Pit Stops : Homestead Miami Speedway

• Thursday, October 24th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

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.

• Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 300
• Pole Winner: Chandler Smith
• Age: 22
• Team : No 81 - QuickTie Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Jeff Meendering
• Chandler Smith won the Pole Award for the Credit One? NASCAR? AMEX Credit Card 300 with a lap of 33067 seconds, 163305 mph
• This is his sixth pole in 67 NASCAR Xfinity Series races
• This is his third pole and 25th top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in three races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Sheldon Creed (second) posted his 22nd top-10 start of 2024 and his third in three races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Aric Almirola (third) posted his fourth top-10 start at Homestead-Miami Speedway It is his ninth in 12 races this season
• Jesse Love (14th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Saturday, October 26th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Austin Hill earns a spot in Xfinity Championship Four with Homestead-Miami win

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 3.045-second 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 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.

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.

• Drivers Entered: 38
• Laps Scheduled: 200
• Margin of Victory: 03.045 Seconds
• Time of Race: 2 Hours 20 Minutes 23 Seconds
• Average Speed: 128.220
• Cautions: 3 for 19 laps
• Lead Changes: 10
• Green Flag Passes: 2,008 (11.1 passes per green flag lap)

• Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 300
• Race Winner: Austin Hill
• Age: 30
• Team : No 21 - Bennett Transportation Chevrolet
• Owner: Richard Childress
• Crew Chief: Andy Street
• Austin Hill won the Credit One? NASCAR? AMEX Credit Card 300, his 10th victory in 112 Xfinity Series races
• This is his fourth victory and 19th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in three races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Cole Custer (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in six races at Homestead-Miami Speedway It is his 21st top-10 finish in 2024
• Aric Almirola (third) posted his third top-10 finish in six races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Jesse Love (fourth) was the highest finishing rookie
• Justin Allgaier leads the point standings by 7 points over Cole Custer