HOMESTEAD, Fla. — If you had to guess who in the NASCAR Cup Series owns the best average finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a Next Gen car, you would probably guess Kyle Larson or Tyler Reddick.
Nope.
AJ Allmendinger is tied with Christopher Bell for the best average finish (5.3) at Homestead since 2022, the inaugural year of the Next Gen vehicle. Typically known as a road-course ace, Allmendinger has finished third, fifth and eighth in his last three Homestead starts.
“It’s kind of interesting,” Allmendinger told NASCAR.com after Saturday’s practice. “Like, I can look at all three years, and the cars have been different in the sense of how they drove, what their strengths and weaknesses were. … I always got better later in the race, and I think it cooled down. You didn’t have to run against the fence quite as much. So it’ll be interesting to see racing now in March and how that changes it.”
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Indeed, each of the past three Homestead races has fallen in autumn as opposed to this year’s spring date for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But Allmendinger’s success at the 1.5-mile oval is not new, nor is it fair to attribute it to the sport’s transition to the Next Gen car. He’s been strong at the South Florida track dating back to his inaugural trip there in a stock car in 2008, finishing 11th for what was then Gillett Evernham Motorsports in its No. 10 Dodge, kicking off a streak of four straight top 15s at Homestead-Miami.
In total, Allmendinger has six top 10s in his 13 Homestead tries, with three top-five finishes as well.
“I’ve always had a good feel of it, you know?” said Allmendinger, driver of Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Chevrolet. “It’s a mile-and-a-half race track, but it doesn’t drive like (Las) Vegas or Charlotte, where you’re just like constantly in the throttle. You can slide the car a little bit, or you can move around, and you can get away with maybe being a little tighter sometimes, too, and things like that. But every year is different. I’ve had good cars, and that’s always helped. So, hopefully, we do the same this weekend. You’ve just got to constantly keep searching.”
Homestead-Miami, the largest true oval on the Cup calendar, provides drivers with a multitude of lane choices throughout its wide, progressively banked corners. Kyle Larson, the 2022 race winner at Homestead and 2021 Cup champion, is well-known for how well he utilizes the high side, planting his No. 5 Chevrolet centimeters from the SAFER barriers in the corners. But Homestead is not a one-lane-cures-all kind of track, either.
“I think with this car, you don’t have to be pinned against the wall,” Allmendinger said. “And I always say I need to be better at that. I’m always constantly trying to work. Am I ever gonna be Kyle Larson? God, no — or even close to that. So I think this track, at least in October, whenever we raced it with this car, it’s like I can move around and make speed. …
“I can watch the 5 just ripping up there, and it’s sometimes jealousy and sadness and then in awe of watching him do it.”
Allmendinger will roll off 10th in Sunday’s race after a better qualifying session than his 25th-place speed in practice indicated. And as he conceded, Allmendinger tends to run best at the end of a Homestead race rather than on the front end.
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“We started off too tight there, and then we got it a little bit better on the front-end side of it,” Allmendinger said. “And then, as the run went on, kind of lost the rear a little bit. But I think it’s competitive. … I’m gonna keep working on it. I think we’re competitive, but we definitely need a little bit more improvement.”
Momentum may be on his side, too. Allmendinger wheeled the No. 16 Chevrolet to an eighth-place finish just one week ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his first top 10 of 2025.