Playoff contender Chase Briscoe found trouble near the end of Stage 2, sidelining him early from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Briscoe’s No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford slowed after scrubbing the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 160 of the 267-lap distance in Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400. The incident forced a caution period, and Briscoe drove to pit road with significant right-side damage.
“Sorry, guys. Just too loose,” Briscoe said after his contact. “It’s broke. It’s broke bad.”
Briscoe later pulled the No. 14 Ford to the garage, ending his race. He finished last in the 36-car field.
“The driver just made a mistake,” Briscoe said after a check at the infield care center. “I was really, really loose that run. We were really tight every other run. That green-flag run, we tried to get really free on the other side of it and just started taking really hard. I was hanging on with everything I had. It felt like I was on ice. Honestly, I wasn’t even running hard. I was trying to just get to the caution. We kept getting freer. I got sideways and had the wheel all the way to the right and ended up head-on into the wall.
“It is really frustrating to have it be something of my own doing. I am better than to be crashing by myself. It is really unfortunate.”
Briscoe entered Sunday’s race in sixth place among the eight remaining title-eligible drivers in the Cup Series Playoffs. The Homestead-Miami event is the second of three races in the Round of 8, and the four-driver championship field will be determined after next Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) at Martinsville Speedway.
Briscoe will be in a virtual must-win scenario, sitting last in the playoff pecking order and 44 points behind the provisional elimination line.
“It makes our job easier next week, I guess,” he said. “We don’t have to worry about points. We gotta go to Martinsville and win.”
The NASCAR Cup Series is at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Dixie Vodka 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC).
Homestead is a fairly unique track on the circuit and Darlington is the closest comparable track.
Homestead is a 1.5-mile, steeply banked track with variable banking from 18-to-20 degrees in the corners. Those corners are unique as well, with turns 1 and 2, as well as turns 3 and 4, being 180-degree corners.
This combination of factors helps differentiate Homestead from traditional 1.5-mile tracks, and favors a unique driving style that suits some drivers better than others.
I’m eyeing one such driver in a matchup between teammates.
DraftKings has a matchup between Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott.
Both drivers are listed at -110, meaning DraftKings views this as a 50/50 toss-up when removing the juice.
In my opinion, Larson should be the clear favorite.
DraftKings is probably looking at starting position, which favors Elliott (third) over Larson (fifth), as well as 10-lap average time. There, Elliott ranks sixth and Larson is ninth.
I’m not really worried about either of those metrics.
I’d rather look at tire falloff over a long run. Homestead chews up tires, so it all comes down to tire management.
The difference between Larson’s 10- and 30-lap average was less than half a second. Elliott’s falloff was much more pronounced as he lost nearly a full second between those averages.
Additionally, Larson is just flat out better here. He’s finished inside the top five in four of his past six Homestead races despite running five of those with Chip Ganassi Racing instead of HMS.
Larson’s two finishes outside the top five are also misleading because he was running inside the top five before encountering problems in both of those races.
Elliott, meanwhile, has an average finish of 9.0 over his past six Homestead races, all incident free. Only two of those were inside the top five.
Give me the driver who is tailor made for this track and had less falloff over the long run all day.
The Bet: Kyle Larson -110 over Chase Elliott | Bet to: -120
With practice and qualifying at Homestead-Miami Speedway being on a cool surface in the morning, there’s no telling how much will transition into the warm, South Beach sun during Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM). Hendrick Motorsports topped qualifying, while Toyota continued to stand out on intermediate tracks. Subbing for Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek put together an impressive Saturday in what’s scheduled to be his lone Cup start of 2022.
Starter 1: Kyle Larson
Starter 2: William Byron
Starter 3: Tyler Reddick
Starter 4: Denny Hamlin
Starter 5: Christopher Bell
Garage pick: Ross Chastain
NEXT IN LINE: Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Elliott.
RISING: After Wallace’s one-race suspension, Nemechek gets his best opportunity at the Cup level this weekend driving the No. 45 Toyota. Nemechek loves Homestead and was quick at the two-day test last month. He backed up that speed in practice (first) and earned his best career starting spot in qualifying (fourth).
