Kyle Larson entered the weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway aiming to become the second driver to ever sweep a race weekend tripleheader with victories in the NASCAR Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and NASCAR Cup Series.
Only Kyle Busch has ever managed to pull it off, and he has done it twice. The winningest driver in NASCAR national series history did it in 2010 and then again in 2017, both times at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Making his first Truck Series start for Spire Motorsports since 2023 on Friday night, Larson overcame a spin to win the Baptist Health 200, checking off the first of the three boxes.
He appeared to be well on his way to checking off the second box in Saturday's Hard Rock Bet 300 Xfinity Series race. But while he led the race by more than 16 seconds, the caution flag flew due to a spin by Joe Gibbs Racing rookie Taylor Gray.
Larson then fell behind.
The caution led to a late restart, and contact from Haas Factory Team's Sam Mayer resulted in the Hendrick Motorsports driver losing the lead and having to settle for fourth place.
Mayer ended up finishing in second, while it was JR Motorsports' Justin Allgaier who secured his second win in a row. The reigning series champion had not won back-to-back races since 2020.
Larson's fourth place finish came after he had dominated, leading 132 of the 201 laps around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Homestead, Florida oval.
As a result, Larson no longer has the opportunity to match Busch's historic feat in Sunday afternoon's Straight Talk Wireless 400 Cup Series race, for which he qualified in 14th place.
Larson is listed by the sportsbooks as the favorite to win Sunday's 267-lap race. While he has only won once at Homestead in the Cup Series, with that victory coming back in October 2022, he leads all active drivers in laps led at the track, and he is known to be among the best at making the absolute most out of the high line in the corners.
Of course, Larson winning this race is far from a guarantee. But if he does, Saturday's race will remain a "what-if" of historic proportions.
It's not hard to imagine Larson finding the opportunity to attempt more tripleheader sweeps at some point in the near future. In fact, he is already set to attempt the feat again at Bristol Motor Speedway next month.
Fox Sports 1 is set to provide live coverage of the Straight Talk Wireless 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 23. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!