “I feel like at the beginning of the runs, I knew what we were capable of and let those guys get away, burn their stuff up and then, fly past them.
“I don’t know exactly what was going on. Never really had an issue like that. I’d be totally fine, and the engine would just hard cut on me. Dash would go black and have no power until I fully cycled it. So, I was coasting for six seconds trying to turn the power switch and turn it back (on). I don’t know.
“Felt I ran a really good race, saving tires and would mow them down on the long runs there. This No. 11 Tundra TRD Pro was really, really good. This just stinks pretty bad.”
On the other hand, Riggs came away from the near-miss in positive spirits.
“I’m sure I’ll probably be more emotional when I go back and watch it but when you’re in the heat of the battle, you’re just so focused on your line just trying to keep all four wheels under you,” Riggs told NASCAR.com. “You see stuff happening. Like, I knew I took the lead, but it’s not like ‘oooo, I took the lead,’ it’s just like, ‘okay, there’s another position. Just got to stay focused to the end’ and I got a little excited there a couple times racing for the lead, and got free and kind of spun my rear tires and got them hot and that definitely hurt us in the end.”
Larson is also entered into this weekend’s Xfinity Series and Cup Series races, looking for a clean sweep.
“I felt like the Truck race was probably going to be the toughest to win, I don’t have much experience in them and the runs are typically shorter. I feel better about Xfinity and Cup but the competition keeps getting tough and tougher as you get on with the weekend, but we’ll see. Off to a good start.”
Ty Majeski led earlier in the race before the below pit road stack up damaged the left front of his truck and resulted in a 11th place finish.
“The 34 (Riggs) didn’t know we were out there,” Majeski told Frontstretch after the race. “Yeah, whoever called it ruined our night. We had a solid top 3 or 4 truck. I felt like at parts of the race, on short runs, we had a race winning car… wish we could have raced it out with those guys.”
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series – Baptist Health 200
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead, Florida
Friday, March 21, 2025
1. (3) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 134.
2. (4) Layne Riggs, Ford, 134.
3. (1) Corey Heim, Toyota, 134.
4. (6) Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, 134.
5. (14) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 134.
6. (7) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 134.
7. (20) Jake Garcia, Ford, 134.
8. (15) Chandler Smith, Ford, 134.
9. (8) Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, 134.
10. (13) Kaden Honeycutt, Chevrolet, 134.
11. (10) Ty Majeski, Ford, 134.
12. (11) Brandon Jones(i), Toyota, 134.
13. (23) Matt Crafton, Ford, 134.
14. (17) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 134.
15. (16) Corey Day(i), Chevrolet, 134.
16. (9) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 134.
17. (2) Tanner Gray, Toyota, 134.
18. (22) Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 134.
19. (19) Connor Mosack #, Chevrolet, 134.
20. (25) Luke Fenhaus, Ford, 134.
21. (26) Jack Wood, Chevrolet, 134.
22. (12) Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 134.
23. (18) Dawson Sutton #, Chevrolet, 134.
24. (29) Frankie Muniz #, Ford, 134.
25. (21) Andres Perez de Lara #, Chevrolet, 134.
26. (27) Toni Breidinger #, Toyota, 133.
27. (28) Nathan Byrd, Chevrolet, 133.28. (32) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 133.
29. (5) Giovanni Ruggiero #, Toyota, 131.
30. (30) Keith McGee, Ford, 130.
31. (34) Michel Disdier, Chevrolet, 128.
32. (31) Akinori Ogata, Toyota, 124.
33. (24) Ben Rhodes, Ford, Suspension, 83.
34. (33) Stephen Mallozzi, Ford, Vibration, 15.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 117.068 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 43 Mins, 1 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.340 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 22 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Heim 1-6;K. Larson(i) 7;C. Heim 8-11;K. Larson(i) 12-28;C. Heim 29-70;R. Chastain(i) 71-87;C. Heim 88-95;R. Chastain(i) 96-103;C. Heim 104-113;L. Riggs 114;R. Chastain(i) 115-122;C. Heim 123-130;L. Riggs 131-132;K. Larson(i) 133-134.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Corey Heim 6 times for 78 laps; Ross Chastain(i) 3 times for 33 laps; Kyle Larson(i) 3 times for 20 laps; Layne Riggs 2 times for 3 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 11,07,34,98,44,18,19,52,45,38
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,07,98,52,45,34,44,19,18,9