Through the first four intermediate-track races in the playoffs, Elliott has been a non-factor. Last week at Las Vegas, the No. 9 car barely cracked the top 20 throughout the 400-mile race. But he showed up in qualifying and will start third. Overall, Hendrick Motorsports showed a bunch of speed, putting three cars inside the top five.
FALLING: Harvick’s 16th-place starting position is his worst at Homestead since 2012. And while qualifying doesn’t typically matter a ton in South Florida, Harvick was 23rd in single-lap practice speed and 22nd on 10-lap averages. Think it bodes well to save a use of the No. 4 car this weekend, despite Harvick netting seven top-five finishes in his last eight Homestead starts.
In four of the last five Homestead races, Truex has finished on the podium. The first of those resulted in winning the 2017 championship; his two runner-up finishes meant second-place finishes in the championship battle. The No. 19 team has had an adventurous postseason, tallying a pair of top 10s. He will start 12th but ranked 20th in practice.
Ryan Blaney vs. Joey Logano: All the talk out of the Homestead test in September was how much speed Team Penske had found. Logano credited his win at Las Vegas last week to gathering data at Homestead. However, all three Penske drivers missed the final round of qualifying. Blaney was the best of the trio in 13th, and given he’s chasing points, I believe he’s the better choice.
Chase Briscoe vs. William Byron: The defending winner, Byron, put his No. 24 Chevrolet on the pole. It’s his first pole of 2022. Briscoe will line up 19th for the race and was slower than Byron on long-run speed. Briscoe has been overlooked all postseason and has maximized his points, but Byron could win this race. Use the No. 24 car in your lineup Sunday.
Chase Elliott vs. Denny Hamlin: Entering the weekend, Hamlin would have been a heavy favorite to outrun Elliott. That advantage is gone after Saturday, with Elliott qualifying third and Hamlin back in 14th. With how the No. 11 Toyota runs at tracks like Homestead — Hamlin has three wins on the 1.5-mile track — I’d still think Hamlin scores more points during the race.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Noah Gragson has led plenty of laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway with three top-10 finishes in his four starts before this weekend. And Saturday night – at long last – Gragson earned the Xfinity Series winner’s trophy to go with all his statistical success at the South Florida track.
The 23-year-old Las Vegas native led a dominating 127 of the 200 laps – at one point his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevy was out front by more than nine seconds. Ultimately it took a strong restart with five laps remaining for Gragson to ensure the victory – just .550 seconds over fellow NASCAR Xfinity Series championship challenger Ty Gibbs.
The win is Gragson’s automatic ticket to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks – a fitting placement for the young driver who leads the series with eight wins, more than doubling his previous best single-season win tally.
“I wanted this one so bad,’’ Gragson said, raising his hand in celebration with the cheering crowd. “The last three years. … Words can’t describe how thankful I am for everybody at JR Motorsports.”
Jared East | Getty Images
The Xfinity Series race wrapped up a huge NASCAR doubleheader Saturday with the dominating Gragson victory. He won both stages, giving him 16 stage wins on the season – more than twice as many as any other driver.
Gragson now joins his JR Motorsports teammate Josh Berry – last week’s winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – with an automatic Championship 4 berth with two final-four positions still to be decided.
Gibbs’ runner-up finish places him third in the championship standings. He’s a healthy 30 points ahead of fourth place, Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger, with next week’s Martinsville (Va.) Speedway race settling which four drivers will be racing for the title at Phoenix on Nov. 5.
“We were just battling our race car all day, we made great adjustments and my guys never gave up,’’ said the 20-year-old Gibbs, who was making his Homestead-Miami Speedway debut.
“We’ll move on to Martinsville. I feel like that’s a place we were really fast at earlier this year and probably had a shot to win it so I’m excited to go back there.”
JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier, who had an eventful day, finished 10th coming back from being a lap down. He now trails Allmendinger by only five points for that final Playoff berth. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill sits seven points below the cutoff line with a ninth-place Homestead finish.
JR Motorsports driver Sam Mayer, who finished fifth Saturday, is now 28 points behind Allmendinger, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones is 28 points back after finishing 15th.
Gibbs and Allmendinger were among the seven race leaders on the day. If not for a late-race caution for a frontstretch incident on Lap 187, it looked like a sure Gragson runaway.
