Kyle Larson is tired of his weekends at Homestead-Miami Speedway ending in disappointment.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver has won a NACAR Cup Series race and Xfinity Series race in his career at the South Florida track, but he mostly just remembers the heartbreaks there.
Last year it was a 13th-place finish in the playoff race. On Saturday, it was a late collapse in the Xfinity Series that cost him a chance of sweeping the weekend.
Larson, who is competing in the Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck races at the 1.5-mile track in Homestead, 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 got off to a good start, rallying from a late-race spinout to pull off a comeback win in the Truck Series on Friday.
In the Xfinity Series on Saturday, it looked like he was on his way to a dominant win. He held a 16-second lead in the race before a late spin by Taylor Gray caused a caution with seven laps to go. On the overtime restart, Sam Mayer's No. 41 Ford made contact with the back of Larson's No. 17 Chevrolet, costing him the win.
"Bummer, again, to have another Homestead race play out that way," Larson said. "I can't go when my rear tires are off the ground. So I know it looks like I choked another one away, but I did everything I thought I could [to win]. The 41 just lagged back and slammed me."
Larson led 132 of 201 laps and finished fourth. It was another disappointing end at one of his best tracks.
Larson has five top-five finishes in 11 Cup starts in his career at Homestead -- two driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He's led the most laps (626) of any active driver, and his 12 stage wins in the Next Gen car is a series best. No other driver has more than five stage wins.
Larson finished fourth in 2021 and won the race in 2022 but left frustrated the past two years.
He was out of the race at Lap 214 in 2023 after slamming into the pit road barriers trying to overtake Ryan Blaney for the lead. Last year, Larson's winning chance ended when he spun while racing Blaney for the lead with under 20 laps to go.
"I feel like every time I go there [to Homestead] you leave disappointed because you feel like you have the best car or truck, and things don't work out," Larson said this week. "Whether it's mistakes on my end or ill-timed cautions combined with a hiccup on pit road, or whatever late in the race, and you end up losing.
"Literally all but maybe two or three races at Homestead I felt like we had the best car, best chance of winning, and we don't have the wins to show for it."
On the pole
Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman won the pole for Sunday's race while driving a No. 48 Toyota that promotes the 3-on-3 women's basketball league Unrivaled, which just wrapped up its inaugural season in Miami.
It's the sixth career pole for Bowman, who was followed by Josh Berry -- the winner at Las Vegas last weekend -- Noah Gragson, Briscoe and William Byron.
Odds and ends Larson (+375) is the Sportsbook favorite, followed by Tyler Reddick (+600). Larson's 1,286 total miles led on the 1.5-mile tracks is almost double that of any other driver. Bell is second with 614. ... Reddick won the race last year, while Hamlin leads active drivers with three wins (2009, '13, '20).
The Associated Press contributed to this story.