Dixie Vodka 400 Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor It all comes down to Martinsville. Leaving Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead, three spots remain to be claimed in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 among the seven drivers still eligible for the title. Only Joey Logano has punched his ticket to the season finale at Phoenix, with the remaining title contenders will have varying plans of attack heading into the final elimination race of the Playoffs. Here’s how they all stack up with one race to go. Ross Chastain – No. 1 Trackhouse RacingRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Kyle Larson has led a lot of laps and come awfully close to hoisting a trophy at Homestead-Miami Speedway. On Sunday he finally did both, winning the Dixie Vodka 400 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race in dominant form. Larson swept both Stage wins and led 199 of the race’s 267 laps in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to pull away to a 1.261-second victory over Florida native Ross Chastain in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevy. Kaulig Racing’s A.J. AllmendingerRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. _ Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron won the pole position for Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, 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 toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After spending the past two seasons bouncing around to different dates on the schedule, Homestead-Miami Speedway is back in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with Sunday’s running of the Dixie Vodka 400. From 2002 to 2019, Homestead served as the season finale and once again this season, it will serve a pivotal role in the championship as the midway point of the Round of 8. Should any of the seven drivers not yet locked into the Championship 4 win on Sunday, they will claim their chanceRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Homestead-Miami Speedway once again proved to be Kyle Larson’s natural habitat in NASCAR. Only this time, he was navigating the 1.5-mile circuit for Hendrick Motorsports. In his third start with the team, Larson finished fourth in Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 for his fourth career Homestead top-five. While it wasn’t a race win yet again, Larson rebounded from a disappointing 30th place finish at the Daytona Road Course last Sunday. In the closing laps, Larson was running in the top-three but the shot of catching teammate WilliamRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After two weeks in Daytona Beach, the NASCAR Cup Series packs up and heads south on I-95 for Sunday’s running of the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 1.5-mile oval came into existence in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in the early 90’s, with the Cup Series making its first appearance at the track in 1999. Since undergoing a reconfiguration in 2003, Homestead has provided some great racing on its progressive banking on one of the true ovals on the circuit and that has onlyRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer “Hallelujah! A clean day!” That was the immediate thought by Aric Almirola’s No. 10 pit crew as a clean yet frantic ending to their Dixie Vodka 400 resulted in a fifth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “Finally, woo! Thank you boys! Just a nice clean day. I appreciate that,” Almirola replied over the radio. The sigh of relief was a direct result of Almirola saving his tires, but trying to dodge lapped traffic and avoid letting the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Kyle Busch and Erik JonesRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service The race statistics will show that Denny Hamlin led a dominating 138 of the 267-laps in Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 but the truth is he had to earn every fraction of a second that he paced the field. It was a thrilling chase for the checkered flag, lap-after-lap among the front-running cars. Hamlin ultimately took the lead for good – passing Chase Elliott with 29 laps remaining after a series of green flag pit stops swapped the two cars’ positions in front of theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For nearly two decades, Homestead-Miami Speedway has been intertwined with championship weekend, but for the first time since 2002, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to South Florida without a title on the line as it prepares for Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400. In addition to the different environment that the drivers will face on the variable banked 1.5-mile oval without the pomp and circumstance of championship weekend, they will also have to deal with a complete 180 when it comes to the weather and how the trackRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer A sense of normalcy will begin to unfold at both Homestead-Miami Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway as NASCAR announced Tuesday they’ve approved those tracks to bring guests at the races under strict guidelines. Beginning with the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead June 14, invites will be given up to 1,000 South Florida service members as honorary guests who can see the race from the grandstands. Notably, representing the Homestead Air Reserve Base and U.S. Southern Command in Doral, Florida. “The ability to host these esteemed guests forRead More