Allmendinger finished third with his Kaulig Racing teammate Daniel Hemric fourth. Mayer was fifth. Trevor Bayne finished sixth – his 46 laps led in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota were second only to Gragson’s high mark – and contended before a pit-road speeding penalty on Lap 144 hindered his victory bid.
Chandler Smith, who hours earlier at Homestead earned a Championship 4 position in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, finished seventh. Riley Herbst, Hill and Allgaier rounded out the top 10.
The Xfinity Series’ next race is scheduled for next Saturday, Oct. 29 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, MRN, SiriusXM) at Martinsville Speedway. The Dead On Tools 250 will be the last of three races in the postseason’s Round of 8, and the remaining slots in the Championship 4 field will be decided after the 250-lap event. Gragson is the defending winner of this playoff race. Jones won at Martinsville this spring.
Note: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Gragson as the race winner.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Two Smiths, one Rhodes and a guy named ‘Ty’ that keeps on winning — the Camping World Truck Series Championship 4 was set on Saturday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Defending series champion Ben Rhodes was the last driver to clinch his championship-contending spot in next month’s finale at Phoenix Raceway, turning in a sixth-place effort that was just enough to hold off third-place finisher Stewart Friesen for the final transfer spot by a single point. He’ll be joined by Saturday’s winner and fellow ThorSport driver Ty Majeski — who clinched his position with a victory at Bristol Motor Speedway last month — along with Chandler Smith and Zane Smith at the Nov. 4 Lucas Oil 150 (10 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Had a lot of frustration (racing my teammates),” Rhodes said with a relieved smile on pit road after the race. “I had a blow-up on the radio at the end of the race, but I wouldn’t expect anything different because my teammates are good competitors. The Truck Series, it just is what it is. It’s hard racing. It’s why I think it’s the best racing in NASCAR. I really do.
” … and I knew it was close; they were filling me in. They told me that Stewart had, you know, he couldn’t exactly catch the guy in front of him, but I had to pass my teammate and then somehow hold both of them off behind me. And they’re dragging me through the pack. They’re trying to pull slide jobs. They’re doing everything they could to take it, and it was just really difficult. I was frustrated, but at the same time, I’m happy now because it’s all wiped clean.”
For Friesen, it’s a frustrating end to his best season since his lone Championship 4 appearance in 2019, winning his first race (Texas Motor Speedway) since that campaign and improving across the board following somewhat underwhelming 2020 and 2021 seasons.
“That’s how she goes, right? I’ve been around a while. And there’ll be more good days; there’ll be more frustrating days,” Friesen said. “I’m just proud of my group. That’s what we take home, and I’m proud of Chris Larsen, Halmar and my family. And that’s something that we hang our hats on. It’s our family and our guys. We’ll l keep digging. I mean, we’re gonna keep trying over the winter. We totally revamped our fab shop in the last two weeks. So we can do just about damn near anything now. Our guys are some of the best, and we’re gonna be hopefully around for a while and be a force here the next couple years.”
Also eliminated were two-time 2022 winner John Hunter Nemechek, Lucas Oil Raceway winner Grant Enfinger and another ThorSport driver in Christian Eckes.
Nemechek, arguably the best driver in the series the past two seasons, saw his title hopes washed away almost immediately on Saturday, scraping the wall twice in Stage 1 and eventually being forced to pit for a flat tire. He entered the race just five points below Rhodes but finished 35th in the 36-truck field, six laps off the pace.
“The first time I hit the fence, I got dirtied up in dirty air trying to roll to the outside of the 52 (of Friesen) carrying a lot of speed and then tried to make back, probably a little bit too much and too close to the time period and hit the fence again and had a tire go down,” Nemechek said. “I don’t know. Gotta figure out how to be better. Frustration. Should be in the (Championship) 4. This round hasn’t been very good to us; we spun, hit the fence at Bristol during practice, had to go to the backup truck and got behind. We tried to fight (today) and fought probably a little bit too hard.”
Enfinger had issues of his own, heading to pit road on Lap 80 after his own flat tire and brush with the wall. He wound up 14th, one lap down.
Eckes fared reasonably well (seventh) but entered the race three points below Rhodes and stayed on the wrong side of the bubble.
The consensus seems to be that Majeski will be the man to beat at Phoenix, but it also gives Rhodes an opportunity to not only back up his first career title last year — but perhaps top one of the most notably raucous, light-beer fueled post-championship celebrations in recent memory.
