Tag: Homestead

Hill roars to Xfinity Championship 4 with win at Homestead

An emotional Austin Hill climbed out of his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the Homestead-Miami Speedway frontstretch to celebrate one of the most significant race wins of his burgeoning career – claiming the Credit One NASCAR AMEX …

An emotional Austin Hill climbed out of his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the Homestead-Miami Speedway frontstretch to celebrate one of the most significant race wins of his burgeoning career – claiming the Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 300 trophy Saturday and securing one of four positions to race for a trophy in the Nov. 9 series championship finale.

Hill – who also swept both of the race’s stage wins — took the lead from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer with 11 laps remaining Saturday evening at the 1.5-mile South Florida track and raced off to a healthy 3.045s win over the fellow Playoff driver and reigning series champion Custer.

It was the fourth win of the season for Hill and 10th of this career. But importantly, it is the first time the 30-year-old Georgia native will have a chance to race for the championship trophy after multi-win seasons the last three years.

 

“I worked so hard for this. A lot of people doubt me but I wake up every day to prove them wrong,” Hill said. “I deserve to be here and I deserve to race for a championship. This No. 21 team deserves it just as much as I do. They work their [butts] off each and every day just like I do. I’ve got to give it up to those guys. They gave me a hell of a car.

“I can honestly say I’ve never cried coming to the start-finish line, but I had to get my emotions together going into Turn 1 after the checkered. All the hard work and dedication that goes into this. I don’t think everyone’s going to understand what this means for me, for my family and for [sponsor] Bennett. … I had to be on it today.

Pausing to take it in, he added, “This is amazing. To be able to go the Final Four. I’ve worked so hard at this and my dreams came true.”

With his win and A.J. Allmendinger’s victory last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, now only two positions remain for the title chase with one more race remaining – at the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway half-miler next week – to establish the championship foursome.

JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier – who only had three previous top-10 finishes at Homestead – took the checkered flag in eighth place which was good enough to keep the driver of the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet with the points lead in third place should he need that to advance to the championship race.

Custer, whose No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford led a race best 87 of the 200 laps, is now on that fourth-place cutoff line with a 28-point advantage over Saturday’s race pole-winner Chandler Smith. Smith, finished 13th and as with the bottom four ranked drivers is essentially in a must-win situation next weekend.

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Hill’s rookie teammate Jesse Love ran up front much of the day and finished fourth. He’s now sixth in the points standings – 35 points below Custer.

“It just shows you how good you have to be to get in the Championship Four,” Love said, noting of the Phoenix finale, “I feel like if we could get there we have a shot to win.”

JR Motorsports teammates Sam Mayer and Sammy Smith finished ninth and 22nd, respectively and find themselves in a similar must-win situation to Chandler Smith and Love next week at Martinsville.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola finished third Saturday behind the Playoff drivers, with Love and JGR’s Sheldon Creed rounding out the top five. Custer’s SHR teammate Riley Herbst, RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Mayer and last week’s race winner Allmendinger completed the top 10.

Of note, 18-year-old William Sawalich finished 24th in his much-anticipated Xfinity Series debut.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway half-miler next week for Saturday’s National Debt Relief 200 (4 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Allgaier is the defending race winner. Almirola won at the track this Spring.

RESULTS

Enfinger snatches second straight Truck Series win at Homestead

A strategy call from the pit box coupled with a patient move forward landed veteran Grant Enfinger his second consecutive NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoff race win in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway while his closest …

A strategy call from the pit box coupled with a patient move forward landed veteran Grant Enfinger his second consecutive NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoff race win in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway while his closest competitors ran out of fuel behind him in the closing laps.

Enfinger, who won the opening race in this Playoff round at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway three weeks ago denied the other seven Playoff racers a chance at an automatic bid into championship contention. So now at least two drivers will advance based on points-earned with only next Saturday’s race at Martinsville, Va. to settle which other three drivers move onward into the title fight.

Enfinger’s No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet suffered damage on an early race restart, and the team opted to move to a different pit strategy – taking tires and fuel on lap 80 while most of the day’s previous race leaders opted to pit later on lap 100. Ultimately Enfinger was able to both save enough fuel and race off to enough advantage that no one was able to catch him as he raced away to his 12th career victory.

