The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Homestead for the Dixie Vodka 400 after Joey Logano‘s win at Las Vegas Let’s dive into the track information NASCAR DFS players need to know, what to expect at this weekend’s race and early NASCAR fantasy advice.
NASCAR DFS: Dixie Vodka 400
Homestead Miami Speedway Information
- Track: Homestead Miami Speedway
- Location: Homestead, Florida
- Length: 1.5 miles (asphalt)
- Banking: 18-20 degrees in the turns (progressive)
- Best corollary tracks: Kansas, Charlotte, Las Vegas
- Dominator Points:
- DraftKings: 66.75 – laps led, 120.15 – fastest laps
- FanDuel: 26.7 – laps led
- Past winners: William Byron (2021), Denny Hamlin (2020), Kyle Larson (2019)
- Betting favorite: Tyler Reddick +700
- Entry List: 36 drivers, including J.J. Yeley (15), A.J. Allmendinger (16), Noah Gragson (48), Landon Cassill (77)
- Weather: High of 84 degrees, sunny
- Watch: NBC, NBCSports.com
- Listen: MRN (MRN, NASCAR.com, NASCAR Sirius/XM Channel 90)
On Track Schedule (All Times Eastern)
- Saturday, October 22
- 10:05 a.m.: Practice
- 10:50 a.m.: Qualifying
- Sunday, October 23
- 2:30 p.m.: Green flag (80/165/267 laps)
2022 Dixie Vodka 400 NASCAR DFS Picks
2022 South Point 400 Recap and Playoff Standings
In a playoff race that will be remembered more for a wreck than its actual racing, Logano punched his ticket to the championship race in three weeks. While not nearly as accident-filled as its spring counterpart, the fall iteration of this race had more than its fair share of single-car spins and wrecks. Most notably will be the lap 96 wreck involving two non-playoff drivers (Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson) that ended up collecting Christopher Bell in the aftermath, ending his day and putting him in a 23-point deficit for the final playoff spot.
As stated above, Logano won Sunday’s race, passing Ross Chastain with three laps left. The win gives Logano his third of the season and gives him one of the four spots to contend for the championship at Phoenix. Near winner and second-place finisher Chastain finds himself 18 points above the cutoff. Although he started his day in 11th, Chastain worked his way forward with teammate Daniel Suarez and led the field in laps led (68). For the season, Chastain has led the most laps at intermediate tracks, a promising sign heading into the last 1.5-mile oval of the year.
In an admitted disappointing day, Chase Elliott started 21st and ended in 20th, putting the blame squarely on his shoulders. Despite his poor finish, Elliott sits in third with a 17-point cushion over the cutoff line. Finally, Denny Hamlin finds himself as the last driver in with just six points separating himself from William Byron — the winner of last year’s race at Homestead. With a surprising fourth-place finish, Chase Briscoe moved up from last to sixth in the playoff standings, trailing Hamlin by 9 points. The final playoff driver to be mentioned, Ryan Blaney, sits 11 points short of the cutoff thanks to his own wreck on lap 229, giving him a 28th-place result.
As Blaney’s day showed, one bad break can undo a season’s worth of results and with just three spots up for grabs going into Homestead, drivers will need to be sharp heading into a track full of unknowns.
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Homestead Miami Preview
Homestead sits poised as a mystery thanks to the gap in time since NASCAR last raced here. Granted, it was 2021, but in that COVID-affected schedule, Homestead rolled off as the third race of the season and now 14 months later, NASCAR is back at the high-banked oval in a third-round playoff race. Thus, in four seasons Homestead has gone from hosting the championship race (2019), a mid-June race (2020), the third event of the season (2021) and now is the eighth out of 10 playoff events. Gauging past races as a measure for this Sunday would be adding nothing but noise to DFS player’s process as these races were held at different times and more importantly, with different impending circumstances as to the outcome of the race.
As this is the first Generation Seven race at this track, Homestead really is going to be a mystery slightly unveiled in Saturday’s practice session. However, the big reveal will be on Sunday as the laps tick off and a ticket can be punched locking someone into the championship at Phoenix. Using race data from Las Vegas, Texas and Kansas is probably the best gauge for drivers’ expectations but don’t be shocked if the nature of Homestead adds a wrinkle to projecting drivers on Sunday.
The season has shown that track degradation hasn’t really mattered to the Gen Seven car and its tire issues. However, a hot, slick surface (like Texas from a few weeks back) will definitely add to the probability of cars spinning out, whether via a flat tire or just a loose vehicle. Add in the speed some drivers will be trying to capture by riding the wall and this race could see a slew of unintentional wrecks and spins, especially at a venue that hasn’t been repaved since its 2003 reconfiguration.
If drivers mind their manners, then this race could easily see extended green flag runs like last year that allowed Byron to march out to the front and lead 102 laps in the process. However, if this season is any indication, expect green flag runs to average around 20-25 laps and with the age of Homestead’s surface, drivers can’t afford to only take two tires on a pitstop.
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