This Weekend in NASCAR – Storylines – Homestead

• Next Race: Dixie Vodka 400
• The Place: Homestead-Miami Speedway
• The Date: Sunday, February 28
• The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
• TV: FOX, 2 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 400.5 miles (267 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 80), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 160), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 267)

Over 70 years since Cup has seen three consecutive first-time winners

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season has started in historic fashion becoming just the third season in series history to with two first-time winners to win the first two races of the year; joining the series’ inaugural season 1949 and 1950. Now the 2021 season, has the opportunity to join the inaugural 1949 season as just the second season in series history to start the year with three consecutive first-time winners to win the first three races of the year. A feat that will be difficult, because this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race, the Dixie Vodka 400 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), will be hosted by Homestead-Miami Speedway, a track that has never had a Cup Series first-time winner.

The inaugural NASCAR Cup Series season holds the record for the most consecutive first-winners to start the season with five.

1949 NASCAR Cup Series Consecutive First-Time Winners

Three or more consecutive first-time winners has only happened three times in the NASCAR Cup Series. The first, was the five consecutive first-time winners in 1949. The other two times it occurred was in 1950.

1950 NASCAR Cup Series Consecutive First-Time Winners

This season, Front Row Motorsport’s driver Michael McDowell grabbed his first-career win at Daytona International Speedway in the Daytona 500. He is the eighth different driver to win their first-career race in the Daytona 500. McDowell got the win in his 358th start, the second largest amount of starts before a first Cup win behind Michael Waltrip’s 463.

Then the following week at the DAYTONA Road Course, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell led just five laps en route to his first-career NASCAR Cup Series victory in just his second season at the premier level.

This weekend, 16 of the 38 drivers entered at Homestead-Miami Speedway are looking for their first NASCAR Cup Series career victory. Six former NASCAR Cup Series Homestead-Miami Speedway winners are entered this weekend, led by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin with three victories; followed by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch (two wins) and Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. each with one win.

Joe Gibbs Racing riding high after Daytona Road Course / Bell can make history this week

It must have been a celebratory week at the Joe Gibbs Racing complex after a successful weekend of racing at the Daytona Road Course that saw not only Joe Gibbs’ grandson Ty Gibbs, son of Coy Gibbs, get his first NASCAR national series victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – becoming just the sixth driver to win in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut, joining Dale Earnhardt (1982, Daytona), Joe Ruttman (1982, Dover), Ricky Rudd (1983, Dover), Terry Labonte (1985, Charlotte) and Kurt Busch (2006, Texas) – but also NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell collected his first-career victory in the Cup Series event on Sunday. And to boot, Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin claimed the NASCAR Cup Series points lead by 12 points over Team Penske’s Joey Logano in second place.

This weekend, the Joe Gibbs Racing camp will be looking to keep the winning ways going. Denny Hamlin is the defending NASCAR Cup Series Homestead-Miami Speedway winner, taking the checkered flag last season from the pole after leading a race-high 137 laps. It was his third victory at the South Florida track (2009, 2013, 2020), tying Greg Biffle (2004, 2005, 2006) and Tony Stewart (1999, 2000, 2011) for the series-most. It also gave Joe Gibbs Racing the series lead in wins by an organization at the 1.5-mile facility with eight victories – Tony Stewart (1999, 2000), Bobby Labonte (2003), Denny Hamlin (2009, 2013, 2020) and Kyle Busch (2015, 2019).

Hamlin’s teammates Kyle Busch (2015, 2019) and Martin Truex Jr. (2017) are also winners at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series and are looking for their first win of the 2021 season. Busch finished sixth in last season’s Homestead-Miami Speedway race and Martin Truex Jr. finished 12th.

