NASCAR race at Homestead live updates: Kyle Larson completes dominant day with win

LIVE UPDATES FOR THIS EVENT HAVE ENDED. CLICK HERE FOR A RACE RECAP AND ANALYSIS.

NASCAR reporter Alex Zietlow is tasked with passing along live updates from the Cup race today at the famed Homestead-Miami Speedway. He’ll do so in the section below. Refresh this page for the latest news. Full results will be posted after the race.

Unofficial results

Live updates from today’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race

Stage 3

Lap 267: Kyle Larson completes the job. He’s been dominant all day, and he’ll take home the win. No longer a playoff driver, but he’s got a win during the playoffs. Ross Chastain is the best of the playoff drivers on this day in second position.

Lap 261: The harder Chastain and Allmendinger race each other, the further ahead Larson gets. Four Chevys in the top four spots.

Lap 257: Ten laps to go! Kyle Larson’s lead continues to extend, though Ross Chastain and AJ Allmendinger now knocking on the door. Chastain is the one that matters there, given his status in the playoffs at the moment. Neither Larson nor Allmendinger factor into the playoff field.

Lap 252: On the restart, Kyle Larson does get clear of the field and starts to drive away. Denny Hamlin is staying as close as he can, with Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott the immediate chase group.

Lap 246: Martin Truex pits from the lead under yellow, but gets spun out on pit road from behind. He loses a lot of spots as Kyle Larson assumes the top position with 20 to go.

Lap 217: Denny Hamlin has a huge restart! Leads with 50 to go now. Can he sustain this? The cars likely won’t need fuel the rest of the way — but no more pit stops will make for really slick tires.

Lap 212: Ryan Blaney spins coming off pit road on the access road. The No. 12 prompts a caution with 56 laps to go. ... The field then heads down pit road. Kyle Larson was about to enter pit road under green when the caution surfaced, but he was able to redirect and stay on so he could pit under caution. Larson will restart in the second row, behind Truex Jr. and Ross Chastain.

Lap 207: William Byron enters pit road for some adjustments and fuel and four tires. And then disaster strikes! He had to back into his pit stall after the left-front tire needed to be tightened. Joey Logano, Chase Elliott make clean stops on pit road under green. Drivers will likely have to make one last trip down pit road.

Lap 172: Green green green! Larson, Byron, Blaney and Hamlin lingering near the top. Byron with some more speed through Turns 1 and 2 than in previous stages, but that No. 5 car is too fast. Everyone else is racing for second.

Lap 164: Barring any late-race restarts or wrecks from the front, this is Kyle Larson’s to lose. It’s been a pretty clean race thus far: Three cautions and only two (main) leaders through Sunday’s race.

Stage 2

Lap 165: It’s pretty jarring to see Kyle Larson dominate like this in the Next Gen car, which has been lauded for the parity it has created at the Cup level. The No. 5 car wins another stage. He did so under caution after Chase Briscoe’s issues. Martin Truex Jr. ends Stage 2 in P2, and William Byron, who suffered a bit of damage after scraping the wall, finishes Stage 2 in P3. Top 10 (in order): Larson, Truex Jr., Byron, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin.

Lap 162: A lot of smoke coming out of the No. 14 car! Caution out. Chase Briscoe, who already got lapped by Kyle Larson a few laps ago, spun out on a turn and nailed the wall. His car has substantial right-side damage. Car enters pit road to see if the car can be salvaged. (Update: He cannot. What must be repaired to make minimum speed can’t be done on pit road, and thus he heads to the garage. His day is over.)

Lap 123: And we have some pit stops under green. Denny Hamlin has to brake coming off pit road twice to avoid crashing into Landon Cassill and Kyle Larson. John Hunter Nemechek and Christopher Bell haven’t pitted since Lap 83. Bell leads for a lap before eventually pitting. As lead cycles out: Larson, Truex Jr., Byron, Blaney, Keselowski make up Top 5.

Lap 96: Denny Hamlin, running 15th, reports to his team over the radio that he’s tight and that he can’t go. (He uses colorful language to convey the point.) Top 5 at the moment: Larson Byron, Truex Jr., Blaney, Elliott.

Lap 88: Green green green!

Lap 81: Kyle Larson hustles off pit road and will maintain P1 on Stage 2’s restart. Brad Keselowski has a great pit stop and gains three spots off of it. He’s now running in the Top 5. We’ll be going green shortly!

