Dale Earnhardt Jr. advocates for Homestead Miami’s return as Cup finale race
Dale Jr. wants Homestead Miami to return as the NASCAR season finale race track.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has advocated for the return of Homestead Miami as the season finale venue of the Cup series. He wants the season to end in Florida as it also starts in the same state as the iconic Daytona 500. Miami is a playoff R-8 race, while the finale is hosted at Phoenix Raceway.
Phoenix replaced Homestead as the venue for the Cup finale in 2020. Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott was the first driver to win the championship there. Kyle Larson and Joey Logano won in the following season. Miami was the final venue from the 2002 season. Homestead took the place of New Hampshire Motor Speedway. NHM was a one-year replacement for Atlanta, which had been hosting finales since 1987.
While discussing the recently released Cup Series schedule, Junior pointed out that though he loves the Phoenix track and racing there, most NASCAR fans miss seeing the most significant race of the season hosted at Miami. He said via Dale Jr. Download podcast, “I don’t know what’s that. I love Phoenix. I love going there. I think everybody misses Homestead.”
The two times Daytona 500 winner went on to describe why a return to Homestead would be a great idea. He pointed out that the race has a certain vibe that can’t be replicated in most places. Dale Jr. said that winning the trophy with the sun setting behind in the nice warm weather of Maimi matches everything.
“What is synonymous with finishing the year is that Florida sunset. It was like, the vibe at the racetrack and everything about it, it was like clockwork, it felt right, it matched, and all those beautiful sunsets and the nice warm weather,” Dale Jr. added.
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SHR has a special treat for Kevin Harvick at Homestead this Sunday
The NASCAR Cup garage is in Miami this weekend for the second race of Round of 8. The race win is special for the 2014 Cup series champion, Kevin Harvick, who is set to retire at the end of the 2023 season. He has just three more races left in the premier division before moving on to the next phase of his career.
Harvick won his first and only world title in 2014 at Miami. To celebrate this achievement, he will be driving a car with the same paint scheme he used the day he won the championship. Budweiser, one of the co-brands of Harvick’s primary sponsor AB brand Busch Light, will return. The car and fire suit will use the iconic red and white theme of the band.
“I think the single best race has to be Homestead of 2014, just with the way everything went and the great call and the race at the end and everything that happened with coming to Stewart-Haas Racing that first year… I think that single race is probably the one that I would circle just because of everything that happened and everything that it summarized,” Harvick said about the event’s significance.
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Justin P Joy
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