NASCAR was the talk of the sports town on Wednesday for reasons outside of stock car racing, which should only fuel interest in the sport by casual fans. Martin Truex Jr. finally broke into the win column with a win at Martinsville Speedway in the last race, but no one has yet to win back to back this season. Can he be the first one? Or will another driver grab the checkered flag this coming Sunday in Miami?
Just like what we said prior to the race at Martinsville last Wednesday, Hamlin has been a bit of an up-and-down driver of late. And he’s continued that trend with a 24th-place finish at the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500. That performance came after a fifth-place finish at the Atlanta Motor Speedway during the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 race on June 7. Still, Hamlin is among the driver that demands attention, as he has two wins on the season. Furthermore, he has two career wins at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in 15 races there, dating back to 2005. Hamlin finished no worse than 10th in six of his past seven appearances at the said track.
After winning the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, Harvick failed to carry the momentum into Martinsville, as he settled for just a 15th-place finish last Wednesday. That’s still not much of a letdown for Harvick, compared to other drivers, as that 15th-place performance was his worst of the season and just the second time in 11 races so far this season in which he failed to crack the top 10. Can he bounce back this Sunday? Let’s just say that Harvick has finished fourth or better in his last six starts at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, including a win at the Ford EcoBoost 400 in 2014.
We’re in the second week of June and yet, last year’s NASCAR Cup Series king has yet to snag a victory this season. It appeared as though Busch was finally going to end his drought after going fourth at the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 and second at the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. Instead, he ended up finishing a disappointing 19th last Wednesday at Martinsville Speedway. But there’s never a good time to quit on Busch, especially if the next race is at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he’s won twice in his last five starts there.
Bowyer has zero wins to date at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, but in 16 career races there, he has managed to finish inside the top 5 three times and inside the top 20 six times. He also has a career average finish of 13.57 there.
Dillon also has yet to finish first at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, though, he only has six career starts there. Last year, he managed to secure a career-best eighth-place finish at the track, which could be taken as a good sign of great thing to come in South Beach for the Team Richard Childress Racing driver.
Wallace grabbed some headlines (kudos!) on Wednesday by driving a car with a custom “Black Lives Matter” design on it during the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 and finished a respectable 11th overall. Wallace has been showing signs of life of late, with two top 11s in his last three starts.
