HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson held off Ross Chastain to cap a dominant showing in the second-to-last race of the NASCAR season at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, after leading 199 of the 267 laps over the 1-1/2 mile course.
His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 1.261 seconds.
AJ Allmendinger was third and Austin Dillon fourth, as Chevrolets took the top four spots.
It was Larson’s third win of the season and his first at Homestead.
There were five caution periods for a total of 30 laps. Twenty-three of the 36 drivers in the Dixie Vodka 400 finished on the lead lap.
Larson was the winner of both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the race.
SHR Race Finish:
- Kevin Harvick (Started 16th, Finished 8th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
- Aric Almirola (Started 28th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
- Cole Custer (Started 25th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 266 of 267 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 19th, Finished 36th / Accident, completed 160 of 267 laps)
SHR Points:
- Chase Briscoe (8th with 4,043 points, 44 points below Championship 4 cutoff)
- Kevin Harvick (16th with 2,064 points)
- Aric Almirola (19th with 720 points)
- Cole Custer (26th with 530 points)
Playoff Standings (with one race to go before Championship 4):
- Joey Logano (4,106 points) 1 win
- Ross Chastain (4,101 points) +19
- Chase Elliott (4,093 points) +11
- William Byron (4,087 points) +5
- Denny Hamlin (4,082 points) -5
- Ryan Blaney (4,069 points) -18
- Christopher Bell (4,054 points) -33
- Chase Briscoe (4,043 points) -44
“The driver just made a mistake. I was really, really loose that run. We were really tight every other run,” said Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang. “That green-flag run, we tried to get really free on the other side of it. I was hanging on with everything I had. It was extremely loose. It felt like I was on ice, honestly. I wasn’t even running hard, I was trying to just get to the caution. We kept getting freer. I got sideways and had the wheel all the way to the right and ended up head-on into the wall. It’s really frustrating to have it be something of my own doing. I’m better than to be crashing by myself. It’s really unfortunate. It makes our job easier next week, I guess. We don’t have to worry about points. We’ve got to go to Martinsville and win.”
Harvick earned his 16th top-10 of the season and his 19th top-10 in 22 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Homestead.
Harvick’s 19 top-10s at Homestead are the most among all NASCAR Cup Series drivers, past and present. The active Cup Series drivers closest to Harvick in top-10s at Homestead are Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin with 12 apiece. Truex finished sixth today and Hamlin came home seventh. Each still needs one more top-10 to tie the driver with the second-most top-10s at Homestead – Jeff Gordon, who has 13.
This was Harvick’s second straight top-10 at Homestead. He finished fifth in last year’s race.
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Xfinity 500 on Sunday, Oct. 30 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It is the penultimate race of the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs and the final race in the Round of 8. The Xfinity 500 starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
