On Sunday, the celebrities of the NASCAR Cup Sequence will take to the excessive banks of the Homestead-Miami Speedway for the thirty fourth race of the 2024 season. The race serves because the second race of the Spherical of 8 and will ship a playoff driver to the Championship 4. Here is what you must know earlier than the inexperienced flag flies in South Florida.
Toyota is the producer to beat
Toyota took 5 of the top-10 spots in each follow and qualifying, with 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick topping the follow charts and profitable the pole. Las Vegas runner-up Christopher Bell will roll off the grid third, with Denny Hamlin beginning fourth. Bell is the defending winner at Homestead-Miami and it may very well be a Toyota going to victory lane on the monitor for the second consecutive season.
Kyle Larson in search of redemption
After scratching and clawing his strategy to an Eleventh-place end at Las Vegas, Larson is trying to win at Homestead-Miami for the second time in three years. Larson dominated on the monitor in 2022, however his race got here to an early finish final season after he bumped into the sand barrels on the entrance of pit street throughout inexperienced flag pit stops. Larson has a large benefit (+35) over the reduce line, however a win at Homestead would assure his ticket to Phoenix.
Martin Truex Jr. trying to find sentimental victory
Truex Jr. is donning a particular throwback paint scheme on Sunday on the identical monitor he gained the 2017 Cup Sequence championship at. Truex got here near profitable at Homestead in 2022 earlier than a pit-road mishap derailed his day. Do not be shocked if he is in competition when the chips are down.
A.J. Allmendinger might spoil the celebration
Allmendinger has at all times been stable at Homestead — as evidenced by his Tenth-place end in Saturday’s Xfinity Sequence race and 5 Cup Sequence top-10s — however he is been wonderful on the 1.5 mile oval in two Subsequent-Gen races. Allmendinger completed third in 2022 and fifth a yr in the past at Homestead and so long as Kaulig Racing offers him a stable automobile, he ought to run contained in the top-10 for a lot of the night.