“I’m gonna relax in other ways (tonight) because I’m so focused on Phoenix,” Rhodes said. “We get to Phoenix (and win), though, and you’re gonna see a celebration like none other.”
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — On the west side of Florida, there’s a watermelon farm included among the many parties still picking up the pieces from last month’s Category 4 Hurricane Ian. On the opposite coast just a hair under 200 miles away, a driver that grew up on said farm is hoping he can give his family a bit of a break and a few reasons to smile before getting back to a cleanup and rebuild process that “is going to be for years.”
Though not comparable in any way to the seriousness of the devastation caused by Ian, Ross Chastain’s 2022 emergence has been, proverbially, as disruptive to the NASCAR Cup Series’ “old guard” as he’s burst onto the scene this season to turn in career highs in just about every statistical measure. As such, the two-time 2022 winner enters Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the Round of 8 competitor best positioned to advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway.
Not bad for a driver that’s never even sniffed a playoff appearance before this season, let alone a win.
“A lot of my family is here for my race and Chad’s (Chastain’s brother) race this weekend. They’re just like ‘we’re ready to take a break,’ “ Chastain said Saturday morning at Homestead. “… They just wanted to come enjoy the race and it’ll all be there on Monday when we drive back. But they just keep telling me that I won’t believe it when I do see it, even when I come back after Phoenix at some point. They are like, you will not be able to comprehend what it looks like. It just looks like another country; something you would see on the news, on TV or online.
“For the farm, we pretty much survived. There’s some damage and some pull barns are down, but our main facility stayed up and offices are in working order. We’ll be shipping watermelons just like we always have.”
For much of the season, Chastain has found himself in the eye of the storm on the race track — most often of his own doing — with much speculation and weekly prompts from media about potential retribution from his many run-ins with front-of-the-field drivers. Yet here he is, methodically turning in solid performance after solid performance in the playoffs, slipping through the crosshairs of his competitors with as good a chance to advance as any of the other seven Round of 8 drivers not locked into Phoenix.
The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver isn’t unaware of any of this, knowing he had to evolve as the season progressed if he wanted to make a legitimate title run. And he’s doing it.
“I think that is what is so great about this sport, is that every seven days we pack up and move the circus to another town and we do it all again,” Chastain said. “I feel like I am in a good spot in the garage. The summer was definitely tough, and I learned a lot from a lot of that and we will continue to learn and evolve throughout this sport and this series. It’s incredible to race against your heroes, but it’s kind of odd and humbling when your heroes get mad at you. So, it’s been a learning experience for sure.”
One of those heroes — and perhaps most notable among his ’22 foes — is Denny Hamlin.
There was a period earlier this season where it seemed the Nos. 1 and 11 cars could not escape each other, with aggression running high, tempers poking through and payback surely coming Chastain’s way come playoff time delivered by one of NASCAR’s most tenured drivers.
But we haven’t seen that yet – and we may not at all.
Knowing he has a promising Cup career ahead of him and that sudden powerhouse Trackhouse Racing is “not just a flash in the pan,” Chastain wanted to ensure that he found some mutual respect or at least common ground with some of those he’d earned the ire of.
So he shared a meal with the 48-time Cup Series winner.
“I won’t elaborate too much on it, but, you know, I wanted to kind of give him the benefit of the doubt and kind of hear where he was coming from,” Hamlin said Saturday of the summer meeting with Chastain, which the Joe Gibbs Racing driver recently revealed on former Cup driver Danica Patrick’s podcast. “And it was interesting to kind of hear, you know, his upbringing versus my upbringing and why we probably have different values on the race track than what we do, and so it was just good to hear that.”
Getty Images
Now, don’t go ahead and assume these two will exactly “play nice” with each other — there’s a strong possibility they’ll each be battling for their first Cup title in two weeks’ time, and all bets are off there — but the respect of his elders obviously matters to Chastain, even if he doesn’t always appear to outwardly display it.
Like Hamlin, Chastain doesn’t come from a pureblood “racing family,” having to grind his way to the top along a winding career path full of twists, turns, teams and a whopping 402 mostly unfruitful (pun semi-intended) national series starts before 2022.