Taking the lead for good with 22 laps remaining, Enfinger claimed a 17.5s win over ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski as other trucks on a similar alternate strategy to Enfinger – the No. 38 driven by Layne Riggs and the No. 2 driven by Nick Sanchez — began running out of fuel in the final two laps.

 

Enfinger had enough fuel he even did a burnout to celebrate the win.

“At the end of the day, [crew chief] Jeff [Stankiewicz] just had the best truck out here,” said Enfinger, who actually made up a lap on track after contact on a race re-start cut his tire earlier in the day.

“Our car was really fast after about five laps yesterday [in practice] and was the same way today. Jeff did a good job managing me with the tires and then managing me with the fuel. I feel like I saved at least 20 percent more than I did in the first run. Jeff was on me pretty hard obviously and the No. 38 [Layne Riggs] ran out and the No. 2 [Nick Sanchez] did too.

“Hard to beat these two weeks,” he added with a grin.

“We’ve had potential all year,” the 38-year-old Alabama native continued. “There’s been sometimes, I haven’t executed and sometimes we’ve just had bad luck. Maybe it’s just time we get our momentum now.”

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Connor Mosack finished a career best third-place in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports truck. The day’s most dominant truck, driven by TRICON Garage’s Playoff driver Corey Heim finished fourth after leading a race best 68 of the 134 laps. Heim continues to lead the championship standings and is now 49 points above fifth place with the top-four drivers advancing to the title race.

“Overall, a good day for points, but disappointing,” said Heim, who has a series best six wins on the year. “We were so fast last year and wanted to come back and redeem ourselves and win the race of course. But no complaints as far as points go, makes Martinsville a little bit easier if we put together a decent day.”

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Playoff driver Tyler Ankrum, finished fifth – his best finish of the Playoff run to date. Veteran Stewart Friesen was sixth, followed by Daniel Dye.

And three Playoff drivers – Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth, McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes and Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray rounded out the top-10.

Heading into the next race, Heim has that 49-point edge above the cutoff line. Eckes is 38 points to the good and Majeski now holds a 22-point advantage. Caruth is ranked fifth, the first driver outside the Playoff bubble, 22 points back. Gray is 24 points back and Ankrum and Sanchez – who finished 13th after running out of fuel – are 41 and 43 points behind, respectively.

Frankie Muniz, the popular actor from the Malcolm in the Middle television series, finished 33rd in his series debut, his truck suffering mechanical problems early in the race.

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races in the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway next Friday evening (6 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to settle the Championship Four field. Eckes won the race there this April.

RESULTS

Chance to return to Miami ‘a big draw’ for Formula E – Dodds

Formula E’s calendar for the upcoming 2024-25 season, announced today, featured the standout revelation that the series would be returning to Miami for the first time in a decade. The championship visited the south Florida city in its inaugural …

Formula E’s calendar for the upcoming 2024-25 season, announced today, featured the standout revelation that the series would be returning to Miami for the first time in a decade.

The championship visited the south Florida city in its inaugural season, with a race on the streets being won by Nicolas Prost for the e.dams Renault team ahead of Scott Speed for Andretti and Abt Sportsline’s Daniel Abt.

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Formula E has made no secret of its desire to increase its footprint in North America, having also raced in Long Beach in that first year (as well as the year after), New York between 2017-22, and north of the border in Montreal in 2017. More recently it’s raced in Portland – where it will return in two-week’s time – but while the Pacific Northwest event was a huge success on its debut last year, the championship couldn’t resist the lure of Homestead Miami Speedway.

Formula E’s only previous visit to Miami came in its first season. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images

“We think it’s a really good circuit, well suited to our style of racing, and the Miami name that comes with it, from a global audience, a global television audience, is a big draw,” Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds said of the move to Miami.

