What’s Happening?

For this fine spring weekend, NASCAR headed down south for its annual stop at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. This track has long been a fan favorite and especially shines with the NextGen racecar. Each and every year fans are treated his highly competitive yet close-corner, wall-riding action. It’s a track that requires a different skill set than most intermediates on the schedule, meaning specifically that dirt racers tend to really shine here. And, yes, every time we go to Homestead, all eyes are on Kyle Larson. It’s nominally his best track. But just because he wasn’t going for a clean sweep at the track, you better bet that he would have loved to score his first win of the season here today.

Like with every NASCAR race, there were things to learn and make note of once the checkered flag flew on Lap 267. So, with no further ado, let’s break it down. Here are the 3 key takeaways from the Straight Talk Wireless 400 from Miami.

Things of Note:

• Scoring the pole for today’s race was Hendrick’s “4th guy” Alex Bowman. He was looking for a strong run today to silent some of his unwarranted but very loud haters. Meanwhile, rolling off to his outside was last week’s winner, Josh Berry in the Wood Brothers number 21. On that note, Berry continued to turn heads as he was lightning fast both in practice as well as in qualifying. Noah Gragson, who qualified 3rd, and John Hunter Nemechek, who clocked in at 7th, were some of the underdogs to watch out for today.
• Ryan Blaney dominated this race, sweeping the first two stages. Unfortunately, he suffered his second engine failure of the season (the first one coming at Phoenix). Obviously, Blaney was upset as he was the hands-down favorite all race long. He was credited with a 36th place finish.
• With Blaney out of the equation, Bubba Wallace became the strongest driver in the field. Unfortunately, as the final run went on, his number 23 car faded and he dropped down to 3rd. Still, he continued a very strong start to the 2025 season and led around 60 laps. Not too shabby.

Kyle Larson Rights Some Wrongs

One of the key storylines of this weekend was Kyle Larson’s quest to sweep all three races. With Homestead being Larson’s best track, this feat looked more than doable. On Friday night, he took his first step towards achieving this goal when he won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. He looked to continue the success as he dominated Saturday’s Xfinity race. Unfortunately, the caution came out with only a handful of laps remaining. On the final restart of the race, Sam Mayer jacked Larson’s rear wheels up and he couldn’t go, handing the race over to Justin Allgaier.

Today, Larson was fast. He wasn’t the dominant car. He ran solidly in the top 10 and top 5. But, as the long green flag stretched to end the race wore on, Larson was able to make it up to second behind Alex Bowman. The Hendrick cars decided this race amongst themselves. Today, Kyle Larson did two things: he righted the wrong that was done to him yesterday and he officially ended the streak of winning drivers whose names start with the letter B. This was also Larson’s first win of the 2025 Cup Series season.

Josh Berry’s Vegas Performance Wasn’t Just Luck

For many fans, Josh Berry’s triumph last week in Vegas was viewed as a shock win, despite it being a very popular victory. And that’s understandable. The Wood Brothers have been a back-marker team for a long time. Most recently, Harrison Burton piloted the car for three years and his performance was just abysmal. In 2022, he finished 27th in points. In 2023, he ended the year in 31st in points. He was on track to finish 35th in points last year before lucking up and winning at the fall Daytona race. Burton ended the 2024 season last among the Playoff drivers and without a (Cup) ride for 2025.

Enter Josh Berry. Berry didn’t have a great year last year but look at the circumstances he was in. He Kevin Harvick’s replacement on a dumpster-fire Stewart-Haas Racing team. But even with that, he had some flashes here and there. Now, he’s with the Wood Brothers, which is a more stable organization, and he’s putting his talents behind the wheel on full display. Taking the superspeedway and road course races out of the equation (though he did lead some laps at the superspeedways), Berry has performed very well in that 21 car. At Phoenix, he ran in the top 5 all day and brought it home in 4th. The very next week at Las Vegas, he cashed in and scored his first career Cup Series win.

