HOMESTEAD, Fla.—When it came to mastering Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kyle Larson showed his proficiency early on.
Ultimately, he proved that riding the wall is the fastest way around the 1.5-mile track.
And while some drivers wouldn’t dare to flirt with the high line, Larson has no such reservations.
“For me, it’s important,” Larson said. “It seems to be how I’ve figured out how to go fast here. You have to be comfortable against the wall, and I know there’s a lot of drivers that aren’t that comfortable against it. So that gives guys like myself and (Tyler) Reddick an advantage when we come here.”
Larson is the defending winner of the 4EVER 400. He started fifth and led 199 laps en route to the win. With the exception of 2019, when Larson’s engine failed, he has never finished worse than 15th in a Cup car at Homestead. On Sunday, he’ll roll off fifth.
In 2012, while driving a truck for Steve Turner, Larson made his debut at the South Florida track four races into his NASCAR career. He started on the front row and led 48 laps before crashing with nine to go.
But a tip from Kyle Busch would change his approach to Homestead forever.
“We had a really good race and led some of it,” Larson said. “I got to battle with Kyle Busch for a while. I was running fairly high, and then he passed me and stuck his hand out the window and told me to get higher, so I just started running as high as I could. There were points in the corner where I’d get really close to the wall, and once you do that a few times, you can feel the effect that the right side of the car has against the wall.
“So then over time, you start pushing it—entering higher and you start getting to the wall at an earlier point in the corner and eventually you just end up running up next to the wall the whole lap. I watched a little bit of my first Xfinity race I ran here in 2013 last night, and just seeing the difference of how I ran back then—even back then, I cheated the entry some and would slide up to the wall. I think just as years go on, like I said, you just get more comfortable entering higher.”
Despite finishing 27th in his first truck race, over three NCTS starts Larson led 220 laps and posted an average finish of 11th. He’s completed every lap in his four Xfinity starts, led 306 laps on that tour, won in 2015 and enjoys an average finish of 3.3.
Larson says there’s a process to improving the pace.
“Obviously they’re reading lap times off to you and you can feel it, too,” Larson said. But when you read a lap time off that’s two-tenths better than the lap before, you know that it was faster, so you just keep pushing it. Obviously, I’ve hit the wall here a lot, but to get comfortable, you have to make those mistakes.”
Denny Hamlin has raced against Larson at Homestead since 2013. He believes the driver’s record of success at the track stems from Larson’s willingness to take a few more risks than the average racer.
“I’ve had some wins here, (and at) Darlington and other tracks where you run the wall,” Hamlin said. “I think I’m better than average, but not at the level that Kyle and those guys are. They’re willing to take a greater level of risk than I am. It depends on the scenario as well. When you’re going down to the end of the race and need some spots, you’re willing to push it a little bit more.
“I just manage risk a little differently. I’m not willing to fight for that little extra inch there to gain a small bit more lap time. If I can gain that somewhere else, I’ll do that.”
Tyler Reddick’s reputation at Homestead-Miami Speedway was forged during his Xfinity Series days. While he did not enter the NXS season finale as a favorite, Reddick left with the crown driving for JR Motorsports in 2018 and Richard Childress Racing in 2019. Like Larson, Reddick made the top lane his playground.
“I had the opportunity to test an Xfinity and a Cup car there—the Next Gen car,” said Reddick, who starts third on Sunday. “And just through that, it really laid down a good foundation for me to kind of build on. Before I had those tests there, obviously, I ran trucks for a couple of years and always ran good at Homestead in a truck.
“So, it already seemed like we’re pretty in a pretty good spot. I could kind of run the fence, but certainly when I was a rookie in the Xfinity Series and you would get one or two tests. I got to test there and it was a big deal. It made me a lot better as a driver—especially with the composite body coming in—just got to go up there and wear the wall out and get a good read on what t it can handle and what it can’t.”
Reddick finished fourth and second in his first two starts at the track. Last year, in the Next Gen’s debut at the track, he couldn’t find his comfort zone.
“Yeah, Homestead has been a fun place for me,” Reddick said. “Last year, obviously the Next Gen race there, we were okay. I think we were probably going to run fourth or fifth. But I could not run the wall very good. It was a product of where our car was that day, the closer I got to the wall, the worse it handled.”
Still, the two Northern California racers, who honed their skills on dirt before moving east to join the NASCAR ranks, continue to stand out among their Cup peers.
“I definitely think coming from the background that we have, it definitely helps,” Larson said. “I think Homestead, to me, it reminds me a lot of Eldora (Speedway)—the way both ends are—the way you kind of cup into turn one. Three and four seem a little flatter and all that, but you still run against the wall. It just feels similar to me. And then, also the feel that you get of packing the air against the wall, kind of feels like running a soft cushion at a dirt track.
“I think that’s why dirt guys kind of excel here. I can’t think of any pavement-background driver that is really comfortable against the wall. Maybe (Martin) Truex Jr., he’s really good. Denny (Hamlin) is good on occasion running the wall. But, yeah, Reddick and myself, we seem to be really good at running the wall here.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
