“I didn’t mean to wreck him, I just wanted to rattle his cage.” Dale Earnhardt was known as ‘The Intimidator’ for a reason. Once the drivers saw that black Chevy with the number 3, they knew they had two choices: either get out of the way or he would move them out of the way. And that’s how we know that Earnhardt had already won over his opponent mentally, and overtaking them on the track was now just a formality. 

His aggressive and fearless driving style, combined with his bold, daring, and sometimes outright dangerous moves on the track, instilled fear in the minds of his competitors and won him a record-equalling 7 championships. A feat that hasn’t been beaten ever since.

He may be gone from this world, taken from us by his biggest competitor, Daytona 500, back in 2001, but he is still in the hearts and minds of every NASCAR fan. And his presence was felt at Homestead last week, but not in the usual sense; it was felt in the driving of another of NASCAR’s rising stars.

Fast forward to last week, we saw a driving masterclass from Kyle Larson as he dominated the Cup Series race and won his first race of the season. The Hendrick Motorsports driver proved why Homestead-Miami Speedway is known to be one of the strong points, winning the race comfortably, even after qualifying in the 14th position. 

But it wasn’t his win that had the NASCAR community buzzing, it was how he won the race, specially his driving style. His win had even the NASCAR legend, Kyle Petty drawing parallels between his and Dale Earnhardt’s driving style. 

“You would see that three would see that three coming and he was in your head before he got there…and you’re up there leading the race, and you see that car coming. It’s already in your head, yeah, so whether you choke or not, it’s that little bit of doubt, that little bit of [that] he is the best, [and] he is coming,” said Kyle Petty on the Performance Racing Network interview, talking about Larson and his mind games over the race leader, Alex Bowman.

This psychological advantage that Larson had over Bowman was the reason why Bowman made a mistake and hit the wall. This led Larson to pass him easily for the lead of the race, and once he had that lead, he did not look back till the checkered flag fell.

As if overtaking Bowman and leaving him scraping by the wall wasn’t enough, Larson was creating a lead that extended to over a second after his overtake with six laps left to go. Larson created that fear. Throughout the race, he kept riding the high line, flirting with the wall, and even hitting it at one point. It was no easy task. Even Denny Hamlin knew that. “What Kyle does extremely good at this racetrack is… he gets very close, but the entire field is right on the wall nowadays… I think the field has tightened that gap to almost nothing, but he’s willing to get into it quite a bit more. I should probably hit the wall 10 times throughout the day, but these cars are so durable, it’s worth it, right? … What Kyle does better than the rest is he’s just higher on entry. So he’s getting the steering wheel angle out of the car earlier to carry more middle speed, more exit speed.”

“This is Kyle Larson’s personal playground. And as long as he doesn’t take himself out…this is his race to win or lose,” said NASCAR reporter Jordan Bianchi. Homestead-Miami is known as one of Larson’s strongest tracks, and he proved it last week. Larson has led the most laps (645) here and after nearly winning here last year, but spinning out fighting for the lead, Larson made sure he did not make any mistakes this year and won his first race of the season. But even after dominating the Cup Series race, Larson left Homestead with a big what-if.

Even Kyle Larson admitted this psychological effect that he had on Alex Bowman in a post-race interview, “I knew me coming towards those guys, they were going to start moving around and making mistakes, and I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex [Bowman], he may make a mistake, and he caught the wall there, and I got around him easier than I expected to.”

How Larson failed to make history at Homestead

Homestead is known as Larson’s strongest track. He is known as the master of running the high line, and he proved it in the Cup race. Given that this track is his strength, Larson at the start of the race weekend, set out to do something historic: win all three NASCAR races in a weekend, Truck, Xfinity, and Cup. A weekend sweep, something that has been only achieved by two-time champion, Kyle Busch, who did it in Bristol in 2010 and 2017.

 “Yeah. I mean, I did it first. So, you know, I feel like, you know, I sent out the tweet because Larson’s cherry picking at Homestead. You know what I mean? Like, obviously, this is his place.  He’s known to be super, super good here, super comfortable running the wall. So you get a lot of benefit from that, and so he’s one of the best at doing it. So he’s probably got the best shot of that,” Busch said before the race weekend when asked about Larson’s attempt to match his record.

But even after his expertise at Homestead, that record remained elusive for Larson. He won 2 of the record 3 races, with Truck and Cup Series victories, but missed out in the Xfinity series, finishing 4th.

“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,” said Larson after the Xfinity race. With Cup Series drivers limited to only 5 races in the Truck and Xfinity series in a season, can he join Kyle Busch in the history books?