Earning respect on the race track is a difficult task when a driver is forced to scratch, claw and bump his way to the top — against the very same people he’s trying to earn the respect of. These are all stepping stones in that evolution process, however, and he’s literally grown up right in front of our eyes this season to round into the championship form behind the wheel and behind the microphone that we’re currently seeing.
“We are known in South Florida for farming and agriculture. We are not known for racing. The Chastain family is not a namesake in the sport, so I didn’t come in with a predisposed reputation of my dad,” Chastain said. “My dad raced locally down here in South Florida, but it wasn’t on this stage. So, we have built up our fanbase kind of at a grassroots level through the Melon Man Brand and through my racing in the last decade in this sport. … Along the way, I didn’t do myself any favors in those moments in the summer when the spotlight was on us, and I got out and my post-race interviews were not appealing. I look back and I wouldn’t root for that guy. That guy drives one way and he talks another, and he doesn’t know what he wants and he apologizes. So yeah, I get it and that is part of the evolution, I think.”
And that’s all he can do — own up to his mistakes, learn from them and try to get better tomorrow. It’s refreshing for a driver to openly talk about this much in-season introspection, and it likely bodes extremely well for the long-term prospects of his racing career.
“I take each lap and build my notebook throughout the weekend, my race, my career and my life,” said Chastain, set to roll off 20th on Sunday. “ … But it feels good … it feels really good to see the smiles of my family and friends. Guys that let me drive race cars when I was 14 years old. There were only a few that weren’t my dad and a couple of those guys are here. Just enjoying the weekend living out all of our dreams of racing in the Cup Series. It was their dreams, too, and they’re living it through me.”
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Ty Majeski took a big step to solidify himself as the championship favorite with a victory in Saturday’s Baptist Health Cancer Care 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway – the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ penultimate event to set the Championship 4 field for the 2022 title race in two weeks.
The 28-year-old Wisconsin native led a race-best 67 of 134 laps, his No. 66 ThorSport Racing Toyota Tundra crossing the finish line a convincing 4.524 seconds ahead of Zane Smith’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.
Behind Majeski, it was a tight and valiant rush to the checkered flag to set the four-driver final. Stewart Friesen finished third, but ultimately missed making the Championship 4 by a single point – as reigning series champion Ben Rhodes turned in a sixth-place run to secure that position — all he needed.
Majeski, Zane Smith, Chandler Smith and Rhodes will now race for the big trophy on Nov. 4 at Phoenix Raceway.
Saturday’s work at the 1.5-mile Homestead oval marked Majeski’s series-best second win of the playoffs and second win of his young career. He makes the Championship 4 in only his first year competing full-time in the series and smiled, saying he doubted if anyone had him penciled in for the championship round.
Majeski said he had no idea what the points situation was behind him. “I knew it was close,’’ he said, adding that he holds a lot of confidence in his ThorSport team for the season finale.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
“We certainly have momentum on our side winning two of the last three,’’ Majeski said. “I can’t really say who the favorite is and who isn’t. But I really like my chances going to Phoenix.”
Zane Smith, 23, the regular season champion, is a three-race winner this season and will be making his third run at the championship – the most final-four appearances among the 2022 title-eligible drivers.
Chandler Smith, 20, a three-race winner in the Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, finished 10th on Saturday and will be making his debut in the Championship 4. He is the defending Phoenix race winner.
Rhodes, 25, who won on Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt track, will be defending his title. It’s only the second time he’s advanced to the Playoffs’ final round and it was a tense afternoon for the driver of the No. 99 ThorSport Toyota.
“Fighting with my teammates really hard there for the last few laps,’’ Rhodes said. “Every spot matters and we got in by one point. I’m just really happy we had a good showing for this Toyota Tundra.
“Really happy to have an intense race for them, give them some excitement,” Rhodes said of guests this weekend. “But man, it was harder than it should have been. Just glad we can defend the title really. ‘’
Ryan Preece finished fourth, followed by Corey Heim. Rhodes, his teammate and fellow playoff competitive Christian Eckes, former series champion Matt Crafton, Parker Kligerman and Chandler Smith rounded out the top 10.
Friesen, Eckes, Grant Enfinger and John Hunter Nemechek were the four drivers who did not advance to the postseason’s final round. Enfinger essentially needed to win the race to move on, but he suffered a tire problem midway through the race and never recovered, ultimately finishing 14th.