“I thought it was a very successful race in Portland last year, a very strong turnout and ticket sales have been pretty good this year as well for what is a doubleheader,” he said of Portland. “The race in Portland last year was a little bit of a surprise for us, I think. It delivered a much better race than we thought it might, and I think it being an IndyCar track, that opened our eyes up to the possibility of using other IndyCar tracks in the U.S. and the IndyCar crowd who largely came to watch it, because it is an IndyCar crowd there, were very very positive about our style of racing, the infrastructure we brought, the extent of the show.”

But while Miami’s return to the calendar has come at Portland’s expense, that’s not intended to be a trend that will continue, with Dodds describing the U.S as one of two “priority markets” for the series, along with China.

“We probably have around seven or eight different large U.S. cities currently talking to us about putting a race on in their city, so those conversations are live and always ongoing,” Dodds said. “One thing I’ve said previously is our calendar can sustain two races in North America and probably two races in China as the two locations in the world where we could put on two races, so I think what you might find in time is the North America market is an ‘and’, not an ‘or’, so we add an additional race location as opposed to continually changing out the U.S. locations.”

One potential additional U.S. location remains Los Angeles. Often talked about, it had been expected to be on next season’s schedule. But while Dodds confirmed “it’s not one for Season 11”, he did insist “I wouldn’t write off Los Angeles as a potential venue” for a future race.

IndyCar’s latest hybrid test felt ordinary – and that’s a good thing

Four cars and 12 drivers took part in the NTT IndyCar Series’ latest hybrid powertrain test across three days at Homestead-Miami Speedway’s roval, and like the last test at the same track, the news coming out of southern Florida was extremely …

Four cars and 12 drivers took part in the NTT IndyCar Series’ latest hybrid powertrain test across three days at Homestead-Miami Speedway’s roval, and like the last test at the same track, the news coming out of southern Florida was extremely positive.

With the familiar Chevrolet testing teams of Arrow McLaren and Team Penske joined by Honda’s Andretti Global and Chip Ganassi Racing, the foursome deployed different drivers in each car each day, and all totaled, another 1,202 laps—largely trouble-free—were completed and added to the 1,446 laps produced during the three-day January 29-31 test at Homestead-Miami.

Testing new software for the motor generator unit and the supercapacitor energy storage system created in a partnership between Chevy and Honda was a significant focus during the newest test.

Combined, 5,852 miles of hybrid testing has been logged in recent weeks and, barring a few minor glitches, the widespread running continues to be hailed as a major success.

“We didn’t have any big issues, which makes that two hybrid tests in a row that have been that way,” Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood told RACER. “There were a couple of little software gremlins from new stuff that they’re trying, which is normal. Anytime you try something new, it’s not ever gonna work identically to what you expect it to do, so that was handled pretty quickly and everyone got on with their business.”

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In a short period of time, Andretti’s two-time race winner says IndyCar’s hybrid testing has become rather boring, which is a good sign. Most of the tests last year were fraught with problems and failures with the ERS units. Through six days and nearly 6000 miles of running with the latest specification of the MGU and ESS, zero failures have occurred.

“None so far, and we were really just logging miles and logging more miles and nothing really remarkable to report there, honestly,” Kirkwood added. “That said, they had a lot of new people there from both manufacturers, and they’re at a point now that they’re comfortable with the program that they have in place with the hybrid unit.

“It wasn’t like there was any ‘lightbulb’ moments this time. I feel like we’ve already got past a lot of those and they’re just refining the system. Honestly, they’re doing changes nonstop to the hybrid; every single run they tried something different and I almost never felt a change, which to me means it’s a good thing because they’re just running through confirmation checks on everything. In every scenario it was all working fine and just kept going. Nothing caught us off guard.”

Testing of the ERS units will continue later in March on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course. Other venues, including ovals, will be visited by the hybrid test teams before the systems are introduced in competition this summer. Taking into account how well the first and second tests have gone, Kirkwood, who was there for some of the rough tests in 2023, is a big advocate for the technology and how well it’s performing in 2024.

“The feeling is that it’s a safe and good product that we can put on track right now, which I think is why the manufacturers are starting to bring in a lot of new engineers to get them up to speed on the hybrid stuff and all the new gadgets and toys that they have to play with on their computers while we’re running,” he said.

