Photos are courtesy of NASCAR via Getty Images, Nigel Kinrade Photography and Alec Martinez.

Seeking the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs: Kevin Harvick Still Leads, Loses Large Chunk of Advantage Following Mediocre Night
by Phil Allaway

Kevin Harvick had an off-night Sunday in Homestead.  He had contact with pit road with Matt DiBenedetto, then cut his right rear late.  A 26th-place finish saw him lose points to nearly everyone around him.  His lead is down to just eight points over Chase Elliott, who finished a strong second.  Joey Logano dropped to third after punching his nose in on pit road, then nearly wrecking.  The result was a 27th-place finish.  Brad Keselowski moves back up to fourth after finishing 10th.

Ryan Blaney gained one place to fifth after spending the whole night in the top five before finishing third.  Martin Truex Jr. dropped two places to sixth after finishing 12th.  Denny Hamlin's win moved him back up to seventh, displacing Alex Bowman.  Bowman was strong until the final run, when he dropped off and ended up a lap down in 18th.

Kyle Busch remains in ninth after working hard to finish sixth, while brother Kurt Busch is still 10th.  Jimmie Johnson had a terrible race, but recovered to finish 16th to hold onto 11th.  Clint Bowyer is still 12th after a quiet run to 11th.

Aric Almirola moved back up to 13th after earning his first top five finish of the year. DiBenedetto drops down to 14th after finishing 14th.  William Byron moves up one place to 15th after finishing ninth while Austin Dillon re-enters the top 16 after finishing seventh.

Dillon is once again the final driver in the playoffs at the moment.  He is two points ahead of teammate Tyler Reddick, who finished a career-best fourth Sunday night.  Erik Jones dropped back to 18th after cutting two right rear tires.  Chris Buescher remains in 19th, while Bubba Wallace is still 20th and the same 50 points out of 16th that he was after Martinsville.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 463, 2) Chase Elliott -8, 3) Joey Logano -29, 4) Brad Keselowski -51, 5) Ryan Blaney -52, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -53, 7) Denny Hamlin -68, 8) Alex Bowman -83, 9) Kyle Busch -104, 10) Kurt Busch -125, 11) Jimmie Johnson -141, 12) Clint Bowyer -147, 13) Aric Almirola -160, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -162, 15) William Byron -172, 16) Austin Dillon -182.
 

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
 

Playoff Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 18, 2) Joey Logano -5, 3) Brad Keselowski -6, t-4) Kevin Harvick -7, 5) Chase Elliott -8, 6) Alex Bowman -9, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -11, 8) Clint Bowyer -16, t-9) Ryan Blaney -17, t-9) Jimmie Johnson -17, t-9) William Byron -17.

 

Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott 133, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -13, 3) Alex Bowman -14, 4) Ryan Blaney -19, 5) Joey Logano -24, 6) Kevin Harvick -35, 7) Denny Hamlin -56, 8) Kyle Busch -62, 9) Brad Keselowski -66, 10) William Byron -73, 11) Aric Almirola -77, 12) Clint Bowyer -83, 13) Jimmie Johnson -87, 14) Tyler Reddick -95, 15) Matt DiBenedetto -99, 16) Erik Jones -101.

 

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 412, 2) Brad Keselowski -11, t-3) Denny Hamlin -42, t-3) Chase Elliott -42, 5) Joey Logano -48, 6) Kurt Busch -54, 7) Kyle Busch -72, 8) Ryan Blaney -73, 9) Martin Truex Jr. -75, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -96, 11) Alex Bowman -105, 12) Clint Bowyer -106, 13) Jimmie Johnson -108, 14) Austin Dillon -109, 15) Aric Almirola -115, 16) Erik Jones -122.

 

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona, Darlington-2, Homestead), Joey Logano (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Alex Bowman (Fontana), Kevin Harvick (Darlington-1, Atlanta), Brad Keselowski (Charlotte-1, Bristol), Chase Elliott (Charlotte-2)

 
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

 

Seeking the Xfinity Series Playoffs: Noah Gragson Retakes Points Lead With Strong Form

by Phil Allaway

Noah Gragson had the best car both Saturday and Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  Leading the most laps in both events, Gragson won stage two both days and claimed two top five finishes.  That allowed him to re-assume the points lead.  His advantage is 18 points over Chase Briscoe, who had a wild weekend.  Dropping ballast on the pace laps Saturday led to losing six laps at the start and losing three crewmembers to suspensions.  He recovered from that to somehow finish seventh.  Then, he won Sunday.  Harrison Burton remains in third after winning on Saturday and finishing eighth Sunday.  Austin Cindric is up two places to fourth after finishing second Saturday and 10th Sunday.

