By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 8 is off to a hot start

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – If this penultimate three-race round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs continues as it started last weekend, race fans will be in store for a bold, all-bets-off Championship Four race in just two weeks.

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, leads the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR Cup Series 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 22, 2023 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

No doubt Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has the potential to shake-up the championship standings. Again.

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano claimed the first of the four championship-eligible positions last weekend winning at Las Vegas – a week after the Team Penske driver was reinstated into Playoff contention following the disqualification of Hendrick Motorsports’ Playoff driver Alex Bowman.

As compelling as Logano’s dramatic victory and 2024 storyline has become, Las Vegas was an impactful race for most of the eight Playoff drivers.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell finished runner-up to Logano after dominating most of the race. Logano’s win is that automatic first position in the Championship Race and for Bell, his runner-up showing moved him into the points lead, by seven-points over Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson. Hendrick’s William Byron, who finished fourth at Vegas, holds the final transfer position as of now – 27 points ahead of JGR’s Denny Hamlin.

On the flip side, Regular Season Champion, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was involved in a multi-car crash racing up front at Las Vegas that also collected two other Playoff drivers – Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and reigning series champion, Penske’s Ryan Blaney.

None of these perpetual three title-favorites finished better than 32nd-place and Reddick dropped to sixth in the standings, 30 points behind Byron. Blaney is 47 points back and Elliott, the 2020 series champion, is 53 points back from the cutoff line. An extraordinary points-day or a victory at Homestead-Miami may likely be the only path forward for these three – none of which have ever won a NASCAR Cup Series race at the South Florida 1.5-miler.

“Going into the Round of 8, our mindset was we’re going to have to win to have a shot in Phoenix, so what happened at Las Vegas doesn’t really change that,” said Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “It was unfortunate because our NAPA Chevy was really, really good and I think we would have potentially had a shot at it there at the end if we hadn’t got caught up in that incident.

“The fact that we had speed though gives me confidence heading into Homestead this weekend. Our team is fully capable of winning. We just need to go and execute.”

Hamlin, who also has an intimidating amount of points to make up, is the winningest of all eight Playoff drivers at Homestead with three wins and the only Playoff driver with multiple wins there. Only the defending race winner, Bell (10.0) and Elliott (10.4) have better average finishes than Hamlin (10.9), whose last Homestead win was in 2020. Logano won there in 2018, Larson in 2022 and Byron in 2021. Counting Logano’s 2018 win, current Playoff drivers have won five of the last six Homestead races.

In fact, Hamlin is easily the winningest driver among the Playoff eight at the three remaining tracks – Homestead, the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway half-miler and the Phoenix mile – combining for 10 wins at the venues (five at Martinsville and two at Phoenix). Hamlin’s average finishing position at all three tracks is better than 11th place – and that is with three times the number of starts both Bell and Byron have at each track; twice as many starts as Larson.

“I feel like we’re going to have to go to both of these races and run top three all day to get points in the stages and good points in the race,” said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota. “That’s going to be a tall task, but Homestead is straight-forward from a strategy perspective. You’re going to take four tires anytime you pit, so that will allow guys that are up front to stay up front.

“We need to be in that group and hope for a little luck from someone having a bad day or whatnot to make up that gap. Then at Martinsville, who knows with the new tire? It has traditionally been a race with mixed strategies, but we just don’t know, so that one will be a bit of a wild card.”

Practice is scheduled for 9:05 a.m. ET on Saturday followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 9:50 a.m. ET. – both sessions available on MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the NBC Sports App. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. is the defending pole-winner.

Homestead-Miami could be a springboard for Xfinity Series Playoff competitors

Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger proved to be a man of fine timing scoring his first win of the season in last week’s Playoff race at Las Vegas to earn an automatic bid into the Championship finale Nov. 9 at Phoenix Raceway.

The last two seasons, Playoff drivers have similarly celebrated their ticket to contend for the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the NASCAR Xfinity Series Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 300 is the second half of a Saturday double-header (3:30 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Two of the eight Playoff drivers have victories at Homestead-Miami, including defending race winner Sam Mayer and 2017 race winner Cole Custer. A win for either would be well-timed with only two races (at Homestead and then Martinsville, Va. next week) to decide which four drivers are championship eligible for the Phoenix race.

JR Motorsports’ veteran Justin Allgaier currently leads the points standings with a healthy 32-point advantage atop the four-driver cutoff line. The defending series champion Custer is next, 16 points to the good and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith holds that final transfer position by a slim eight-points over Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill.

Hill’s RCR rookie teammate Jesse Love is 13 points below Chandler Smith. JR Motorsports’ teammates Mayer and Sammy Smith are 23 and 53 points back, respectively.

Of note, Allgaier’s points position now may prove especially helpful for the perennial championship contender considering he has only three top-10 finishes in 15 starts at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami oval. His best career finish is sixth back in 2016. His only top-10 since then was a 10th place in 2022.

On the flip side, Hill has a perfect two-for-two top-10 showing at Homestead-Miami, including fourth place last year. Mayer is the defending winner and Sammy Smith started fifth and finished 10th last year in his only previous start at the track. This will be the 19-year-old rookie Love’s first Homestead race.

Practice for the race is at 4:05 p.m. ET on Friday with qualifying following at 4:40 p.m. ET – both sessions available to watch on the NBC Sports App.

CRAFTSMAN Truck Series to kickoff Saturday doubleheader of racing at Homestead-Miami

After a week off, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to Playoff competition this weekend as the opening race of a Saturday doubleheader in South Florida, the Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Noon ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Veteran Grant Enfinger became the first driver to earn a position in the Nov. 8 Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway – capturing the win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway two weeks ago.

This weekend’s race on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami track will go a long way to deciding who will be joining the driver of the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet to race for the big trophy. The season’s winningest driver, TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim holds a healthy 30-point advantage over the Championship 4 Round cutline heading into the green flag, with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes 29 points to the good and ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski five points up in that final transfer position over Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth.

Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray is 13 points out of the top-four, followed by REV Racing’s Nick Sanchez (-20) and McAnally-Hilgemann’s Tyler Ankrum in eighth place, 23 points down.

It’s actually the tightest Playoff battle among NASCAR’s three premier series- both how close – a five-point margin – it is from that pivotal fourth place position to being out of the title chase in fifth and also the relatively tight gap (-23 points) from eighth place to fourth.

Last year was a “Playoff Day” in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami with Carson Hocevar leading a quartet of championship-eligible drivers that swept the top-four finishing positions. The only former winner in the field this weekend is Majeski, who claimed the trophy in 2022.

The Wisconsin-native and two-time winner this season is three-for-three in top-10s at Homestead-Miami and led a race best 67 laps en route to his win there two years ago.

Heim is another driver to watch, scoring top-five finishes in both his Homestead-Miami starts, including a best of third last year and fifth place in 2022. Enfinger has the most starts (seven) at the track among the Playoff eight with a best showing of runner-up in 2018.

Practice for the race is Friday afternoon at 2:35 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 3:05 p.m. ET.