“That was only the real difference compared to the previous tests. Yes, there is new software. Yes, they had a couple little gremlins early on, but once they got past that, everything was smooth sailing, just like it was at the previous test for us. We’re now just pounding around doing laps. That’s super encouraging for everyone, I think.”

Homestead IndyCar testing Trackside Report

IndyCar kicked off its first test ahead of the 2024 season on the Homestead-Miami Speedway roval and RACER’s Marshall Pruett was there to watch and gain insights from Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino and …

IndyCar kicked off its first test ahead of the 2024 season on the Homestead-Miami Speedway roval and RACER’s Marshall Pruett was there to watch and gain insights from Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino and Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey.

Click HERE to watch on YouTube.

Homestead – JGR’s tale of two races after Hamlin, Truex DNFs

Joe Gibbs Racing heads into the final elimination race of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason with two of its main players sitting on the outside looking in. Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin are both 17 points below the cutline. The duo had …

Joe Gibbs Racing heads into the final elimination race of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason with two of its main players sitting on the outside looking in.

Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin are both 17 points below the cutline. The duo had non-related issues at seemingly the same time Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, both resulting in retirements from the race.

Truex finished 29th with what is suspected to be an engine issue. Under the lap 236 caution, Truex’s No. 19 Toyota began smoking out of the right side and after bringing it to the attention of his crew he was pushed behind the wall.

It had been a rough afternoon for Truex, who started from the pole. He had speed but again seemed to fight the handling of his car, particularly while in dirty air. The team was also bit by an untimely caution on lap 213 when the yellow flew after Truex had already made a pit stop.

The No. 19 was forced to take the wave around, which mired him deep in the field. Fortunately, a quick caution on the restart allowed him to rejoin the leaders. He was running 21st when the mechanical issue struck.

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Coincidentally, the caution where Truex exited the race was brought out by his teammate. Hamlin hit the wall in Turn 1 while running third. It was unclear in the immediate aftermath what caused the issue.

“We tried and it just didn’t work out,” Hamlin said of his day. “Unfortunate for this Sport Clips Toyota team. We really battled back well today – just a tough break.”

Hamlin led 31 laps. He had been battling Ryan Blaney for the lead on the lap 230 restart before falling to third when teammate Christopher Bell passed them both in a three-wide move in Turns 3 and 4.

Truex did not address the media.

“I think it shows you how hard our sport is,” Joe Gibbs said. “We had such a disappointment with the No. 11, Denny, cutting a tire down. I felt like he was fast. Martin qualified on the pole. I thought we had a chance with that car. But just a series of circumstances, then lose the motor. It shows you how hard our sport is because those were two cars that, for a while, for us, were up front.”

Bell was the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver who made the Championship 4 last season. Truex did not make the playoffs but rebounded and won the regular season championship this year. Hamlin was eliminated at Martinsville Speedway, where the series visits next.

Truex’s average finish in the postseason is 20.7. He’s made the Championship 4 on five occasions.

Hamlin’s average finish in the postseason is 14.1. Four times he’s been in the Championship 4.

‘I didn’t expect him to slow down so early’ – Larson on pit road crash

Kyle Larson felt the victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway would be determined by who had control of the race coming off pit road, and by trying to be aggressive during a round of green flag pit stops, Larson took himself out of contention. On lap …

Kyle Larson felt the victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway would be determined by who had control of the race coming off pit road, and by trying to be aggressive during a round of green flag pit stops, Larson took himself out of contention.

On lap 213, Larson followed race leader Ryan Blaney to pit road. The No. 5 kept up momentum and tried to close the gap coming to the commitment line, but quickly closed on the Ford, locked up the brakes and tagged Blaney in the bumper. Larson then hit the sand barriers that protect the outside pit wall.

 

The damage to the right front ended Larson’s day. He finished 34th after winning the first stage and leading a race-high 96 laps.

“I was just maximizing all I could and I didn’t expect him to slow down so early,” Larson said. “I was just trying to get to the yellow line as quickly as possible and felt like I was in control, and from my vantage point, he slowed down a lot. But from there (on TV) it just looks like I bomb it in there. I just need to look at some data and see where I was relative to pit road speed and all that.

