Homestead hijinks ensue as playoffs heat up

Homestead-Miami Speedway hosted the final race for NASCAR’s Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck Series for two decades before relinquishing the slot to Phoenix Raceway, but its current slot in the penultimate round of the playoffs still makes it a viable site for championship implications.

In the Cup Series, it was a battle of the B’s as Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, and William Byron fought to clinch their spot in the final round. Although Byron had the upper hand on the final restart following Denny Hamlin‘s wreck, Bell passed him with sixteen laps to go to take it for himself.

Bell had to fight for every position after finishing a dismal twenty-second in Stage #2 while Blaney won the stage.

“Today was just a whirlwind, for sure,” said Bell. “To be able to overcome and to be in that bad of a spot, I was a quarter straightaway from going a lap down. It was just incredible the difference a couple pit stop adjustments will do to your car. I’ve always been one that says that the car is everything. The driver’s job is to maximise the car. If the car is fast, you do good. If the car is slow, you do bad. I think today was the epitome of that.

“We were really struggling. I was the slowest car on the track at one point in the race. A couple good adjustments later, we became one of the fastest ones.”

Kyle Larson won the first stage and led a race-high ninety-six laps, but retired after a bizarre accident on lap 214 in which he slammed into the sand barrels at the entrance to pit road; Sheldon Creed suffered the same fate in the 2020 Truck Series race at Homestead, while Kurt Busch nearly did the same in the 2004 Cup event here. Fortunately for Larson, he is already assured a spot in the finale thanks to his win at Las Vegas, incidentally over Bell.

At the Xfinity level, Sam Mayer scored his first oval win after keeping last week’s winner Riley Herbst at bay on the final lap. The win locks Mayer into the Championship Round with one race to go. On the opposite end, Creed’s gamble to stay out on older tyres with thirty laps remaining blew up as he restarted as the leader only to fall out of the top ten after one lap, and his subsequent finish of twenty-sixth leaves him in must-win territory.

While Creed and Hamlin still have one final shot to qualify for the Championship, Homestead was the end of the road for reigning Truck Series champion Zane Smith, Ty Majeski, Nick Sanchez, and Christian Eckes. The drivers comprising the Championship Round all finished first through fourth led by Carson Hocevar.

To add insult to injury, Smith was eventually disqualified for an illegal windshield support. Although he originally finished second, he needed to win to advance.

“We are disappointed in the disqualification from today’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event,” reads a statement from his Front Row Motorsports team. “We will continue to work and discuss with NASCAR officials back at the NACAR R&D Center in Concord, N.C. before making any further comment.”

Cup race results

Xfinity race results

Truck race results