Denny Hamlin exposes Kyle Larson's 'vulnerability' that prevented the fall of Kyle Busch's untouched legacy

Denny Hamlin has exposed Kyle Larson's Homestead-Miami 'vulnerability' that hindered the Hendrick Motorsports driver's pursuit of joining Kyle Busch's exclusive NASCAR feat. With over a 16-second lead in the Xfinity Series race, Larson was close to materializing his desire to claim three wins on the same track during the same race weekend, but a late-race restart changed everything.

Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR's winningest active driver has numerous accolades to his name. However, his untouched legacy of bagging three wins -Truck Series, Xfinity Series, and Cup Series -on the Bristol Motor Speedway during the same weekend in 2010, and again in 2017 stands out the most.

Larson eyed entering that exclusive club. Notably, the #5 Chevrolet driver was inching closer to becoming the only driver in the NextGen era to claim three wins on the same track during the same race weekend. He completed 33 percent of the job by acing the Truck Series race in Miami.

The HMS driver piloted the #17 Chevy in the Xfinity Series, dominating the 1.5-mile oval for 132 of 200 laps. Nevertheless, with seven laps until the checkered flag dropped, Taylor Gray spun forcing a caution. As a result, the lead Larson savored was lost.

Then on restart, Sam Mayer aimed to push Larson and exit the draft in the final moment to take the lead, waiting for the HMS driver to come ahead of him. But in haste, Mayer wrecked Kyle Larson's rear, spinning out the driver. As a result, the HMS ace finished fourth.

That said, Hamlin revealed he expected Mayer to be Larson's 'biggest challenger' and that the HMS driver was most vulnerable to the Haas Factory Team driver on the restarts.

“He (Kyle Larson) was critical of Sam Mayer, but Sam, to give him credit, was critical of himself. He was like, ‘Man, I wish I had to do it all over again. I got to him too soon; I was trying to time it.’ Sam’s doing everything he can to try to roll on him and he’s trying to predict when the 17 (Larson) is gonna pull off so he can give him a push," Hamlin said via Actions Detrimental (47:00).

“And that’s where the 17 I thought was most vulnerable to the 41 (Mayer) was going to be on restarts. I thought that Mayer was the only real challenger to Larson on Saturday, and it turned out to be the only challenge to him winning the race,” he added.

Had Larson won the Xfinity race, he would've come level with Busch, as he won the Miami Cup race.

Kyle Larson reflects on his shattered Homestead-Miami run

Kyle Larson has largely performed promising this season. The 2021 Cup Series champion struggled in the season-opener Daytona 500 and the season's first road course race at the Circuit of The Americas, but kept his #5 Chevrolet Camaro among the frontrunners during the other race weekends.

After a ninth-place finish at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Larson desired to sweep the Homestead-Miami tripleheader, aiming to take away the exclusivity of Kyle Busch's feat.

But trouble ensued early as the #17 Chevy driver began the Xfinity race from 17th place. Though he lapped numerous cars and savored a massive lead, Gray's spin and the following incident with Mayer that lifted Larson's Chevy's rear tires off the ground, rendered any balancing act useless.

“I don’t know, I’ve lived through it a number of times here. Obviously, a bummer, again, to have another Homestead race play out that way. Yeah, 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," Kyle Larson told CW.

Nonetheless, with two of three wins claimed, Kyle Larson is highly likely to attempt another tripleheader.