5 days agoWilliam Byron of Hendrick Motorsports had a performance of missed potential at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 as he ended in 12th. Beginning the race from the fifth position, Byron showcased that he had one of the better cars of the field as he ran inside the top 10 through the entire stage. Despite making it as high as the top three, Byron faded back to sixth, still scoring stage points. In the second stage, Byron and his No. 24 team utilized pit strategy to get him to the front, but he ran most of the stage in second place before others on fresh tires passed him. Byron ended stage two in fourth, earning more stage points. In the final stage, Byron kept his car clean and tried to use further strategy, but he could not capitalize on his car's speed and was shuffled back in the pack, unlike the previous two stages. Byron would make it back as far as 12th position, giving him just his second finish outside of the top 10 this season. Byron remains the current points standings leader despite his underwhelming result this weekend.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
5 days agoChris Buescher of RFK Racing quietly nabbed a finish of sixth during Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In the first stage, Buescher began the race from the 11th position, riding around the top 15 through the duration of the stage. The No. 17 Ford driver ended stage one in 13th, failing to score stage points. In the second stage, Buescher would end up in the 11th position and fall short of earning stage points again. In the final stage, Buescher kept his car clean and, after his team made improvements, drove into the top 10 and fell short of a top-5 finish. This was a new career-best finish at Homestead for Buescher, as well as the fourth top-10 result of the season, tying him with Kyle Larson and William Byron for the second most this year.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
5 days agoRFK Racing's Ryan Preece earned another strong result for the 2025 season as he placed ninth during Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Beginning the race from the 31st position, Preece quietly spent the entire race working his way through the pack. At the end of the first stage, the No. 60 Ford driver made it to the 20th position, failing to score stage points. Preece made it even closer to the front by the end of the second stage, as he placed 14th. Then, in the final stage, Preece kept his car out of trouble, executed on pit stops, and drove his way up to the ninth position, collecting his second consecutive top-10 result of the season. It was the third time in his Cup career that Preece scored back-to-back top-10 finishes, and he now cracked the top 16 in the points standings for the first time this season.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
5 days agoHomestead has always been one of Denny Hamlin's stronger tracks, so it didn't come as much of a surprise that he eventually finished fifth in Sunday's race there, but for a while, it looked like he might finish significantly worse. Hamlin initially started 23rd and fell back as low as 30th in the early laps of Stage 1, but a savvy strategy play to stay out of the pits later during each of the first two stages allowed him to have fresher tires at the end of both stages. It reaped great dividends, as he blasted through the field at the end of both stages, eventually finishing 11th in Stage 1 while making up a massive deficit to Ryan Blaney to win Stage 2. However, he lost the lead to Kyle Larson on the Stage 2 pit stops and would never regain it. His solid run helped erase some doubts as to how Hamlin would run on intermediates without Chris Gabehart as his crew chief.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
RADIO