Christopher Bell, who captured his first-career Cup Series win last weekend at the Daytona Road Course, is looking to become just the fourth driver in series history to follow-up his first career win with another victory, a feat not accomplished in the series since 1964. If Bell were to win this weekend, he would join Billy Wade (1964), NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett (1959), and Dick Linder (1950) as the only four drivers in series history to accomplish the feat and Bell would be the first to do it in the Modern Era (1972-Present). Wade holds the series record for the most consecutive wins following a driver’s first series career win with four consecutive victories. He grabbed his first Cup victory on July 10, 1964, at Old Bridge Stadium. Ned Jarrett won his first race at Myrtle Beach on August 1, 1959, and Dick Linder won his first race at Dayton on August 20, 1950.

Bell made his series track debut at Homestead-Miami Speedway last season; he started 38th and raced his way up to an eighth-place finish.

23XI Racing starting strong and so far, the best among the new Cup teams

NBA Legend Michael Jordan made it very clear he wanted to be successful in NASCAR in his pre-season interviews and the new team he started in conjunction with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, 23XI Racing, is starting off the season in the right direction.

Jordan and Hamlin tapped Mobile, Alabama’s Bubba Wallace to pilot the No. 23 Toyota this season and the 27-year-old is looking up for the challenge. Wallace kicked the season off finishing 17th after being involved in a multi-car last lap incident in the Daytona 500, but not before grabbing points in the first two stage of the race. He then followed it up with a 26th-place finish at the DAYTONA Road Course and now sits 13th in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings 17 points ahead of the Playoff cutoff.  Which is the second-best start to a Cup season for Wallace following the first two races; he was 12th in points after the first two races last season.

Wallace is no slouch at Homestead-Miami Speedway either. While working his way up the NASCAR ranks, he collected a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory at the 1.5-mile track in 2014. In the NASCAR Cup Series, he has made three starts at Homestead-Miami posting a best finish of 13th last season.

When you compare the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota team to the two other new teams in the NASCAR Cup Series this season – No. 99 TrackHouse Racing Chevrolet driven by Daniel Suarez and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Ford driven by B.J. McLeod – the 23XI Racing is so far out performing them. 23XI Racing is ranked eighth (41 points) in the NASCAR Cup Series owner point standings followed by Live Fast Motorsports in 23rd (14 points) and TrackHouse Racing in 33rd (four points).

Steve Letarte returns to the pit box for Spire Motorsports

This week Spire Motorsports announced several team members on the No. 7 car will not be participating in this weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway due to COVID-19 protocols; including the crew chief Ryan Sparks. As a result, former NASCAR Cup Series crew chief turned NBC Sports NASCAR TV Analyst will return to the pit box this weekend and lead the No. 7 team with driver Corey LaJoie. Letarte served as crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series for nine full seasons at Hendrick Motorsports. During that time, Letarte led NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (10 wins) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (five wins) to a combined total of 15 victories in the series – none were at Homestead. LaJoie has made four series starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway posting an average finish of 31.2.

Homestead to host limited number of fans

NASCAR and Homestead-Miami Speedway announced back in December that the 1.5-mile venue’s February NASCAR weekend will play host to a reduced number of fans, and will also be pushed back one week later than originally scheduled. The decision to limit fans is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and is in accordance with enhanced safety protocols and procedures to provide a safe environment for guests, NASCAR competitors, employees, and the local community.

Now set for Feb. 27-28, the third weekend of the 2021 NASCAR season will be headlined by Homestead-Miami Speedway’s Dixie Vodka 400 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, Feb. 28 and a NASCAR Xfinity Series race set for Saturday, Feb. 27. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, originally scheduled for Friday, Feb. 19, has been realigned to the DAYTONA Road Course for the same date.

“The South Florida community and Homestead-Miami Speedway are always excited to welcome fans here from across the country,” said track President Al Garcia. “We pride ourselves on personal hospitality and incredible racing at our beautiful, colorful, one-of-a-kind facility. We will work with our fans to find the best opportunity to enjoy NASCAR racing at its finest, here at Homestead-Miami Speedway.”

