(Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
By Aaron Bearden
Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Who Won?
Harrison Burton. He snuck by Noah Gragson to score his second triumph in the series.
Top Stories
Dale’s ‘rusty’ drive
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s annual Xfinity Series venture was just as successful as the prior two on a hot Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It was a fun run, but it also might have been his last.
“Right now I think it’s going to stay the same, I’m not doing any more, that’s for sure and I can say that with confidence,” said Earnhardt of his one-race schedules. “I don’t know how many more of these I’ll do, this might be the last one. And this ain’t no tease, or anything like that, I’m not trying to be annoying about it. It’s a lot of a commitment.
“I’ve got to decide if I’m helping things or not. I really enjoy it, I really do. There’s got to be a point where I decide to make the change to broadcasting entirely. That said, being in the car today, I certainly learned a lot that will help me in the booth.
“I just gotta think about it – I certainly don’t wanna run more, one is plenty. It’s a great series, we’ll just see how it goes. It’s a tough question to answer and I’m sorry about that.”
Earnhardt retired from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition at the end of the 2017 season, but has made one-off runs for his JR Motorsports team in the Xfinity Series in each of the past three years while working full-time as an analyst for NBC Sports.
The first year nearly yielded a win at Richmond Raceway before Earnhardt faded to fourth in the closing laps. In 2019 the veteran enjoyed a quiet fifth-place effort at Darlington Raceway. He planned to run in front of fans at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March, adding buzz to what was a disappointing weekend change for the track after it lost its slot as host of NASCAR’s championship weekend.
Schedule changes surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic changed the race to a midsummer battle with no fans in sight, but Earnhardt fulfilled the commitment before handing his No. 8 Chevrolet off to Daniel Hemric for Sunday’s second Xfinity Series race.
The veteran’s latest run proved to be somewhere between the prior two – stronger than his quiet Darlington night, but without the laps led and major contention of Richmond.
Earnhardt spent the majority of the race inside of the top-five, ran second to teammate Noah Gragson during a lengthy green-flag run that ended with seven to go and restarted third for the final run to the finish. But he faded over the two-lap sprint, dropping to fifth when the checkered flag flew.
The two-time Daytona 500 champion admitted to struggling to get the proper feel for his car throughout the night.
“Man, I was so rusty,” said Earnhardt. “It was a lot of fun but I was rusty, all the way through. We had it sailing there a few times. Got some good speed out of the car and we were gaining on the No. 9… ended up burning it up, but he was so good on the long run we weren’t going to catch him anyways. Hate that we got that late yellow because our cars didn’t fire off very good. You saw it at the end of the race. We couldn’t go. Takes our cars a couple corners. I’m going to let them have it man.”
The end result for Earnhardt was another top-five and fun day at the track. But whether it’s his last or not, the 45-year-old knows his days behind the wheel are numbered.
“That was a lot of fun, but this is the elite,” Earnhardt said. “This is the top, elite form of motorsports in my mind next to Cup and it’s not easy to get out there and compete with those boys. They’re so good and race so hard, and my time’s running out.”
Harrison Burton continues to contend
Harrison Burton’s strong start to 2020 continued with a surprise trip to victory lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Burton didn’t have the best car in Saturday’s Hooters 250. In fact he led just two of the event’s 167 laps. But they were the most important ones to lead.
The Joe Gibbs Racing rookie rose to second after a quick final stop from his No. 20 pit crew, surged past the dominant Noah Gragson and held off a hard-charging Austin Cindric over a two-lap shootout to claim the 250-mile race, making the most of a quiet day where he’d mostly ran in the middle of the top-10.
It was another coming-of-age moment in a year full of them for the speedy Toyota prospect. Burton’s late surge followed an initial race start where he’d lost the lead to Gragson from the pole.
“I gave him (Gragson) the lead on the outside early and I think he chose the inside because of that,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t give it to him again. This is such a tight series and everyone is so, so competitive that you kind of have to claw and dig every chance you get. This was one of those times where he kind of got loose and got under him and it was a good race, that’s for sure.”
Cindric rose to mount a final late charge on Burton, with the two both storming past Gragson as they took the white flag. But Burton cleared the Team Penske star in Turns 1 & 2 and rolled through the last half of the lap cleanly.
He took the checkered flag without challenge and lit up his team’s radio with screams of joy.
“Proud of my guys, they worked on this thing so hard every run – made it better and better,” he said. “What a day to get this Xfinity Supra to victory lane. They can keep on doubting this thing and we’re going to keep coming back.”
Not long ago Burton was all-but lost in the NASCAR ladder system, quietly moving up to Xfinity after a disappointing year with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series. Burton had led just 12 laps, scored seven top-fives in 23 races and failed to make the playoffs. His teammate at the time, Todd Gilliland, was the only series regular in the group to win, and Kyle Busch’s criticisms of the duo largely outshone their performances on-track.
