NASCAR NEWS: NASCAR Has Suspended Denny Hamlin Today……..
Kyle Larson passed Alex Bowman with six laps remaining in NASCAR’s Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver the 30th win of his career at one of his best tracks.
Larson, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet, sped by as Bowman scraped the wall on Turn 4 with the lead. Larson extended his edge to more than a second over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, then held on to beat Bowman by 1.205 seconds for his second career Cup Series win at Homestead, and his second victory of the weekend.
Larson fell one race short of sweeping the triple-header weekend. He won the Craftsman Truck race on Friday and finished fourth in the Xfinity Series on Saturday despite leading 132 of 201 laps. He was hoping to join Kyle Busch as the only drivers to sweep a triple-header weekend — Busch did it at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2010 and 2017. Larson will take another shot at a sweep in Bristol next month.
He said he was motivated by Saturday’s result, when a late caution essentially cost him a race he had dominated. It was an all-to-familiar feeling of disappointment at Homestead despite Larson historically driving very well there.
“Proud of myself. Proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty hard work there today,” Larson said. “Super pumped. One of the coolest wins I think in my Cup career just because of all the heartbreak I’ve had here, the heartbreak yesterday. To just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.”
He was far from dominant on Sunday. Larson led just 19 of 267 laps, had to climb from 14th-place starting position and overcame pit road mishaps and bad restarts to pull off the win – his first victory of the season and first in the Cup Series at Homestead since 2022.
“Given past history, I just wanted to take the green flag and kick everybody’s ass today,” Larson said.
“I wanted to get to the lead early and just dominate like I was yesterday.
Then the green flag flew, and it was like the opposite. I was going backwards and getting [mad] in the helmet.
“After 10 laps or so, I forgot about the wanting to kick everybody’s ass all race long. It was like, ‘All right, let’s try to and work hard at this and get a win.'”
Bowman, who was Saturday’s pole winner, finished second in the No. 48 Chevrolet.
Bubba Wallace was third for 23XI Racing after leading 56 laps — the most laps he’s led in a race since September 2023.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
Ryan Blaney was running third when his engine blew up on Lap 207, causing a thick cloud of smoke to cover the track and a lengthy cleanup.
It had been a strong race for Blaney before then.
He led 124 laps and won Stage 1 after starting sixth.
It was the second time in three races that Blaney did not finish a race because of an engine failure with his No. 12 Team Penske Ford.
“It just stinks,” Blaney said. “Led a lot of laps. Lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on pit road but got back to third.
And it was a great race between me, Bubba and Larson.
It was going to be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so but just didn’t really work out for us. We’ll keep our head up.
“It’s one of those things where it’s not really going our way right now, but the good news is we’re bringing fast cars.”
While exiting pit road on Lap 84, Josh Berry’s No. 21 Ford hit the side of Larson’s car, then hit Joey Logan O’s’s No. 22 Ford.
Both Logano and Berry spun then went the wrong direction into their pit stalls to check the damage.
Larson’s car was slightly damaged from the contact.
Drama continued to encompass NASCAR ahead of its championship-deciding season finale as the sanctioning body issued $600,000 in fines and suspended nine team members from three different teams on Tuesday for alleged race manipulation at Martinsville Speedway.
The penalties came down after a contentious final battle Sunday at the Virginia track in which Christopher Bell initially qualified for the championship final four, but his move to hit the wall and use it for momentum violated a banned safety rule and was disallowed.
These team disruptions come in the wake of NASCAR’s disciplinary actions following allegations of race manipulation at a Martinsville event. Key figures within 23XI Racing, including competition director Dave Rogers and Bubba Wallace’s crew chief Bootie Barker, were suspended, presenting a formidable challenge for the team at an important part of the season.
Despite the absence of these colleagues, he still has confidence in the team’s ability to perform.
“I feel like we have good depth, we’ve got great people,” Reddick stated. “Personally, I wish Dave and Bootie were here for sure. But I don’t know, I think Dave does a really good job with his role, Bootie is a great leader of his team.”
Bubba Wallace was at the center of the controversy, and was found to have feigned a flat tire. This action was allegedly designed to assist his teammate, Christopher Bell. The penalties have undeniably altered their morale just ahead of what is 23XI Racing’s inaugural appearance in the Championship 4.
The Championship 4, a climactic drive featuring Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron, was directly influenced by the Martinsville incident. William Byron secured his spot due to Bell’s disqualification.
Bootie’s just an awesome guy to be around, so yeah, you know, I certainly will miss him this weekend. And getting to know Dave over the years, yeah, I like having him around, too. But there’s been weekends we’ve gone to the track and Dave isn’t there.”
Reddick remains focused on the immediate challenge, drawing on Bubba Wallace’s data and displaying a positive outlook as he prepares to compete.
The 28-year-old will be enjoying some well deserved down-time after the 2024 season, and recently shared his NASCAR break plans.
“I don’t know if ‘reflect’ is really the word that comes to mind for me,” Reddick said via NASCAR.com.
“I have plenty of good notes to go back through. We all do. I think at some point we’ll review the season as a whole. But yeah, I think at moments I probably have, but not for long periods of time. I’ve just been doing other things outside of racing that’s taking up all my day.”
“Working on other things outside of racing, catching up on life, honey-do’s, whatever you want to call them,” he added.
“So yeah, once I get all that stuff in a good place, I feel like I’ll be decompressed and ready to get back just focused on racing.”
The two individuals involved are Cordell Cahill, an IT support worker from 23XI Racing, and RJ Otto, who formerly acted as the interim crew chief for Bret Holmes Racing last season but is not part of the current year’s roster. While specific details have not been disclosed, NASCAR’s policy mandates such sanctions when members fail substance checks, aiming to maintain a safe and fair competitive environment.
Reinstatement for Cahill and Otto is contingent upon completing a tailored recovery plan, a common practice that grants crew members a structured path back to the sport, assuming adherence to prescribed rehabilitation steps.
In another NASCAR league, the Craftsman Truck Series noted a minor infraction with Ross Chastain’s vehicle. A loose lug nut led to a $2,500 fine for Phil Gould, crew chief for the No. 45 Niece Motorsports truck.
However, in a more contentious issue, an incident involving drivers Corey LaJoie and Kyle Busch during the same series did not result in penalties, despite the apparent intentional nature of their collision.
Amidst these regulatory actions, NASCAR is preparing for the much-anticipated return of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The event marks a significant shift back to the oval track after
