Although nothing’s official for now, Kyle Larson might have already locked in his Championship 4 spot. After a six-win season (the highest out of all drivers in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series), his domination will be hard to deny for the Phoenix finale.

On Sunday, however, the Hendrick Motorsports driver will roll off the grid in second at Homestead. Alongside him will be pole-winner Tyler Reddick, leading the pack to green. Tensions will be high when both drivers tango in Miami for track position from the very start. But beyond his 1-0 win record, Larson holds another unlikely edge over his front-row foe. Here’s the believable part: the #5 driver has some insider intel on Homestead’s tricky high groove. However, what’s hard to believe is it was none other than Kyle Busch who passed that signal down to him almost twelve years ago.

Kyle Larson’s secret weapon for Homestead? A decades-old Kyle Busch tip

Let’s make one thing clear. Former Cup champ Kyle Larson & fellow two-time champion Kyle Busch are the very definition of the phrase: elite NASCAR drivers. Together, they share 278 wins across all three NASCAR National Series, three Cup Series championships, and a list of accolades that goes on for days. For that fact, some would even suggest they’re the greatest pair of Kyles to grace the sport of stock car racing. Interestingly, both Larson and Busch have been part of the iconic Hendrick Motorsports #5 car operations, although the former has had much more success driving it since his appointment in 2021.

Three years later, Kyle Larson outpacing Kyle Busch is hardly uncommon. Riding on the back of a disappointing sophomore season with Richard Childress Racing, the Rowdy One has had quite the contrary year compared to his Hendrick counterpart. Leading up to Homestead, the last time he finished inside the top 10 was almost two months ago at the Playoffs opener in Atlanta. And mind you, for the first time in his career, Kyle Busch is not a Playoff driver. In that same time, Yung Money established a 35-point cushion to the elimination cutline, and could even be good for a shot at his second title, if things go well on Sunday.

After all, the cream usually rises to the top in the final few races of the year. And sadly, that could lead to Kyle Busch losing his near-two-decade record of winning at least one race in each of his full-time Cup Series seasons. But then again, you can never truly count out KFB playing the spoiler. A 2-time Cup winner at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2015 & 2017), Busch might know a thing or two about ‘hugging the wall’ in Homestead. Kyle Larson came face-to-face with that fact in his very first National Series outing on the 1.5-mile racetrack.

“In 2012, I ran K&N. And I ran four Truck races that year… I ran Homestead. Kyle Busch was in the field, I remember,” began Larson on a video clip released by NASCAR socials. He was talking about the Ford EcoBoost 200 Truck Series grand finale, dated November 16th, 2012—a race that became iconic in a few years for many reasons. But more on that later. Larson continued with his story. “I thought I was running the top. And he passed me. He sticks his hand out the window. He’s like, (points upwards).” Busch, driving his self-owned #18 Truck was beckoning Larson to take his #4 Turner Motorsports Chevy Silverado a little higher up the racetrack. “Left hand out the window pointing, like, you need to get higher…”

Without thinking twice, Larson listened to his elder. And that’s how he stumbled upon the big secret: “So then I was like, ‘F–k it, I’m just gonna enter on the fence… I’m like wide open way before I’m starting (Turn) 4.” At that moment, Larson did not realize that Kyle Busch had directed him onto the fastest groove that day at Homestead. After a few left turns, he understood that his future Cup rival had just made his day a lot “easier.” So much so that Yung Money even passed Busch after a few rotations and led 48 laps in that race. 

But neither Kyle Busch nor Larson won that race. As James Buescher clinched his first and only Camping World Truck Series title by six points over Timothy Peters that day, the victory burnouts in Homestead belonged to a lesser-known figure in NASCAR history — Cale Gale.

The iconic 2012 Ford EcoBoost 200 Truck Series finale

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Cale Kelly Gale was born in Mobile, Alabama, on March 5, 1985, and found himself named after the legendary Cale Yarborough. Racing was always in Gale’s blood, and he started competing at 4 years of age on his local go-kart circuits. He would attain all his track knowledge growing up, watching his racer dad, Bubba, who was once a part of the now-defunct NASCAR Southeast Series. Apart from a couple of ARCA East Series wins, and his victory at the 2012 Ford Ecoboost 200 Trucks finale, Cale Gale has little to show for in NASCAR.

Hardcore fans will remember him as Brandon Jones’ crew chief at Turner Scott Motorsports in the 2013 ARCA East season when the latter wasn’t even an adult. But Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, James Buescher, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Ty Dillon, and Parker Kligerman are just a few names who will forever remember him as the guy who beat all of them in a Miami Truck race, one opportune evening in 2012.

If you didn’t know then, now you know: the Truck Series championship race that year was one for the highlight reels. A plethora of future stars were present in the field that day. Thanks to a blistering speed of 168.824 mph, future NBC analyst Parker Kligerman won the pole for the race, while Kyle Larson started his fourth-ever National Series race alongside Kligerman on the front row. From the green flag to the chequered on Lap 140, it was yet another white-knuckled showcase, headlined by Cale Gale’s surprise victory. Attached to the race were its fair share of thrills and tumbles.

However, the most impactful one took place with less than ten laps left for the finish. Around Lap 131, Kyle Larson and Ty Dillon wrecked big after making contact entering Turn 3. As Larson’s out-of-control vehicle slid down the track, it clipped Ryan Blaney’s #29 Ford truck, sending it hard into the wall. In moments, all these future Cup drivers got into each other and brought out the penultimate caution of the race. Although Ty Dillon, the only one out of the three running a full-time season, recovered to finish the race 5 laps down, his 25th-place finish meant that those championship dreams were officially over after a stellar rookie Trucks season.

Interestingly, just like Kyle Larson, this was Ryan Blaney’s first-ever NASCAR National Series outing at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hence, it was quite poetic for the pair to DNF right next to each other in the 27th and 28th spots, respectively. And amidst all their chaos, Kyle Busch would get the restart he was hoping for with a handful of laps to go. But Cale Gale saw his chance inside and pinned the #18 KBM Toyota Tundra against the outside wall, coming through the last turn. Kyle Busch would lose that day by only a car-nose difference, courtesy of Gale’s aggressive move.

Regardless, this was the day Rowdy met a few phenoms who would battle him neck-and-neck for years to come.