Stage 1

Lap 80: Kyle Larson’s crew chief, in so many words, told his driver to slow down late in Stage 1: “We have 199 more laps in this one.” But Larson doesn’t appear to heed that advice. The No. 5 car takes the Stage 1 win without any sweat, nearly eight seconds ahead of second-place William Byron. Tyler Reddick was battling for second for much of Stage 1, but he appears to lose a lot of tire pressure with five laps to go and nurses his car to a fourth-place finish. The Top 10 in order: Larson, Byron, Martin Truex Jr. (an emergence!), Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.

Lap 63: Kyle Larson is absolutely dominating. The No. 5 car has a six-second lead over the second-placed No. 8 car, hugging the wall with precision.

Lap 49: Larson, Byron, Reddick putting on a display in Homestead. Denny Hamlin dwelling in 18th after a suboptimal stop on pit road during the caution earlier in the stage. NBC reports that the drill that removes the lugnuts, which attaches the wheel to the the car’s axle, temporarily malfunctioned on the No. 11 car’s tire exchange.

Lap 27: John Hunter Nemechek, running fourth, spins off of Turn 2 and a caution comes out. Kyle Larson will be the leader on the restart after passing William Byron. Pretty much all of the field enters pit road under the yellow. Byron wins the race off of pit road, so will be positioned just ahead of Larson on the restart. (Nemechek maintains minimum speed and stays on the lead lap.)

Lap 24: And the field has shaken out. William Byron leads, followed closely behind by Kyle Larson. John Nemechek, Tyler Reddick and AJ Allmendinger round out the Top 5 but are four seconds behind the first two. Ryan Blaney, who’s running P10, on the radio says that he “has no grip” and that he’s tight.

Lap 3: Cars go four-wide off of Turn 2 to begin the race. This one promises to be a free-wheeling deal. Lot of passing opportunities. Byron, Bell, Larson, Nemechek, Elliott running Top 5 early.

Green flag, 2:45 p.m.: Let’s go let’s go!

2:35 p.m.: Engines are fired, and cars have filed onto the track. Homestead-Miami Speedway is a place that rewards drivers who hug the walls and run on the outer line — two things Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick do well. One interesting tidbit from this weekend’s preview: Seven times since the dawn of the playoff era (2004), the winner of the Homestead-Miami Speedway playoff race has also won the NASCAR Cup Series championship, most recelty during a run of five in a row: Kevin Harvick in 2014, Kyle Busch in 2015, Jimmie Johnson in 2016, Martin Truex Jr. in 2017, Logano in 2018 and Busch again in 2019.

2:10 p.m.: Local forecasts show that there is a 1% chance of rain in Miami today and that the temps range in the low 80s come green-flag time.

1:36 p.m.: One interesting point of note: NASCAR’s Cup race is set to start at 2:43 p.m. today on NBC and will be going head-to-head with the Formula 1 race at 3 p.m. today. The F1 event is at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. It can be streamed on ABC.

Other timing notes:

• Invocation: 2:24:20 p.m.
• National Anthem: 2:25:00 p.m.
• Command: 2:33:00 p.m.
• Green Flag: 2:43:00 p.m.
• Average time of race: 3:03:13
• Pit road speed: 45 mph
• Caution vehicle speed: 55 mph
• Fuel window: 65 laps

1:25 p.m.: Playoff points check: Here is how the playoff drivers are faring in the points standings heading into today.

• Joey Logano: 4084 points (clinched spot in Championship 4)
• Ross Chastain: 4063
• Chase Elliott: 4062
• Denny Hamlin: 4051
• William Byron: 4045
• Chase Briscoe: 4042
• Ryan Blaney: 4040
• Christopher Bell: 4028

1:23 p.m.: We’re a little over an hour from the green flag for today’s Cup race. William Byron will start on the pole, followed by Christopher Bell (who’s looking to channel some playoff magic again), Chase Elliott and ... John Hunter Nemechek? Yep. Nemechek is subbing in for Bubba Wallace this weekend in the 45 car as Wallace serves his NASCAR-mandated one-race suspension because of the infamous incident he had with Kyle Larson in Las Vegas. Nemechek is the son of former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Joe Nemechek and has experience competing at the Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series levels.

How to watch Dixie Vodka 400

• Race: Dixie Vodka 400
• Place: Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Date: Sunday, Oct. 23
• Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
• Purse: $7,342,738
• TV: NBC, 1:30 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 400.5 miles (267 laps)
• Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 80, Stage 2 ends on Lap 165, Stage 3 ends on Lap 267

NASCAR race at Homestead starting lineup

The No. 7 (Corey LaJoie) and 38 (Todd Gilliland) cars have been sent to the rear because of unapproved adjustments.

This story was originally published October 23, 2022 at 1:23 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription