Kyle Larson entered the Homestead weekend in 2025 with eyes on a three-race sweep. The Hendrick Motorsports #5 was set to take part in the Truck, Xfinity, and Cup race in Miami at a track where he has historically dominated. Larson started well by winning the Truck race despite spinning out in the final stage. He ended the week incredibly by notching up his first Cup Series win of the season. However, it’s the Homestead Xfinity race that gave Larson nightmares, and Mark Martin hated that.

The Xfinity race saw a caution come out with 8 laps to go as Larson had a monstrous lead of 15 seconds. The ensuing restart ruined his bid for a sweep, as Sam Mayer bumped into Larson and got him loose, leading to Justin Allgaier stealing the victory. While the finish had fans buzzing, NASCAR legend Mark Martin is stealing the spotlight with a gut-punch critique of the sport’s rules. He’s not mad at Larson but at a NASCAR rule they introduced in 2009 at Pocono.

Mark Martin feels for driver’s plight due to NASCAR brutal rule

“I still struggle with taking the advantage away from the guy who has earned the win,” Martin said on the NASCAR LIVE Motor Racing Network. “I’ll use an example of kind of a fiasco. It was Richmond with Austin Dillon. I praised Austin Dillon. He whooped the whole field. He ran good all day. He had the race won. That was his race. But oh, no. We had to have a caution and a double-file restart and all this stuff. And a double-file restart, in my opinion, you can’t do away with it. But the reason you really have it is so that the guy who’s going to win doesn’t win. That’s my opinion. You know, it’s to take the advantage away from the guy who had an advantage.”

The Richmond race in 2024 saw NASCAR’s option tires being put to the test, and Austin Dillon was acing it with flying colors. He ran amongst the top for most of the race, but a late caution saw his lead swiped away. However, Dillon chose to embrace the dark arts, as he was desperate for a win. On the final lap, Dillon bumped Joey Logano and spun him out while right-hooking Denny Hamlin out of the way to take home the victory. The move was subject to mass controversy, but Martin feels it is all NASCAR’s fault.

“And so to have a double-file restart puts him in a box where he has to do something that, hmm. It wounds up, you know, being embrrassing, you know, to our sport to some degree. Now, it did make some fans really, we need that kind of passion. You know, the fans’ response was actually not a bad thing. But it wasn’t a good look for our sport, and NASCAR was in a terrible position where they had to make a call that, you know, I wish they didn’t have to make. And so, whatever they called they made, it was not going to be popular with everyone,” added Martin.

NASCAR eventually decided to strip Austin Dillon from his playoff spot while letting him keep the victory. For 2025, NASCAR mandated that all right rear hooks would receive a suspension, and such a suspension would relinquish all playoff points accumulated by the driver for the remainder of the season. All this stemmed from a double-file restart that reset the field.

In 2013, USA Today quoted NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton defending the rule: “We think it’s worked well for several years now.” Yet cracks are showing. Two years back, arguments surrounded whether the double-file restart has overstayed its welcome and that it maybe it’s time to rethink it. Toby Christie warned, “By making restart zones a judgment call, we’ve opened Pandora’s box—consistency is gone.” There were even suggestions to NASCAR to officiate the restarts differently. Even IndyCar’s ditched it on ovals, with Scott Dixon saying, “It’s safer and cleaner this way.”

Mark Martin is an old school racer, and he is fine with aggressive driving and laments the condition the sport is in today. However, he had nothing but praise for the most recent Cup Series race.

Martin yearns for more races like Homestead