Straight Talk Wireless 400

Kyle Larson had a good weekend in Miami as he backed up his truck win on Friday night with a Cup win on Sunday in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. With the win he moves into the third spot with the most wins for Hendrick Motorsports, his 30th win for the organization. He now trails only Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for wins in the company. Bowman held on to second place with Bubba Wallace, Chase Brisco and Denny Hamlin rounding out the top five.

Alex Bowman started the race on the pole with last week’s winner Josh Berry on the outside pole. Bowman led the first nine laps before Ryan Blaney moved into the front spot. The first caution flag flew with ten laps remaining in the first stage when Chrisopher Bell spun out coming out of turn four. Blaney dominated the first stage and held off Bowman after the restart from the caution to win the stage.

Stage two started with Carson Hocevar leading the pack to the green flag on used tires, and Bowman passed him right away. Blaney took the lead back from Bowman on lap 95. Denny Hamlin passed Blaney with four laps to go in the stage and held off a hard charging Kyle Larson for his first stage win of the year.

The final stage started with Kyle Larson up front and he led until Bubba Wallace took the lead with 90 laps left. The first caution of the stage happened when Ryan Blaney had an engine failure after leading for many laps on the day. Alex Bowman got by Wallace with 33 laps to go and held the top spot until he scrapped the wall with 7 laps left, that allowed Larson to get by Bowman for his first win of the year. 

The NASCAR Cup Series visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400. Josh Berry started out in second for the final restart with 19 laps remaining and passed Daniel Suarez with nine laps left to hold on for his first career win and win number 101 for Wood Brothers Racing. Suarez finished second with Ryan Preece, Ross Chastain and William Byron rounding out the top five. 

Austin Cindrick picked up his first stage win of the year in stage one of the race. His teammate Ryan Blaney struggled in the first stage as the pit crew struggled to change the left front tire and lost two laps to the leader. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Brisco lost a left rear tire and was held for a two-lap penalty during the stage.

Stage two started with Alex Bowman making an unscheduled pit stop for a vibration and lost one lap. Ryan Blaney was able to get back on the lead lap when the caution came out for a spin by Shane Van Gisbergen. Kyle Busch brought out the second caution of the stage as his right rear tire came off, allowing Denny Hamlin to get back on the lead lap. The third caution of the stage came out when David Gilliland brushed the wall coming out of turn four. Kyle Larson was strong for the entire second stage and ended up winning the stage over teammate William Byron.

In the final stage, Cody Ware brought out the first caution as he hit the outside wall. The next caution involved two separate incidences as Ricky Stenhouse spun out while Ryan Blaney was squeezed in four wide racing and Eric Jones spun behind him, Stenhouse and Jones were able to continue but Blaney retired his car. Noah Gragson brought out the third caution when he hit the wall, sending him to the garage for repairs. 

Chistopher Bell won his third NASCAR Cup race in a row to continue his hot streak in 2025.  Bell beat his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin with a last lap pass for the second closest Cup finish at the speedway by a slim .049 second margin. On the final restart, Hamlin got a strong push from Kyle Larson to take the lead, but he could not maintain it and had to settle for second place while Larson finished third.

Joe Gibbs Racing finished 1-2 for the first time in 2025. Bell was exited about his fast start and exclaimed “How about that one, race fans? Oh my gosh!” after he celebrated at the finish line in front of the fans. Bell had a dominate car all day as he led a race-high 103 of the 312 laps.

Finishing fourth was Josh Berry and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five, both in Ford Mustangs. Chevrolets finished in the next three positions as Hendrick teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman finished sixth and seventh, followed by Kyle Busch in eighth. Zane Smith finished ninth in his Darkhorse Mustang while Chase Elliott rounded out the top ten, making all four Hendrick teammates finish in the top ten.

Goodyear brought two types of tires for the weekend, the regular tire and a softer compound optional tire. Each team had two sets of red, optional tires and the strategy of when to use them led to some exiting approach during the entire race. “Everything went according to plan at Phoenix, and the option tire worked very well,” according to Mark Keto Goodyear’s NASCAR project manager.

The Cup Series will visit Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube. 

The NASCAR Cup Series made their first visit to a road course this year with their annual stop in Austin Texas at the Circuit of the Americas  for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Tyler Reddick led the field to the green flag while his teammate Bubba Wallace started on the outside pole. As most of the field pitted before the end of stage 1, Wallace stayed out to take the green and white checkered flag. Ryan Preece used the same strategy to win the second stage.

