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Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Dixie Vodka 400 in dominant fashion, leading 199 of 267 laps of the race around Homestead-Miami Speedway.
This is the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s third win in this season, which included a sweep of the three stages.
This time, the 2021 Cup Series champion was involved in a pit lane incident with Martin Truex Jnr during the race’s final Caution while running second to the #19 Toyota.
Truex missed his pit stall, with Larson subsequently bumping into him and sending the Joe Gibbs Racing driver into his pit stall backwards.
Larson came out of the Caution unscathed and went on to take the chequered flag, but Truex missed out on a top five finish.
“Yeah, definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” said the victor.
“We’ve been capable of it I feel like many weekends, we just haven’t quite put it all together.
“Cliff [Daniels, crew chief] gave a great speech this morning and got us all ready to go and focused and did my best to keep it out of the wall.
I got in the wall a few times but I could still make speed doing that.”
“We get to race for an owner’s title in Phoenix in a couple weeks,” added Larson.
“I know I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team, so we’re going to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”
Ross Chastain led the Playoff drivers in the race, finishing in second place, AJ Allmendinger had a third place finish, with Austin Dillion and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five.
A handful of Playoff drivers vying for a spot in the Round of 4 encountered some trouble in Miami including first-year Playoff contender Chase Briscoe, finishing late in Stage 2 on Lap 160 after crunching his #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford into the wall.
A pit exit spin by Ryan Blaney and a slow pit stop for William Byron, both in the final stage, sees their focus also point to Martinsville in a must-win situation. Only Team Penske’s Joey Logano currently has secured his spot for Phoenix.
The next NASCAR race lines up in Martinsville Speedway, Virginia next week for the Xfinity 500 schedule at 14:00 Sunday local time/05:00 Monday AEDT.
The 500-lapper will determine the four title contenders moving forward into the November 6 finale at Phoenix Raceway to see who is crowned the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Champion.
