Kevin Harvick: Kyle Larson Homestead win is 'dangerous for the rest of the field'

Kyle Larson didn’t have the fastest car in this past Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami. That belonged to Ryan Blaney, who led a race-high 124 laps.

But Blaney blew up with 60 laps to go. And as things played out in Stage 3, it was Larson who had the advantage. Larson’s car shined on the final long run of the race, and he expertly chased down Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman in the closing laps to take his first checkered flag of the season. Kevin Harvick called it a “dangerous win for the rest of the field,” seeing that Larson found a way to Victory Lane without having the speed we’re accustomed to seeing from the No. 5 car.

“This is a dangerous win for the rest of the field,” Harvick said on his Happy Hour podcast. “I feel like he really balanced not having the best car, being aggressive two inches or on the wall all day, managed traffic, managed a pit road incident, damage to the car. These are the types of days that could really put Kyle Larson in the thought process of being in a position to win on days when he doesn’t have the best car.

“This was one of those days where he just grounded out and by the end of the race, had the 12 car [Blaney] — who I thought was the fastest car — out of the race. We had a couple other cars that didn’t really perform like we thought — [Tyler] Reddick being one of them — and he wound up in a position to where it was longest run at the end of the race.”

Kyle Larson chases down Alex Bowman at Homestead

When Larson wins, it’s usually in dominant fashion — look no further than his showing in last year’s playoff race at Bristol. Things were different at Homestead, where he had to manage his car throughout the race before picking his spot.

Larson came charging to the front in Stage 3, running the wall like no other. That forced Bowman to the top, a line he hadn’t run all day. Bowman made a race-losing error with five laps to go, making contact with the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4. Larson easily maneuvered past him.

“His strength was against the wall as we always know, and it put Alex Bowman in a position to where he needed to get up in Larson’s line to protect and when you don’t run that line all day, you can’t just go up there and be that fast right off the bat. Wound up putting pressure on Alex,” Harvick said. “He got in the fence and made an easy pass for Larson.

“Very dangerous day for the rest of the field to see Kyle Larson starting to manage a car in a situation that’s not fast, not tear up his car, not make a mistake and then win the race. That is something we haven’t seen Kyle Larson do a lot. I think he thought he’d go to Homestead and probably be in a position to be one of the dominant cars. [That was] never the case all day. To see that performance, that could be dangerous as we go forward.”