• Next Race: Contender Boats 250
• The Place: Homestead-Miami Speedway
• The Date: Saturday, February 27
• The Time: 4:30 p.m. ET
• TV: FS1, 4 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 250.5 miles (167 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 40), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 80), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 167)

Homestead’s History

Saturday’s Contender Boats 250 at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be the 28th NASCAR Xfinity Series race held at the 1.5-mile track.

Last season, Harrison Burton won the first race at Homestead-Miami, leading only the final two laps before taking home his second career victory.

Chase Briscoe went on to win the second race at the Florida track after leading only 11 laps. Noah Gragson in the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet led a race-high 81 laps and ended up finishing fifth.

Brandon Jones finished second, while Ross Chastain finished third and AJ Allmendinger finished fourth.

The race had six cautions for 28 laps and 20 lead changes. The Margin of Victory was .072 seconds.

The inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami was on November 5, 1995 where Dale Jarrett took home the win and Joe Nemechek won the pole award.

There have been 20 different pole winners and 20 different race winners at the track in the Xfinity Series.

Burton’s win last season made him the youngest series winner at the track (19 years, 8 months, four days).

Tyler Reddick holds the race record from November 17, 2018 at 140.515 mph.

There have been five races won from the pole and or first starting position.

Joe Nemechek holds the record for the most races run at Homestead in the Xfinity Series (19). Kyle Busch, Jeff Green, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick are all tired for the most pole wins (2). Joe Nemechek also holds the record for the most wins at the track (3). Kyle Busch and Mark Martin are tied for the most top fives (7) and Matt Kenseth has the most top 10s (10). Kyle Busch has led the most laps at Homestead-Miami with 487.

Three drivers in history got their first Xfinity Series career win at the track: Cole Custer (2017), Kasey Kahne (2003) and Regan Smith (2012).

Most recent numbers at Homestead-Miami Speedway:

• There were 20 lead changes and eight different leaders in the most recent race at the track.
• There were six cautions for 28 laps and only nine cars finishing on the lead lap.
• There were 31 total cars running at the finish.
• The winner led only 11 laps.

Eyes on Harrison

Harrison Burton made a statement last season in his rookie year with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, winning four races, making it to the Playoffs and winning Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors.

He’s started out this season just as strong, too. In the first two races of the season, Burton finished third in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway and finished sixth last weekend at the Daytona Road Course. He’s already led a total of 31 laps in both races with his new crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, on the pit box.

Heading into this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Burton has some momentum on his side having won this race last season. It was his second career win after winning at Auto Club Speedway to start the 2020 season.

Burton started from the pole in the June race and led only two laps en route to the victory. He had a strong final restart that put him out front and took control of the final two laps.

Last season’s race had 18 lead changes and five cautions for 25 laps. Burton’s Margin of Victory over second-place finisher Austin Cindric was .179 seconds.

Burton has the fourth-best driver rating at Homestead-Miami Speedway at 101.5 and the second-best driver rating this season at 113.3.

Nemechek joining Sam Hunt Racing

John Hunter Nemechek is heading back to an Xfinity car in May for the first time since 2019. Nemechek will join Sam Hunt Racing in the No. 26 Toyota in select races this season, starting at Dover International Speedway. Nemechek is running full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports and joins a Sam Hunt Racing lineup that includes Brandon Gdovic, Kris Wright, and Santino Ferrucci.

JGR announces remainder of Ty’s schedule

After his NXS debut at the Daytona Road Course and claiming his first win, JGR announced the reminder of Ty Gibbs’ schedule for 2021 in the Xfinity Series. He’ll be back at Phoenix Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Dover International Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Pocono Raceway, Road America, Watkins Glen International, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Michigan International Speedway, Richmond Raceway, Charlotte ROVAL, and Kansas Speedway.

• Next Race: Silver State 200
• The Place: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• The Date: Friday, March 5
• The Time: 9 p.m. ET
• TV: FS1, 8 p.m. ET
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Distance: 201 miles (134 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 30), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 60), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 134)

source – NASCAR communications