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“I hate it for Ryan more than anything; he was doing a super good job out front, and his team’s been doing a really good job throughout the playoffs, and that was not my intention. I was just trying to get as close to his back bumper as I could to hopefully have a good cycle and have a better a pit stop and come out in front of him and control the race from there. Just upset more than anything with myself. Even if he did slow down, I still should have not pushed that hard. Just a bummer, and hopefully his team can recover from it.”

Blaney finished second and led 53 laps, moving above the playoff grid cutline by 10 points.

“I don’t really know what I was thinking during the initial part,” Larson said. “I was trying to stay off him as I knew I was going to probably hit him. I just locked the brakes up; I locked the fronts up and slid to the right and clipped the right side of his rear bumper, and that kind of shot me even more right into the barrels.

“I was in control of my car, I just didn’t anticipate him getting to pit road speed as early as he did.”

Larson is clinched into the championship race in two weeks after winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The No. 5 team was looking for their second consecutive win at Homestead.

Bell comes from behind to secure critical Homestead win

Christopher Bell will compete for the NASCAR Cup Series championship for the second consecutive year after a come-from-behind win Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Bell made the winning pass on William Byron on lap 252 of 267. He led the final 16 …

Christopher Bell will compete for the NASCAR Cup Series championship for the second consecutive year after a come-from-behind win Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Bell made the winning pass on William Byron on lap 252 of 267. He led the final 16 laps unchallenged and won by 1.6s over Ryan Blaney.

It was a fight to get to that point. Bell qualified 13th and was in danger of going a lap down in the second stage. When he was informed of this by his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, Bell sarcastically replied, “OK, I’ll start trying.”

It was not until lap 221 that he ran a green flag lap inside the top five. A caution with 46 laps to go further pushed Bell toward the front. He lined up fourth (second in the outside lane) for the restart and made a three-wide move in Turns 3 and 4 to clear Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney for the lead.

 

The No. 20 led until a caution flew a few laps later and the field returned to pit road. He came off pit road third and again chose to line up fourth for the final restart that took place with 25 laps to go.

The late charge resulted in his second win of the season. It is his first at Homestead.

“I’ve got the best team behind me,” Bell said of the rebound. “Honestly, I don’t know man, that race was a whirlwind and I was ready to throw the towel in in the second stage, and I got really frustrated on the radio and Adam [Stevens] kept after it. Adam, Tyler Williams, the guys back at the shop working over the adjustments…it gave me what I needed. When we got some clean air, this thing was really good.

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“I cannot say how proud I am to be here with our partners Rheem and DeWalt, driving these Toyota Camrys. I’ve been with Toyota since day one, so thank you to everyone who supported me. This is better than a dream come true.”

Blaney finished second after leading 53 laps. The Team Penske driver avoided potential disaster when Kyle Larson ran into him coming to pit road under green flag conditions on lap 213. Blaney was leading and Larson was trying to close the gap when he hit the Penske Ford in the bumper and then hit the sand barrels to bring out the red flag.

Tyler Reddick finished third, Byron fourth and AJ Allmendinger fifth. Bubba Wallace finished sixth, Ty Gibbs seventh, Joey Logano eighth, Aric Almirola ninth and Austin Dillon 10th.

Chris Buescher finished 21st. He is now in a must-win scenario going into the elimination race next weekend.

Martin Truex Jr. finished 29th with a potential engine issue. Denny Hamlin finished 30th after hitting the wall in Turn 1 on lap 236 while running inside the top five.

Larson finished 34th. He led the most laps (96) and won the first stage. Blaney won the second stage.

There were 25 lead changes among nine drivers in the 4EVER 400, and five caution flags.

Full results to come

Mayer fends off charging Herbst to grab Xfinity win at Homestead

Sam Mayer claimed his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series oval victory in the second half of a NASCAR doubleheader at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday in the Contender Boats 300 after holding off last week’s race winner Riley Herbst by a mere …

Sam Mayer claimed his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series oval victory in the second half of a NASCAR doubleheader at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday in the Contender Boats 300 after holding off last week’s race winner Riley Herbst by a mere 0.227s.