Ross Chastain is up to fifth after finishing ninth Saturday and third on Sunday.  Brandon Jones is up to sixth after finishing eighth Saturday and second on Sunday.  Justin Haley remains in seventh after a top 10 finish on Sunday.  Justin Allgaier is down four places to eighth after crashing out Saturday and hitting the wall late and having to make two unscheduled stops.

Ryan Sieg won stage one in both races, but had very unsatisfactory finishes.  Despite not finishing better than 19th, he gained a spot in the standings.  Michael Annett is up three places to 10th after a sixth-place finish Sunday and a late incident Sunday.  Riley Herbst is up one place to 11th after earning top 10 finishes in both races.  Daniel Hemric fell three places to 12th after skipping Saturday's race and crashing out late on Sunday.

Brandon Brown dropped one place to 13th after dropping out with overheating problems Sunday.  Since Hemric is ineligible for the playoffs due to missing two races, Brown is the final driver currently in the playoffs.  Brown is 17 points ahead of Josh Williams, who finished 20th Saturday and 12th Sunday.  Myatt Snider is 15th, while Alex Labbe is 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Noah Gragson 435, 2) Chase Briscoe -18, 3) Harrison Burton -45, 4) Austin Cindric -55, 5) Ross Chastain -61, 6) Brandon Jones -90, 7) Justin Haley -105, 8) Justin Allgaier -107, 9) Ryan Sieg -169, 10) Michael Annett -175, 11) Riley Herbst -179, 12) Daniel Hemric -198, 13) Brandon Brown -212, 14) Josh Williams -229, 15) Myatt Snider -231, 16) Alex Labbe -261.

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are currently outside of the playoffs.

Playoff Points: 1) Chase Briscoe 16, 2) Noah Gragson -1, 3) Harrison Burton -6, 4) Brandon Jones -9, 5) AJ Allmendinger -11, 6) Justin Allgaier -12, t-7) Austin Cindric -14, t-7) Ryan Sieg -14, 9) Jeb Burton -15.

Stage Points: 1) Noah Gragson 122, 2) Austin Cindric -3, 3) Ross Chastain -10, 4) Justin Allgaier -15, 5) Chase Briscoe -16, 6) Brandon Jones -42, 7) Justin Haley -56, 8) Daniel Hemric -60, 9) Harrison Burton -64, 10) Ryan Sieg -66, 11) Michael Annett -77, 12) Riley Herbst -94, 13) Jeb Burton -104, 14) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -111, 15) Myatt Snider -113, 16) Alex Labbe -114.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 11th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Harrison Burton 373, 2) Noah Gragson -10, 3) Chase Briscoe -18, 4) Brandon Jones -64, t-5) Austin Cindric -65, t-5) Ross Chastain -65, 7) Justin Haley -66, 8) Justin Allgaier -104, 9) Riley Herbst -108, 10) Brandon Brown -115, 11) Michael Annett -116, 12) Ryan Sieg -119, 13) Josh Williams -126, 14) Myatt Snider -136, 15) Daniel Hemric -165, 16) Alex Labbe -166.

Race Winners: Noah Gragson (Daytona, Bristol), Chase Briscoe (Las Vegas, Darlington, Homestead-2), Harrison Burton (Fontana, Homestead-1), Brandon Jones (Phoenix), Kyle Busch (Charlotte), AJ Allmendinger (Atlanta)

Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.

 

Seeking the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Playoffs: Austin Hill Extends Lead As Rivals Falter

by Phil Allaway

Austin Hill earned 16 stage points Saturday night and finished seventh in Homestead.  His immediate rivals in the standings had issues.  As a result, Hill's points lead has increased from 20 to 44 over new second-place man Christian Eckes.  Eckes gained four spots despite actually losing ground to HIll.  ThorSport Racing teammates Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes are tied for third.  Enfinger ran well early before fading to finish 17th, while Rhodes had a similar night en route to an 18th-place finish.

Todd Gilliland is up five places to fifth in points after finishing in sixth.  Zane Smith is down four places to sixth after crashing out early and finishing 37th.  Johnny Sauter is up one place to seventh after a solid fifth-place finish despite not earning any stage points.  Brett Moffitt dropped from a tie for third to eighth after crashing out in the same wreck that eliminated Smith.

Sheldon Creed dropped two places to seventh after finishing 20th.  That came after Creed hit the Fitch barriers (barrels) protecting the pit wall under yellow, which caused a red flag.  Tyler Ankrum is up one place to 10th after finishing second Saturday night.