In the end, Christopher Bell made it two in a row for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota as he wins with a clean pass on Kyle Busch with six laps remaining.  After the race, Bell reflected on his battle with Busch “Whenever Kyle was leading, I was just trying to be so cautious. Obviously, we know what happened last year. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted to pass him clean. He was just doing such a good job at running his race, and he could get off the corners just good enough that I couldn’t get inside of him. But there I started peeking a nose, and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front.” Busch faded to finish in fifth place with a worn-out rear tire after leading 43 laps of the race.

William Byron had a strong showing again today after finishing second yesterday in the Xfinity Series race, he followed it up today with another second place finish. Rounding out the top five were Tyler Reddick in third, Chase Elliot overcame a lap one spin to finish fourth and as previously mentioned, Busch was fifth.

The Cup Series travels to Phoenix Raceway next week for the Shriners Children’s 500.

Atlanta Motor Speedway was host of the Ambetter Health 400 race that provided another exciting outcome that everyone anticipated based on last year’s three-wide finish. Christopher Bell came away with his first Cup win of the year for Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Toyota.

Kyle Larson was in first place for the final restart with Bell beside him. Bell was able to move ahead of Larson with the help of a push from Carson Hocevar down the backstretch of the last lap just before the caution flag was displayed, ending the race under caution. Hocevar finished second while Larson was third. In the end, Bell only led one lap, but it was the lap that mattered the most.

The last caution was caused by Josh Berry’s crash behind the leaders. There was a total of eleven cautions on the day after running the entire first stage caution-free. The most significant wreck involved eight cars when Daniel Suarez checked up and was hit from behind by Ty Gibbs. Polesitter Ryan Blaney was involved in an accident with 27 laps remaining that took him out of contention for the win after a solid performance all day.

After the race, both Blaney and Ross Chastain expressed their displeasure with Hocevar for his aggressive driving over the course of the race. Hocevar was able to come from the rear of the field to secure his best career finish.

Bell looks to take momentum from the race win into the next race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, with the running of the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix for the first road course race of the season. William Byron will be looking to defend his win last year at the track.  

The Daytona 500 began with a visit from President Trump as the race time was moved up due to impending rain but that did not prevent having a several hour rain delay early in the race. As usual, the race was marred by several accidents that resulted in most of the field suffering damage to their cars. Probably the most significant incident was when Ryan Preece went airborne with only four laps left but he was able to walk away from the crash.

After the final restart, William Byron was able to avoid another accident to secure his second consecutive Daytona 500 win for Rick Hendrick. Tyler Reddick finished second in his Toyota while Jimmie Johnson had his best finish in years in third.  

 The NASCAR Cup Series visited the historic Bowman Gray Stadium for the first time since 1971 for the Cook Out Clash on February 2. The day was filled with exciting racing, beginning with the Last Chance Qualifier and culminating with the Cook Out Clash on Sunday night.

The Last Chance Qualifier was an action-packed race with several incidents during the 75-lap event. Ty Dillon began the race on the pole and led in the opening before getting caught up in an incident with Zane Smith that brought out a caution.  The two winningest drivers in Bowman Gray history, Tim Brown (100) and Burt Myers (97), thrilled fans with their efforts, but fell short of making the main event.  Kyle Larson, who started in the 10th position, systematically worked his way through the field to secure the victory. Josh Berry worked his way up to finish second to secure his spot in the main event. After fighting hard throughout the race Austin Dillon finished in third and did not move on to the main event. Ryan Blaney had the champions provisional locked up to start the race, so he ran the first 20 laps at the rear of the field and then pulled off the track to prepare for the main event with a clean car.

Chase Elliott started from the pole position for the 200-lap feature event with Chris Buescher on the outside pole. While there was not as much activity in the Clash as there was in the Qualifier, there was still plenty of action that kept the fans on their feet. Elliott dominated the first half of the race, holding the lead for most of the time and only lost it temporarily to Denny Hamlin on lap 97 but retook it a few laps later. After a mid-race break on lap 101, the action picked up with vigorous battles that led to more cautions with Austin Cindric getting into Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace spinning out Brad Keselowski. After a back-and-forth battle with Hamlin, Elliott retook the lead on lap 147 and held off a hard charging Ryan Blaney to take home the Bobby Allison Memorial trophy. Blaney’s strategy of keeping his car free of any damage in the Qualifier paid off big time in the main event as he came from last place to finish runner-up in the Clash, while Hamlin came in third. The win was secured as Elliott was able to get through lapped traffic to secure his first Clash victory of his illustrious career.