It marks the JR Motorsports driver’s fourth series victory of the season and his career. Most important for Mayer – who joked he didn’t breath the final four laps: it is his ticket into the Championship 4 finale that will decide the series title at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks.

The 20-year old Wisconsin native’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet led 46 laps on the day – including the final 30 – but brushed the wall exiting Turn 3 as he pushed forward on the last lap to keep a fast-closing Herbst behind him. Mayer’s fellow NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender John Hunter Nemechek finished third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after leading seven laps despite feeling under the weather.

Regular-season champion Austin Hill was fourth in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and NASCAR Hall of Famer and crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth in his second and final start of the season.

“It’s unreal; we won on an oval,’’ a grinning Mayer screamed into the front grandstands. “This Chevrolet Camaro was so good.

“It’s all about putting a full race together,’’ he continued. “I’m so proud of these guys. They kicked tail on pit road and we made it happen with these HMS (Hendrick Motorsports) engines.

“It’s just really cool to be able to beat an amazing organization like that (Herbst’s Stewart-Haas Racing team). We’ve got to turn it on a little harder going into Phoenix.’’

 

Herbst’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer won Stage 1 and led a dominating 114 of the race’s 200 laps only to suffer a tire problem with 50 laps remaining and drop a lap down. He rallied back but still finished 13th after an impressive early race. Custer and Hill are now tied three points above the cutoff line heading into next week at the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Nemechek holds a healthy 44 point edge above them.

Another title favorite, Mayer’s JRM teammate Justin Allgaier – who came into the race ranked second in the championship standings — also had a tire issue after a pit stop and dropped back midway through the race. He rallied back to finish 15th, but dropped to fifth place in the standing, three points behind Hill for the automatic transfer position for the Championship 4.

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Nemechek’s JGR teammate Sammy Smith, who finished ninth, is now 49 points back in sixth place. It was a more dramatic day for the other championship contenders with Richard Childress Racing’s Sheldon Creed finishing 26th after exiting onto pit road with smoke trailing out of his Chevy with only two laps remaining in the race.

Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith rounds out the Playoff 8 – but finished a frustrating 34th place after being collected in an early accident. They are now 54 (Smith) and 65 (Creed) points below the fourth place transfer line and will need to win the race at Martinsville next week to meet their Playoff goals.

Kaulig’s Daniel Hemric, Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman, JRM’s Brandon Jones, and the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Sammy Smith and Joe Graf Jr. rounded out the top 10 on Saturday.

Earnhardt’s participation was certainly a crowd pleaser and his fifth-place effort in the JR Motorsports Chevy was his fifth top-five showing since he retired from full-time competition in the NASCAR Cup Series after the 2017 season. He methodically worked his way forward from a 23rd place starting position and survived a close call in the closing laps, ironically with Josh Berry, who drives for Earnhardt.

“Luckily it didn’t hurt our car and we were able to finish really good, so I’m happy about that,’’ Earnhardt said, noting he felt badly having an incident with one of his own team cars.

The series moves to the half-mile Martinsville Raceway for next Saturday’s Dead On Tools 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) which will formally decide which three drivers will join Mayer in championship eligibility at the Phoenix season-ender.

“Getting that first oval win [today] was big. … we finally won on an oval and my confidence is feeling good,’’ Mayer said with a huge grin.

RESULTS

Hocevar edges closer to Truck Series title with Homestead win

Carson Hocevar secured his first NASCAR CRATSMAN Truck Series Championship 4 appearance with a victory Saturday in the Baptist Health Cancer Care 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, earning all four of his career series wins this season – the trophy …

Carson Hocevar secured his first NASCAR CRATSMAN Truck Series Championship 4 appearance with a victory Saturday in the Baptist Health Cancer Care 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, earning all four of his career series wins this season – the trophy Saturday most impactful among them.

Hocevar put his No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead with 11 laps remaining and held off the hard-charging Zane Smith by 2.705s to claim the win over the reigning series champion, whose runner-up effort was disqualified by NASCAR after a post-race technical inspection found the defending series champion’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford was illegal – using an unapproved windshield support.