Nemechek also had a long, rough afternoon. He hit the wall in the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota and had to pit two different times for cut tires that ultimately left him six laps down. He finished 35th in the 36-truck field.
“Frustrating day, just can’t recover two, three laps,’’ Nemechek said in a post-race interview. “On me. But proud of all the guys at KBM. It’s been an up-and-down season, but overall we’ve been in contention almost every week. Proud of them and grateful for the opportunity.
“Sucks we won’t be racing for the championship,’’ Nemechek added. “But one last race to go win with this bunch and hopefully we can go get it done.’’
The trucks have an off-week next week and return Nov. 4 for the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway (10 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Chandler Smith is the defending race winner.
Note: Inspection is complete in the Truck Series garage with no issues, confirming Majeski as the winner and locking in the Championship 4 for Phoenix.
Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway
(⏰ 2:30 p.m. ET | 📺 NBC, NBC Sports App | 📻 MRN, SiriusXM)
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead, the eighth playoff race of the 2022 campaign.
Where: Homestead, Florida Approximate start time: 2:30 p.m. ET | Weekend schedule TV/Radio: NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio | Full TV schedule The purse: $7,342,738 Forecast: Sunny, with a high near 84 degrees, according to NOAA.gov | Weather tracker Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles Stages: 80 | 165 | 267 Pit-road speed: 45 mph Caution car speed: 55 mph Homestead 101: Get the full lowdown
Starting lineup: Byron earns first pole of 2022
Pit stalls: Where drivers will pit on Sunday Playoff grid: Print yours now
Cars to the rear: Nos. 7 and 38 for unapproved adjustments
Key things to watch 🔑
Big story line
Joey Logano claimed the first ticket to Phoenix with his win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leaving seven contenders to fight for three spots in the remaining two races leading up to the Championship 4. Only one driver will be able to wiggle his way in on points, putting a bigger premium on relieving that stress with a win this Sunday. Although it has been the site of many championship races in the past, the track’s February date in 2021 means there have been nearly two full seasons since Cup Series drivers have worked their way around the 1.5-mile South Florida favorite. It will be important for playoff drivers and teams to put forth their best effort of the season in practice and qualifying to avoid starting behind the 8 ball. There aren’t many points left you can leave on the table.
Who’s hot? Who’s not?
Expected to make an early Round of 16 exit, Chase Briscoe has been proving he is a serious contender for the Cup Series championship. Briscoe is the only playoff driver with four consecutive top-10 finishes, doubling his total from the first 30 races of the season. One setback may be Briscoe’s lack of experience racing Cup Series drivers at Homestead-Miami Speedway, only making one start at the track. But with a Miami win in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series on his resume, don’t count out the talented young driver on Sunday as he aims to complete the premier series trifecta.
After reeling off an impressive top-10 streak at the beginning of the playoffs, William Byron‘s speed has waned a bit and leaves him on the outside looking in regarding points. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team finished 12th or worse at Talladega Superspeedway, the Charlotte Roval and last week at Las Vegas. If the trend continues, Byron will see his title hopes fade quickly after some other contenders have picked up the pace. Fortunately for Byron and company, he won at Homestead last year and has scored crucial points in five of the eight stages at the track. Look for them to flip the switch this weekend.
Driving under the radar
Make no mistake, Tyler Reddick’s announcement on his shift to 23XI Racing in 2023 hasn’t slowed down the No. 8 team one bit. Though they were eliminated from the playoffs, Reddick and the gang have been routine contenders nearly every week, finishing eighth or better three times in the last four races. Focus will be on playoff drivers in the remaining portion of the schedule, but if there is anything to be said from a non-playoff driver, the rising star is surely at the top of the list. He finished runner-up at Homestead in 2021.
Robert Laberge | Getty Images
Race-day staples ✅
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Paint Scheme Preview: Sun, sand and schemes | Pick a favorite • Power Rankings: Chastain knocking on the Championship 4 door | Updated driver rankings • NASCAR betting: Favorites, long shots for Sunday’s race | Underdogs, value bets • Fantasy Fastlane: Hamlin is headlining Homestead fantasy | Must starts, sleepers • Backseat Drivers: Crunch time for Blaney and Bell | Watch the segment
Catch the pack 💨
Read up on the top headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race.
