Kyle Larson “super pumped” with Miami Cup Series win after Xfinity heartbreak

Kyle Larson was “super pumped” to cap off NASCAR’s Miami weekend with a Cup Series victory after a late heartbreak in the Xfinity race.

Larson was on course to take a brilliant win in the Xfinity event at Homestead-Miami on Saturday, only for Sam Mayer to turn him around at the restart as the race went into overtime.

He eventually took the chequered flag in fourth, having led 132 out of 201 laps.

But the Hendrick Motorsport driver bounced back in the flagship Cup Series race on Sunday, passing polesitter Alex Bowman with six laps remaining to win by 1.2s.

It was Larson’s first Cup Series victory of the year and 30th overall, propelling him from sixth in the championship to second overall, 36 points behind his teammate William Byron.

The 32-year-old revealed that he had several close moments with the wall at the 1.5-mile speedway, but ultimately described the race as one of his “coolest wins”.

“It was far from perfect. I gave up a spot and a half, almost two spots there by getting in the wall too many times,” he said.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get the best restart there. I knew I wasn’t good on the short runs and just thought if I could hold off the 11 and the 45 behind me, you know, I could get Rheem in the top and the 19 too. Then I got in the wall and let him by.

“Just kind of had to keep plugging away at what I know and what’s good for me. So just proud of myself, proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work there today between damage on pit road, you know, qualifying bad, bad restarts, all that stuff.
Just super pumped.

“One of the coolest wins I think in my Cup career just because of the heartbreak I’ve had here, the heartbreak yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.”

Larson was attempting to become only the second driver in NASCAR’s history to complete a tripleheader sweep, which involves winning the Truck, Xfinity and Cup Series races on the same weekend.

The Californian made the perfect start to the weekend in the Trucks Series race on Friday, pulling off an impressive recovery drive to take victory in the #7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

Sunday’s result in the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet brought double delight for Larson, but bad luck in the Xfinity race prevented him from making it three in a row.

Asked if it stings to miss out on a tripleheader sweep due to no fault of his own, he said: “Maybe as I go home tonight and lay down and think about the week more.

“But honestly, right now I don’t think about it at all. I wasn’t thinking about that as I took the lead, anything like that.

“I was pretty disappointed all of the time after the race on Saturday, but I woke up this morning feeling for the most part fine. Motivated, but fine. Kind of over the finish of yesterday.

“Yeah, I’m sure when I lay down tonight, I’ll probably think about it. But I’m just happy to get a Cup Series win. They’re so tough to get.”

Larson will again attempt the three-race sweep at the Bristol Motor Speedway in April.

Kyle Busch remains the only driver to achieve the feat, having won all three national races at Bristol in 2010 and again in ‘17.