Homestead–Miami Speedway is a motor racing track located in Homestead, Florida. The track, which has several configurations, has promoted several series of racing, including NASCAR, the IndyCar Series, the IMSA SportsCar Championship series, and the Championship Cup Series.
From 2002 to 2019, Homestead–Miami Speedway had hosted the final race of the season in all three of NASCAR's series as Ford Championship Weekend: the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The races currently have the names Straight Talk Wireless 400, Contender Boats 250, and Baptist Health Cancer Care 200, respectively.
The speedway was constructed, with the efforts of promoter Ralph Sanchez, as part of a plan to help Homestead rebound after the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew. Groundbreaking began August 24, 1993, exactly one year after the hurricane.[1]
It opened in November 1995 with a NASCAR Busch Series race, the last race of that season. The Busch Series would continue to hold its season-ending races at Homestead; in 2002 NASCAR's Winston Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series would also hold their season-ending races at Homestead as well. From 2002 to 2019, NASCAR marketed the season-ending Homestead races as Ford Championship Weekend.
In the spring of 1996, the CART series held its first race there.
The track reflects the art deco district of nearby Miami Beach with its liberal use of colors such as aqua, purple and silver. Though the track itself has been considered to be aesthetically pleasing from the outset, initially the racing at Homestead was not considered very good. The track opened as a four-turn, rectangular-oval, based on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's layout, coincidental considering that circuit and Miami Beach were developed by Carl G. Fisher. However, due to its shorter distance, the track was not able to maintain the racing characteristics of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Instead, the sharp, flat turns and aprons made passing difficult and lowered overall speed. The geometry also created unfavorably severe crash angles. In 1996, track management attempted to correct the problems by widening the aprons of the turns by as much as 24feet. The movie Super Speedway was shot at the speedway before the track was reconfigured to an oval. In the summer of 1997, an $8.2 million reconfiguration project changed the turns from a rectangle to a traditional, continuous turn oval.
In 2003, the track was reconfigured once again. The turns were changed from mostly flat to steep variable banking. In 2005, lights were installed to allow night racing for the first time. The renovations were praised by fans, and the track has produced a number of close finishes, including 2005's last-lap battle between Greg Biffle and Mark Martin.
On March 26, 2006, Indy Racing League driver Paul Dana suffered fatal injuries in the warm-up session before the race when he was involved in a high-speed collision with Ed Carpenter at over 215mi/h. Other drivers to suffer fatal injuries at the speedway are John Nemechek in a Craftsman Truck race on March 16, 1997, and Jeff Clinton who died in a Grand Am sports car event at the track in March 2002.
In 2009, Homestead became the home to a total of five season-ending racing series events, with the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 finale for the IRL IndyCar Series as well as the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series moving to October from their traditional early season slots. The IndyCar Series would discontinue its Homestead race while the Rolex Series later changed its Homestead race to a date earlier in the season.
Behind the main grandstand is the Homestead RC Raceway for radio controlled cars, it was used to host the 2011 IFMAR Worlds for 1:8 IC Track cars.[2]
CART measured for the inaugural race in 1996 a length of .[3] This length was referenced to the old rectangular layout. In 1998 was the track length remeasured to 1.502miles[4] This length was also used for timing and scoring until the last CART race in 2000.[5] This length was referenced to the flat paperclip-layout. The NASCAR timing and scoring use a length of .[6] This length was used by IRL between 2001 and 2003, too.[7] Since 2004 the IRL timing and scoring use a remeasured track length of .[8] This length referenced to the new banked layout. NASCAR still use the for new banked layout.[9]
All maps use dashed gray lines for the other courses. Solid gray lines represent other pit road options for the shown course.
As of June 2021, the fastest official race lap records at Homestead-Miami Speedway are listed as:
| Category | Time | Driver | Vehicle | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Road Course: 3.557 km (1995–present)[10] | ||||
| 1:16.495[11] | 1998 FIA GT Homestead 500km | |||
| 1:18.851[12] | 1998 Homestead 2 Hours 15 Minutes | |||
| 1:22.457[13] | 2020 Homestead FR Americas round | |||
| 1:22.597[14] | 1999 FIA GT Homestead 3 Hours | |||
| 1:26.540[15] | ||||
| 1:30.690[16] | 2020 Homestead F4 United States round | |||
| Modified Road Course (using part of Oval): 3.701 km (1997–present) | ||||
| 1:10.791[17] | 2002 Nextel 250 | |||
| 1:12.136[18] | ||||
| 1:15.804[19] | 2000 Nextel 250 | |||
| 1:16.733[20] | 2018 Homestead Trans-Am round | |||
| 1:17.039 | 2002 Nextel 250 | |||
| 1:17.618 | 2002 Nextel 250 | |||
| 1:18.584 | 2000 Nextel 250 | |||
| 1:18.869 | 2002 Nextel 250 | |||
| 1:19.645[21] | 2011 Homestead US F2000 Winterfest round | |||
| 1:19.749[22] | ||||
| 1:22.029[23] | 2018 Homestead Trans-Am round | |||
| 1:24.371[24] | 2017 Homestead F4 United States round | |||
| Oval: 2.417 km (2003–present) | ||||
| 0:24.682 | 2004 Toyota Indy 300 | |||
| 0:28.4127[25] | 2004 Homestead Indy Lights round | |||
| 0:31.527[26] | ||||
| 0:32.480[27] | 2018 Ford EcoBoost 200 | |||
| 0:32.593[28] | 2018 Ford EcoBoost 300 | |||
| Oval: 2.417 km (1997–2002) | ||||
| 0:26.825 | 1999 Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami | |||
| 0:30.271[29] | 1998 Homestead Indy Lights round | |||
| Rectangular Quad-Oval: 2.457 km (1995–1996) | ||||
| 0:28.385 | 1996 Grand Prix of Miami | |||
| 0:32.580[30] | 1996 Homestead Indy Lights round | |||
| Type | Distance (miles / km) | Date | Driver | Chassis / Engine | Time | Average Speed (mph / km/h) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying (1 lap) | 1.5 / 2.390 | March 25, 2006 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Dallara / Honda | 24.462 | 218.539 / 351.704 | |
| Race (200 laps) | 300.000 / 477.975 | October 10, 2009 | Dario Franchitti | Dallara / Honda | 1:28:28.3117 | 201.4318 / 324.1730 |
| Record | Year | Date | Driver | Car Make | Time | Average Speed (mph) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NASCAR Cup Series | |||||||
| Qualifying | 2014 | November 14 | 29.795 | 181.238 | |||
| Race (400 miles) | 2012 | November 14 | 2:51:14 | 142.245 | |||
| NASCAR Xfinity Series | |||||||
| Qualifying | 2004 | November 20 | 30.348 | 177.936 | |||
| Race (300 miles) | 2001 | November 10 | 2:16:10 | 132.191 (before reconfiguration) | |||
| NASCAR Truck Series | |||||||
| Qualifying | 2007 | November 16 | 31.180 | 173.188 | |||
| Race (200 miles) | 2002 | November 15 | 1:30:30 | 133.260 (before reconfiguration) | |||
| Most Wins | 3 | Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin | Most Top 5s | 11 | Kevin Harvick | Most Top 10s | 17 | Kevin Harvick | Starts | 20 | Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson | Poles | 3 | Denny Hamlin | Most Laps Completed | 5346 | Kevin Harvick | Most Laps Led | 615 | Carl Edwards | Avg. Start* | 7.8 | Kasey Kahne | Avg. Finish* | 6.0 | Carl Edwards |