Previously Homestead-Miami Speedway played host to Ford Championship Weekend, closing out the NASCAR season each November. In 2020, partly due to a planned schedule makeover and partly due to rescheduling after a break amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Florida track plays host to the 11th race on the Cup Series schedule. And Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 will take the green flag, led by Denny Hamlin. Hamlin became the pole sitter as a result of a random drawing among the top-12 teams in the Cup Series owner standings.
“This weekend at Homestead will be a little different since it isn’t championship week, but that doesn’t change the goal of going for a win,” Hamlin said. “We’ve had success in the past at Homestead, and with the way our FedEx team has been performing lately, I know we’ll show up ready to go after the win. We’ll take our notes from November, take away the pressure of battling for the championship and go after another W.”
That draw set the first six rows of the 38-car starting grid, putting Joey Logano alongside Hamlin on the front row. The second, like the first, will be a Joe Gibbs Racing/Team Penske row but in reverse, with Logano’s Penske teammate Brad Keselowski in the third starting spot and Hamlin’s JGR teammate Kyle Busch in the fourth position.
“The track seems to have aged a little more in recent years, for sure,” Busch said. “Definitely a lot of grip for the first few laps, and then, it really tapers off, and then, everybody is running up next to the fence. I think that’s what we saw in years past. As it got darker in the November races, the track seemed to widen out. It’s just during the day, when it’s hot out and it’s slick out, that the best you can do is run right next to the wall, so expecting some of that this weekend with it being a different time of year. It’s definitely still a racy joint, but track temperatures are very conducive to that. It will definitely be different racing there and not having it be for a championship, but it would still be nice to get our M&Ms Fudge Brownie Camry to victory lane there.”
The drawing among the top teams put a Gibbs car in each of the first three rows of the grid, as Hamlin and Busch’s teammate Martin Truex Jr., who became the series’ most recent winner Wednesday night at Martinsville Speedway, in the sixth position. He’ll be beside fifth-place starter Chase Elliott for the green flag.
“I am looking forward to getting down to Homestead this weekend,” Elliott said. “It will be interesting to see how different the handling of our cars is at the track in the summertime. This will be our first race of the season with Hooters, so hope we can put on a good show for them and be in contention throughout the day.”
Chase Elliott drew the fifth starting spot to start with Truex in the third row. Other top-12 starters included Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman in row four, Jimmie Johnson in the ninth and 10th starting positions, and Ryan Blaney and Clint Bowyer in row six.
Similar to the top-12 starting positions, the 13th through 24th starting spots were determined by a drawing among teams in corresponding positions in the owner standings. Another drawing set positions 25th through 36th on the grid. The final two positions on the grilled in row 19 were filled by Daniel Suarez and Timmy Hill, the two drivers with unchartered, or open, teams and at the bottom of the standings among those entered.