Ankrum is currently the last driver in the playoffs.  He has a one-point lead over both Derek Kraus and Matt Crafton.  Crafton finished ninth despite wall contact while Kraus finished 15th.

Raphael Lessard is up two places to 13th after finishing in 11th.  Stewart Friesen dropped one position to 14th after finishing 14th.  Tanner Gray is down one place to 15th despite finishing 12th.  Ty Majeski remains in 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 209, 2) Christian Eckes -44, t-3) Grant Enfinger -48, t-3) Ben Rhodes -48, 5) Todd Gilliland -61, 6) Zane Smith -62, 7) Johnny Sauter -69, 8) Brett Moffitt -72, 9) Sheldon Creed -74, 10) Tyler Ankrum -76, t-11) Derek Kraus -77, t-11) Matt Crafton -77, 13) Raphael Lessard -95, 14) Stewart Friesen -97, 15) Tanner Gray -98, 16) Ty Majeski -100. 

 

Note No. 1: Drivers in bold have locked into the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series playoffs.

Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are not in the playoffs.

 

Playoff Points: 1) Grant Enfinger 11.

 

Stage Points: 1) Austin Hill 51, 2) Christian Eckes -1, 3) Ben Rhodes -8, 4) Grant Enfinger -11, 5) Matt Crafton -22, 6) Todd Gilliland -22, 7) Tyler Ankrum -24, 8) Brett Moffitt -26, 9) Raphael Lessard -28, 10) Zane Smith -32, 11) Johnny Sauter -33, t-12) Stewart Friesen -40, t-12) Derek Kraus -40, 14) Sheldon Creed -43, 15) Ty Majeski -45, 16) Tanner Gray -50.

 

Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be leading with 56 points. Ross Chastain would be second, Chase Elliott would be in a tie for eighth and Riley Herbst 15th.

 

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 142, 2) Zane Smith -32, 3) Sheldon Creed -33, 4) Johnny Sauter -38, 5) Grant Enfinger -40, 6) Derek Kraus -41, t-7) Todd Gilliland -42, t-7) Ben Rhodes -42, 9) Christian Eckes -44, 10) Brett Moffitt -49, 11) Tanner Gray -52, 12) Tyler Ankrum -54, 13) Matt Crafton -58, 14) Ty Majeski -59, 15) Stewart Friesen -60, 16) Raphael Lessard -70.

 

Note: If they were eligible for points, Ross Chastain would be second in Old School points, while Kyle Busch would be tied for third.

 

Race Winners: Grant Enfinger (Daytona, Atlanta), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, Homestead), Chase Elliott (Charlotte)

 

Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

 

 

Quotes to Remember: Dixie Vodka 400

compiled by Phil Allaway

 

"I knew with three runs to go, my crew chief [Chris Gabehart] was giving me lap times and saying that Chase Elliott] had good stuff going when we had that big lead. Really, I think our strong suit was being able to run a good lap time no matter where we were on the track. He was able to short pit us there. I wasn’t able to come to pit road, I kind of missed pit road there and he was able to get us on that cycle. I just knew if I ran the pace I knew I needed to save the tires that I was going to be good in the long run.
 

"This team fights for sure. My crew chief and myself had an hour-and-a-half phone call after Martinsville talking about how we’re going to go to work and keep fighting. This is a good response to a week like that." - Denny Hamlin, race winner
 

"[We just] needed to get through lap traffic better. I thought our Hooters Camaro was plenty good enough to win. I thought we executed a really nice race. I kept it out of the wall almost the whole race – got it there at the end. I’m proud of the effort. We’re bringing fast cars right now and everybody at HMS is working really hard to do that. So, we’ll keep putting ourselves in good position, do a little better job of getting through lap traffic, and maybe we’ll have another sticker. We’ll just try to put ourselves in more spots to win and see where it goes from there." - Chase Elliott, finished second
 

"When we came off pit road after that last green flag stop we were a ways behind those two guys and we made up a lot of ground, tons of ground on them, and just got to them and everyone is running the wall. You just get tight, especially in three and four. One and two there are multiple lanes, but three and four if you weren’t on the fence when you got 15 laps on your stuff, you were just tight and gonna hit the fence, so that made it hard for us to kind of go once we got there. [Tyler Reddick] was the same way with me. He kind of got there and stalled too, but I’m proud of the group. We had really good short run speed early in the race and I thought by the end we had really good long run speed, so we crossed over which is a good effort by the Jack Links team." - Ryan Blaney, finished third

