Corey Heim had the dominant Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he was not the one celebrating after the race. Instead, it was Kyle Larson, who delivered a comeback effort at the 1.5-mile track.
Heim started from the pole, and he swept the two opening stages with a truck that was clearly the fastest in the field. He passed all challengers multiple times, including Ross Chastain, who had a truck built for short runs. However, Heim's No. 11 Toyota failed him at a critical moment in the race.
Heim was in control of the race with under 20 laps to go when he suddenly slowed on the track and fell to third. He told the team over the radio that the truck had just shut off. He re-cycled everything and got back moving, but the problem persisted.
The No. 11 shut off multiple times as the laps clicked down, but Heim eventually took back the lead after passing Layne Riggs. It appeared that he would score his third win of the season, but his truck shut off once more in the closing laps and relegated him to a third-place finish.
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"Fifteen, twenty to go, everything seemed fine, as far as I could see," Heim told Fox Sports after the race. "The engine would hard cut on me, and the dash would go black.
"Had to pull my right hand over and fully re-cycle the power to get any sort of life back in the motor. Really don't know what the problem was, to be honest with you."
Of course, the Tricon Garage driver was not the only competitor who faced adversity Friday night in South Florida. Larson had to mount a comeback after an issue in the final stage.
The 2021 Cup Series champion spun from third place with 46 laps remaining in the race. He was on the inside of Riggs and battling for second, but he got loose and began to slide toward the infield.
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Larson kept the No. 07 Chevrolet out of the wall, and he got it pointed in the right direction, but he lost all of his track position. He had to head down pit road for fresh tires, and he had to work his way from deep in the field with only 40 laps left in the race.
Larson did exactly that. He steadily worked his way past other competitors while ripping the wall and made up 22 spots in only 39 laps. He also erased a deficit of more than three seconds in four laps.
Yet his victory was not assured until Heim's truck shut off for the final time. This opened up the opportunity for Larson to make the pass for second, and then he pulled a slide job to get ahead of Riggs before taking the white flag.
"That was pretty unbelievable from my seat," Larson told Fox Sports. "I wasn't sure if I could get back up there. Didn't have the restart that I wanted, took a little bit too long to start picking them off, and then just got ripping the wall (on) both ends."
With the win, Larson has now parked it in victory lane after a race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in all three series. He is also one step closer to another milestone.
If he wins the Xfinity race on Saturday and the Cup race on Sunday while pulling triple duty, he will join Kyle Busch as the only drivers to sweep all three national NASCAR series races in a single weekend. Busch has done so twice at Bristol.