• Suspension: Bubba Wallace issues one-race suspension after Vegas | Read more | Apology
• Do it for Dale: NC man buys 3 lottery tickets, wins big prize | Read more
• RFTC: Kyle Busch opens up on relationship with Joe Gibbs | Read more
• Elliott’s focus: Chase Elliott is keeping his eyes on the ‘ultimate prize’ | Read more • Boys & Girls Club: NASCAR helping create digital content and experiences | Read more
• Silly Season: Spire taps LaJoie, Ty Dillon for 2023 lineup | Read more
• Humanitarian Award: Finalists announced, voting open now | Learn more, vote
• Partnership news: Chicago Street Race announces new partner | Read more
Get in on the action 💰
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From championship crownings to regular-season rumbles, Homestead has a rich racing history.
• Pace out front: Top 10 lap leaders at Homestead-Miami | See full list
• Winner, winner: All-time winners at Homestead-Miami | Who has the most?
• Last year: William Byron puts on a South Florida show | 2021 race recap
• Race Rewind: Byron dominates Miami race late | Full highlights
Fast facts ⏩
Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• There are only two past champions in the Round of 8, the fewest in playoff history. • The last 10 races of 2022 were won by 10 different drivers. • Since the last race at Miami, there have been 66 races with 24 drivers winning in between. • Chase Briscoe won at Miami in both Xfinity (June 2020) and Trucks (November 2017). • In the last two races, the pole winner from the week prior won the race.
Say what? 🎙
Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into Sunday’s race.
• “Homestead for me has been a great racetrack. It’s really how I got my start to go Cup racing. I filled in for Richard Petty Motorsports back in 2010 and I finished fourth after running up front. That opened some people’s eyes. Sure enough, I got my first start in the Cup Series because of it.” — Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
• “As disappointing as Vegas was, if anyone can pull through it’s our No. 20 group. I expect to be extremely competitive again and am ready to tackle the challenge.” — Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
• “I loved that we got to test there. Everyone figured out after about three or four laps the top was the place to be. I was watching 10 or 12 drivers that were running and everyone was getting better at running the fence. The drivers who tested there will be really good at running up top when we go back and I’m going to have my work cut out for me, that’s for sure.” — Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) for the NASCAR Cup Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron won the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a lap of 166.389 mph in the No. 24 Chevrolet – his first pole position of the 2022 season and eighth of his career.
“It’s not like a guaranteed point gain,” Byron said. “The pit stall is good. I’m happy with that part of it. And just the momentum for the team. We’ve tried to get poles this year, and we’ve come close, third, second — kind of all around that area. But it’s nice to kind of knock that off the list.
“That’s one of the things you want to do going into a season, win a pole. It shows where our team is, and hopefully, that’s a good sign.”
Byron – the defending Homestead-Miami race winner – edged fellow NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contender Christopher Bell for the top starting position – his lap only .049 seconds faster than Bell’s in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Hendrick driver Chase Elliott will start third, alongside John Hunter Nemechek, who was impressive on track all morning — posting the fastest lap during practice. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular is driving the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota this week for the team’s full-time driver Bubba Wallace, who is serving a one-race suspension from NASCAR for dangerous driving last week at Las Vegas.
Kyle Larson, who was involved with Wallace in that incident, will start his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet fifth. He’ll line up alongside 23XI Racing’s Ty Gibbs, who is filling in for that team’s other full-time driver Kurt Busch – out for the remainder of the season while recovering from a concussion.
Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, qualified seventh just ahead of both RFK Racing Fords driven by Chris Buescher and driver/owner Brad Keselowski.
Xfinity Series championship contender AJ Allmendinger was 10th – rounding out those who advanced to the final round of qualifying.
Five of the eight Cup Series Playoff drivers did not make the second round of time trials on Saturday, including Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and JGR’s Denny Hamlin, who will roll off 13th and 14th, respectively. Penske’s Joey Logano, the only driver who has already clinched a position in the Championship 4 with a victory at Las Vegas last Sunday, will start 17th.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain will start 19th and 20th on the grid. Chastain topped the consecutive 10-lap average category on the practice chart but will start the furthest back of the eight remaining playoff-eligible drivers.
