KYLE LARSON – TEAM CHEVY PHOTO
· For the first time this season and 30th time in his career,
Kyle Larson earned a trip to victory lane in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series
– driving his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet to the win in the
Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Taking the green
flag for the series’ sixth points-paying race of the season, Larson
drove his Hendrick Motorsports-prepared Chevrolet to a pair of top-10
stage finishes, going on to lead 19 laps en route to the triumph and an
early ticket into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
· Chevrolet is the first manufacturer to capture a tripleheader
sweep this season, with Larson also capturing the win in Friday’s
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, and fellow Team Chevy driver, Justin
Allgaier, and the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team earning
back-to-back trips to victory lane in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
. Larson won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday,
passing Corey Heim in the closing laps as the Marietta, GA native had
electrical issues with his Tricon Garage Toyota. Pole sitter Heim won
both Stage One & Two, and led 78 laps during the race before finishing 3rd.
. In Saturday’s Xfinity race, Larson led a blistering 132 laps before finishing
4th in an overtime restart. Winston, GA’s Austin Hill claimed a P3 finish,
Sam Mayer finish 2nd, and Justin Allgaier claimed the top podium spot.
· The Cup victory – Chevrolet’s second of the 2025 NASCAR Cup
Series season – is the Bowtie brand’s eighth victory in the division
at Homestead-Miami Speedway to make it a three-way tie on the all-time
wins leaderboard among its manufacturer competitors. Among those
triumphs includes now two wins in four races in the Next Gen era at the
1.5-mile Florida oval, each earned by Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick
Motorsports Chevrolet team.
· Runner-up finisher, Alex Bowman, and the No. 48 Hendrick
Motorsports Chevrolet team put on a stout Saturday performance with the
31-year-old Tucson, Arizona, native becoming the third different driver
to earn Chevrolet a pole position in NASCAR’s top division this
season. The qualifying effort extended Chevrolet’s pole-winning feats
to three-straight, with the Bowtie brand now leading its manufacturer
competitors in pole triumphs with six points-paying races complete.
· The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team showed early
speed, with Larson climbing his way up to a fourth-place finish in Stage
One. Pitting during the stage break for the team’s second scheduled
stop of the race, calamity ensued in the race off pit road between Josh
Berry and Joey Logano, ultimately puncturing a hole in the left-side
rocker of the No. 5 Chevrolet. Despite the damage, Larson remained a
contender throughout much of the remainder of the race before taking the
checkered flag for the first time this season.
· Among the five drivers who collected points in both stages of
the 400-mile race included a trio of Hendrick Motorsports drivers: Kyle
Larson (4th; 2nd), Williams Byron (6th; 4th) and Alex Bowman (2nd; 6th).
Despite facing a pit road speeding penalty with under 60 laps to go,
Byron will maintain the points lead for the fifth consecutive week as
the series heads to the seventh points-paying race of the season at
Martinsville Speedway.
· AJ Allmendinger continued his mile-and-a-half momentum by
piloting his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to back-to-back top-10
finishes – taking the checkered flag in the seventh position.
Completing the Team Chevy top-10 included Spire Motorsports’ Justin
Haley, who collected the No. 7 Chevrolet team’s first top-10 finish of
the season.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 1st
HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO PUT IT ON THE BOARDS AND MAKE IT SO PERFECT THAT
LAST RUN?
“It was far from perfect. I gave up a spot and a half, almost two
spots, by hitting the wall too many times. I knew I wasn’t going to
get the best restart there, and I knew I wasn’t good on the short
runs. I just thought if I could hold off the 11 and the 45 behind me, I
could get to running the top. And the 19 too, but then I got in the
wall, and I let him by. I just had to keep plugging away with what I
know and what’s good for me.
Just proud of myself, proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work
by the team today. Damage on pit road, qualifying bad, bad restarts, all
that stuff. So just super pumped and one of the coolest wins in my Cup
career because of all the heartbreak I have had here, the heartbreak
yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels really
good.”
AS YOU GET THE LEAD THERE WITH ABOUT 10 TO GO, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? NO
CAUTION RIGHT NOW?
“Oh yeah, that is what I am thinking every time I am in the lead,
especially here at Homestead. So yeah, just crazy. I knew with me coming
toward those guys, they were going to start moving around and making
mistakes. I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex (Bowman),
that he would make a mistake. He caught the wall there and I got by him
easier than I expected to. Still had to work hard though. My balance,
once I got in clean air, was really loose, ust like those guys were.
Hats off to the whole team — HendrickCars.com, Chevrolet, Prime,
Valvoline, the whole Hendrick Engine Shop and everybody at the Hendrick
Automotive Group.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 7th
“I can figure out enough lines to make speed and do different things
where certain guys just rip the fence to keep the momentum up. We just
didn’t quite have enough there in the longer run. In general, I was
really happy there. We fought hard, lost a little bit in the second
stage but Trent Owens and the team worked hard to get it back and be
very competitive.”
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 2nd
You possibly hit the wall off of turn four, but that final stretch,
where do you feel like Kyle Larson (race winner) was a little bit
better?
“The No. 5 (Kyle Larson) was way better than us on the long runs all
day and he showed up there at the end. I just tried to push a little too
hard and kind of hung it in the fence there, so that’s on me. I just
didn’t do a good enough job, but congratulations to Kyle Larson and
the No. 5 team on getting the win.”
How would you assess the performance, overall, of this No. 48 team?
“Yeah, it was a good day for the No. 48 Ally Unrivaled League Chevy
team. We have some work to do, for sure. But overall, it was a really
good weekend for us at a racetrack that hasn’t been very good to us in
the past.”