He rode this wave of momentum into Homestead-Miami where he scored the outside pole during Saturday’s qualifying session. And, in the race, he was solidly in the top 10, finishing 8th in the first stage. An incident on pit road caused him to lose all of his track position. But, as the second stage wore on, he methodically worked his way back up to the 15th position. Through hard work and perseverance, he was back in contention for a top 10 finish despite setbacks on pit road. The Wood Brothers haven’t shown speed like this since Ryan Blaney was behind the wheel…and we all know how his career turned out.

So, no, I don’t think of Berry’s win last week as a “fluke” victory. He straight-up earned it and is showing that he very much so belongs in the NASCAR Cup Series and deserves to be taken seriously. It will be interesting to see how he navigates his early success as the season continues.

Team Penske Has It Diled In Right Now

Historically, Team Penske has been a team that underperforms in the early stages of the season but really turns it up in the Playoffs. So, in that sense, 2025 has been somewhat abnormal for them while also showing a lot of promise. Austin Cindric, who has struggled in the first few years of his Cup Series career, has shown some serious speed this year. He finished 8th in the Daytona 500, has led laps, and even scored a finish of 6th at Las Vegas last week. His results on paper don’t tell the full story of the improvements this team has made thus far in 2025.

The 2023 Champ, Ryan Blaney, has also shown some speed this year. He finished 7th in the Daytona 500 and followed that up with a 4th place finish at Atlanta. Blaney has shown speed in the subsequent races as well, but something always goes wrong to hinder his results. Today at Homestead, Blaney dominated. He swept the stages and led a majority of the laps. He had an issue on pit road during the Stage 2 break which caused him to lose 9 spots on the track. The driver of the number 12 Ford was able to work his way back up to the 3rd position, though.

Unfortunately for Blaney, he suffered his second engine failure of the year with 60 laps remaining. He’s credited with a 36th place finish. However, that does not reflect just how strong he was today.

Even Joey Logano, who has shown some fall-off in recent years and is historically awful during odd-numbered years, has had his moments. The defending champ hasn’t yet scored a top 10 finish but he has led laps and finished 12th at Atlanta. That’s better than how his year last year started off. And really, with the championship format being what it is, that’s all you really have to do. Still, it’s clear that the 22 team thus far is the slower of the three. Maybe this is Logano’s age showing? Who knows? Either way, all three Penske cars have shown speed to start the 2025 season.

Riley Herbst is the Odd Man out at 23XI Racing

Not a hot take, I know. But there is a huge gap in terms of performance between the two of the 23XI cars and the number 35 of Riley Herbst. Sure, on paper, his results this year do not appear that bad. He has a string of 17th-place finishes, a 19th-place finish, and a 37th. By those numbers, his results somewhat mirror those of Bubba Wallace during the team’s first year in the sport. But over the last two years (really ever since Tyler Reddick joined the team), 23XI has become a true championship contender. Heck, last year Tyler Reddick made the Championship 4.

This year, the 45 car has continued to show speed. Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace is currently enjoying the hottest start of his career. He’s led a lot of laps already, including nearly 60 today and he even scored a bonus point for running Xfinity’s fastest lap. Reddick raced in the top 10 all day. But at the same time, their third entry, the 35 Monster Energy Toyota of Riley Herbst, ran in the 30s all day. In fact, that’s where he’s run most of this year, he just was able to luck up and nab a handful of top 20 finishes. Clearly, he’s not performing anywhere near as good as his teammates in the same equipment. That makes him the odd man out at 23XI Racing.

Conclusion

Another race weekend is in the books. What are your thoughts, NASCAR fans? Did you enjoy that one? How did your driver finish? Are you happy with Larson winning the race? Let us know by commenting on all of our socials, such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube!

Be sure to come back here at DailyDownforce.com throughout the incoming week for all the latest news and rumpors straight out of the NASCAR garage!