After Josh Berry picked up his first career Cup Series win and the 101st for the Wood Brothers organization at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series made the trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the running of the Straight Talk Wireless 400 on Sunday. It was the sixth race of the season and the second straight on a 1.5-mile track.
The first stage was clean and green until Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell - winner of a series-high three races so far this season - spun down the frontstretch on Lap 70 to bring out the first caution. After a six-lap sprint to the stage break, it was Team Penske's Ryan Blaney holding off pole sitter Alex Bowman for the Stage 1 win.
Before Stage 2 even began, Berry, Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson and defending champion Joey Logano got together on pit road, with Berry and Logano spinning into the pit stalls backwards. The second stage would go caution-free with JGR's Denny Hamlin holding off Larson for the Stage 2 win.
The final stage was slowed only once due to Blaney suffering a blown engine for the second time in three weeks. The race ended with a 61-lap green flag run and appeared to be a battle between Wallace and Bowman until the closing laps when a familiar driver made a late charge forward.
NASCAR Cup Series: Who won the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami?
Despite being fourth with 20 laps to go, Larson got around JRG's Chase Briscoe, Wallace and Bowman in the closing laps and pulled away to get the win by 1.2 seconds over Bowman. It is Larson's first win of the season, his second at Homestead-Miami and the 30th of his career.
Full Straight Talk Wireless 400 finishing order and points results
Straight Talk Wireless 400 finishing position | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
Winner | Kyle Larson | 56 |
2nd | Alex Bowman | 49 |
3rd | Bubba Wallace | 41 |
4th | Chase Briscoe | 41 |
5th | Denny Hamlin | 42 |
6th | Chris Buescher | 31 |
7th | AJ Allmendinger | 34 |
8th | Tyler Reddick | 30 |
9th | Ryan Preece | 28 |
10th | Justin Haley | 27 |
11th | Zane Smith | 26 |
12th | William Byron | 37 |
13th | Austin Dillon | 24 |
14th | Joey Logano | 24 |
15th | Erik Jones | 22 |
16th | Noah Gragson | 23 |
17th | Josh Berry | 23 |
18th | Chase Elliott | 22 |
19th | Austin Cindric | 28 |
20th | Michael McDowell | 17 |
21st | Kyle Busch | 16 |
22nd | Daniel Suarez | 15 |
23rd | John Hunter Nemechek | 14 |
24th | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 13 |
25th | Ty Gibbs | 12 |
26th | Brad Keselowski | 11 |
27th | Ty Dillon | 10 |
28th | Cole Custer | 9 |
29th | Christopher Bell | 8 |
30th | Todd Gilliland | 7 |
31st | Ross Chastain | 6 |
32nd | Shane van Gisbergen | 5 |
33rd | Riley Herbst | 4 |
34th | Cody Ware | 3 |
35th | JJ Yeley | 2 |
36th | Ryan Blaney | 19 |
37th | Carson Hocevar | 3 |
The NASCAR Cup Series will shift its focus to half-mile Martinsville Speedway for the running of the Cook Out 400 on Sunday, March 30 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Byron is the defending race winner.