HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson owned a half a lap lead with eight laps left in Saturday’s Xfinity Series Hard Rock Bet 300. It which would’ve been Larson’s second win in less than 24 hours at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He would’ve been two-thirds of the way to a NASCAR weekend Homestead hat trick with Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 left.

Then, auto racing happened.

Taylor Gray’s front straightaway spin brought out the yellow flag and, on the restart, Sam Mayer got into Larson’s rear end on the low line. Justin Allgaier and Austin Hill barged ahead of Larson on the outside line and Allgaier took the win with Mayer, Hill and Larson less than a second behind.

Homestead native Nick Sanchez finished eighth.

Instead of Larson getting his second win of the weekend, Allgaier got his second win in eight days — he won last week at Las Vegas Speedway — and a $100,000 Dash for Cash bonus.

“I’m bummed for Kyle,” Allgaier said while lauding his Junior Motorsports team. “Sometimes, the fastest car doesn’t always win.”

And, Allgaier actually wasn’t happy about the yellow. He was running fourth, and was just hoping to clinch his first top-five finish at Homestead. Now, there’d be a restart and he worried he could lose the position he had.

“I don’t know the stats, but it has to be my worst track in the history of me racing any car in my entire life,” Allgaier said. “To come out of here with a win, knowing we weren’t the best car today, but we had a car capable of running in the top five. But, even with (an early race) penalty, the team rallied and we were able to get back up into the top five.

Allgaier said without the experience of winning last year’s Xfinity series title, he might’ve panicked Saturday. Instead, before the last restart, he got energized by crew chief Jim Pohlman’s “All right, man, we got this!” and began thinking if he didn’t make any mistakes on the restart, he’d give himself a shot.

If there was a mistake on the restart, it wasn’t Allgaier’s.

The restart and the end of Larson’s triple try

After winning Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series Baptist Health 200, Larson started 17th Saturday. By 10 laps into the race, he was in the top five. He took the lead, lost it at the finish of Stage 1 to Sammy Smith, then took Stage 2 and led 132 laps. After lapping all but four competitors, Larson owned a half lap lead with the checkered flag 32 turns and 16 straightaways away.

Gray’s spin injected drama into the plot. On the restart, Larson took the low line. Mayer was right behind him.

“I’ve lived through it a number of times here,” Larson said. “Obviously, bummer, I can’t go when my rear tires are off the ground. I know it looks like i choked another one away. The 41 (Mayer) lagged back and slammed the s--- out of me.”

Mayer said, “I got to his bumper a little too early. I wasn’t ready for him to wait that long (to accelerate).”

Allgaier said he understood Mayer’s position and at many other tracks, Mayer and Larson would’ve dueled for the win.

But, that wasn’t racing on Saturday.

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