 

"I’m really proud of my Chevy Cares Chevrolet team and the effort we showed today. We had really good speed today and were able to run up front pretty much all night long. The men and women of RCR and ECR did a great job preparing us with a fast racecar to bring down to my favorite track on the circuit. We were able to use that speed to our advantage and race into the top 10 within the first 30 laps, and were able maintain that track position. We fined tuned our car from then on out for the rest of the race and tried to make it better to run the fence. It was tough though because sometimes the top seam worked better instead of the fence, so figuring out which lane was the best to use at what time was tricky. We got a little too tight by the end of the night to really make the fence work like I wanted, but all in all, it was a solid effort tonight. I’ve won the past two times I’ve come here, granted in the Xfinity Series, but it was so fun to be ripping the fence with three of the best tonight in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was a hard-fought battle and one we can build momentum off of." - Tyler Reddick, finished fourth
 

"Man, we finally had a nice clean day today. We really needed that as a team. We haven’t raced a full race yet without having something go wrong. This proves we have the speed we need to compete this season if we continue to run clean with no mistakes. Homestead is not an easy track to earn a top-five at either. To get our first of the season here shows we have a lot of potential." - Aric Almirola, finished fifth
 

"We took our No. 3 Dow / Behr Ultra Scuff Defense Chevy to a top 10. That was a fun race for the Dow Coatings team. We were not good to start – we started from the back a couple of times. Made big adjustments – Justin [Alexander] made a good adjustment about halfway through the race to allow us to get some stage points. Things started turning for us and we got a good restart. And then a caution came out, pitted and we had a tire that got away. Unfortunate, but we kept our heads down and dug hard. We were able to come all the way back to P7. Strong run for our team." - Austin Dillon, finished seventh

 

"Our Rheem Camry was really, really loose to start the night and then Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) did a great job adjusting on it got it pretty close to where I was happy and then we were able to pick our way though there. The races are so long – there are so many yellows – that I really wasn’t worried about our starting position. I knew that if we had a car that was good; we were going to get up front." - Christopher Bell, finished eighth
 

"We had a good and solid night and honestly it was nice to be able to run in the top five. We continued to adjust on the car as the race went along there. Hopefully we can continue to string runs together like we had tonight and be able make the right adjustments at the right point in the race to be in contention in the end. We’re getting close to that first win we just need to continue working on a couple things to get faster. On to Talladega." - William Byron, finished ninth

 

TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:

 

Thinkin’ Out Loud: 2020 Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead

by Adam Cheek

Up to Speed: Is the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Field Already Set?

by Bryan Gable

 

NASCAR Stat Sheet: Homestead Latest Example Noah Gragson is For Real

by Dustin Albino

 

The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2020 Dixie Vodka 400

by Amy Henderson

 

Stock Car Scoop: Is Denny Hamlin’s 2020 Championship or Bust?

by Bryan Nolen

 

Xfinity Breakdown: A Tale Of Two Homesteads For Chase Briscoe

by Jared Haas

 

Xfinity Breakdown: Harrison Burton Leads Laps that Paid in Homestead

by Mark Kristl

 

Tracking the Trucks: Kyle Busch Scampers to Homestead Win

by Zach Gillispie

 

Zach Veach 2020 IndyCar Season Profile

by Elizabeth Blackstock

 

Felix Rosenqvist 2020 IndyCar Season Profile

by Elizabeth Blackstock

 

Will Power 2020 IndyCar Season Profile

FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Editor's Note: Frontstretch Trivia will no longer appear in it's present form.  It will return at a currently unknown time, but in a different form.  We hope to have prizes available to distribute at some point later this year in regards to contests in which trivia questions will be involved.

                                                                          Phil Allaway

                                                    Newsletter Manager, Frontstretch.com

From Friday:

Q:  While Homestead-MIami Speedway was built in the early-to-mid 1990s as a project Homestead could get behind after the devastating landfall of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, South Florida already had quite a substantial history in regards to major motorsports.  Two separate street races on separate circuits were held in Miami back in the mid-1980s.  

 

One was right downtown in and around the present site of the American Airlines Arena and a number of museums.  One was on the other side of the city.  What is on the site of that circuit today?

 

A:  Tamiami Park, on the west side of Miami, hosted four CART races from 1985-1988.  There were also exhibition races, known as the Marlboro Challenge, contested there from 1987-1988.

 

COMING TOMORROW

Newsletter:
We'll cover any news from Monday.
 
Frontstretch.com:
We'll take a closer look at the action as you saw it on television from Homestead.