 

“We are disappointed in the disqualification,’’ Front Row Motorsports said in a statement after the NASCAR inspection. “We will continue to work and discuss with NASCAR officials back at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, N.C. before making any further comment.’’

The DQ moved ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes into runner-up on the afternoon helping him to advance to the Playoffs — prevailing in a tiebreaker with rookie Nick Sanchez, the polesitter who finished 17th after making contact with another truck coming to pit road for his final stop.

Regular season champion, TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim, GMS Racing’s Grant Enfinger and Hocevar’s Niece Motorsports teammate Bailey Curry rounded out the top five.

Heim, Hocevar, Enfinger and Rhodes will now race for the championship Nov. 3 at Phoenix Raceway.

Hocevar celebrated the win by climbing high atop the flag stand to claim the checkered flag in person. He threw it down to the cheering fans behind the fence then climbed back down on the grandstand side to high-five fans and celebrate the biggest win of his life – to date.

“It kills me I can’t do a burnout but we have to take this truck to Phoenix,’’ a grinning Hocevar said. “This truck was so good. We just got behind on pit stops and just lost track position which was unfortunate, but man, it’s so good to feel [like this]. I love it.

“I thought we could win today with our truck, even with all the setbacks from the debris and everything. We had a shot to win and we did just that.’’

The battle for that final Playoff position was as dramatic as the fight for the victory.

Rhodes came into this final regular season race only five points behind Sanchez for the fourth championship-eligible transfer position. He finished 24th in the opening stage and 10th in the second stage. It still left him outside looking into the Championship 4, so Rhodes’ ThorSport team opted to pit for fresh tires early and out of pit sequence. The move allowed his No. 99 Ford to take the race lead as the other frontrunners pit later.

He held the point with 30 laps remaining only to have Hocevar and Smith chase him back down. Hocevar passed him with 11 laps remaining, Smith a lap later.

“We failed Ben today. We didn’t give him a very good truck and he bailed us out at the end there,’’ Rhodes’ crew chief Rich Lushes said. “It was the only call we had. We had to do something different than everybody else and it all worked out so I guess we’re going to [the championship race] again.’’

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It was a heartbreaking ending for the 22-year old Sanchez, who is from nearby Miami and raced often at Homestead-Miami Speedway as he was coming up the junior ranks. He won the pole and led the opening five laps, only to see his Playoff hopes in jeopardy after a miscue approaching his final pit stop with 34 laps remaining. His No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet hit the back of Tanner Gray’s truck as the two were slowing to enter pit road causing noticeable damage to Sanchez’ Chevrolet.

“Obviously I lost a lot of time there and just lost time in the pits trying to fix it,’’ Sanchez said. “Just my fault, no two ways to it. I really didn’t know the No. 15 was pitting and didn’t slow down [enough], so that’s on me. I apologize to my team. They’re going to support me. To miss by one point is pretty rough, but all you can do is go to Phoenix and try to win.”

Heim led a race-best 57 of the 134 laps and swept both Stage victories. His third place finish marked the series-best 15th-consecutive top-10 finish of the season.

“I really thought we had them covered today. I mean, we were smoking the first two stages and kind of waiting on the third stage and then it went out like a light switch so we’ll look everything over,’’ Heim said, adding, “We’ve got bigger things on the horizon so we’ll focus on that.’’

Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Rajah Caruth, Ty Majeski and Chase Purdy rounded out the top 10. Majeski joins Smith, Sanchez and Christian Eckes being eliminated from Playoff contention.

Eckes finished 20th after what looked like a sure-bet top-10 finish was hampered by penalties and miscues on the afternoon. He was called for moving lanes on a restart and another time for speeding on pit road exit late in the race.

“We had a truck able to advance and just kept making mistakes,’’ Eckes said. “Just wasn’t good enough today.’’

IndyCar star Marco Andretti finished 18h in his second series start in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. He’s also scheduled to race at Phoenix in two weeks.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series concludes the season with the Craftsman 150 at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 3 (10:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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