Nine races into the 2020 season, Burton has flipped the script surrounding himself. He’s earned two wins, matched his top-five total from last year’s Truck effort and finished top-10 in every event.
Burton is a weekly contender and a championship threat, a fact he made obvious once again with a veteran-like drive and unexpected win at the track that hosted the title race just seven months ago.
Dominance for naught
What could have been for Noah Gragson.
The Las Vegas native enjoyed arguably his best performance to date on Saturday, leading a career-best 83 out of 167 laps and scoring a Stage 2 win.
Gragson mistakenly overshot his pit box prior to the final stage, dropping him to fourth at the time. But the two-time winner made up for his error with a dominant final stage, shooting past his fellow competitors and driving off to a lead of more than 10 seconds.
As the race hit 10 to go, Gragson was comfortably cruising to what would have been a series-best third win of 2020.
Then the caution flag flew.
With seven laps remaining, a spin from Ryan Sieg slowed the race and brought everyone to pit road for fresh rubber. Gragson easily emerged from the pit stop sequence with the lead thanks to the lapped cars between him and his fellow leaders – a perk of the advantage he’d built up over the lengthy run beforehand. But he lost the gap that a dominant long-run car had given him beforehand.
Gragson led the field to green for the final two-lap shootout, but didn’t get a strong jump at the line. He surrendered the lead to Harrison Burton and Austin Cindric as the trio took the white flag, and could only watch as Burton prevailed in a battle between the two over the final lap.
The Chevrolet prospect settled for third with a car he claimed wasn’t suited for short runs.
“It was tough,” Gragson said of the run. “The No. 9 guys at JR Motorsports had really great pit stops all day. Restarts were just the biggest struggle. I was really proud of my restarts here last year here, but just couldn’t get them going (today).
“I thought we were going to be able to come home with the win today running the top. That was so much fun.”
Briscoe’s spirited comeback
A look at the final results shows that Chase Briscoe finished seventh in Saturday’s race, 3.5 seconds behind winner Harrison Burton.
But hidden within that result is a tremendous comeback effort from Briscoe and the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing team.
Briscoe was rolling through pace laps with the rest of the field when weight began falling out of the right-rear section of No. 98 Ford. With risk of tungsten falling out and causing significant risk for the field, NASCAR forced Briscoe to pit road for repairs.
The Hoosier sat in his pit box as the field took the green flag to his right. He stayed there for four laps before finally taking off, emerging in 36th only because one other car – the No. 44 of Tommy Joe Martins – was off-track even longer.
When he returned to the track Briscoe was essentially a non-factor and became background fodder while the other series regulars battled for position. But his team didn’t give up, and Briscoe began a steady march forward.
Briscoe got his first lap back on Lap 34, driving through the field on fresh tires after stopping under the competition yellow. Another caution on Lap 41 brought pit stops and a chance to take the wave-around, so Briscoe gained another lap to sit just three laps behind the field.
When the caution fell on Lap 57, Briscoe was able to keep that lap without making a green-flag stop. He drove through the field on the ensuing run to rise within two laps of the lead group, and gained another lap with the free pass when Stage 2 ended on Lap 80.
In the span of 76 laps Briscoe had regained four laps and risen within one solitary lap of the lead group. He had only one set of sticker tires left and a lengthy green-flag run gave him minimal opportunity to gain another one, so Briscoe’s team left him out later than the rest of the field under a round of green-flag stops in an effort to catch a helpful yellow.
Had it arrived at the right time, Briscoe might have challenged for a win. But it didn’t come, forcing the points leader to put road under green. He emerged from the stop in 15th and began marching forward once again, now on fresher tires than the rest of the field.
Briscoe was up to 12th when Ryan Sieg went for a late spin, forcing a caution with just seven laps left. With only seven cars on the lead-lap and few laps remaining, Briscoe and the majority of the field took the wave-around as the leaders pitted.
That put Briscoe on the lead lap with fresher tires than the group around him for the final run to the checkered flag. He took advantage of the situation and rose to seventh in a final two-lap sprint, salvaging a top-10 from what had been a brutal day of racing.
Given the pace he had Briscoe knows he could have won under better circumstances. He’ll get a chance to do just that on Sunday, when the Xfinity Series field returns for the second part of a doubleheader race weekend in Miami.
“It was definitely a frustrating day, but we can’t hang our heads,” Briscoe said of the run. “ We had another really good, fast race car and we just made a silly mistake this week and forgot something. Last week, I made a silly mistake on pit road, so it all evens out.
“The positive is that we had a really fast race car. In fact, I felt like we were the fastest car by quite a bit. The good thing is we get another chance at it tomorrow and hopefully we can put it all together and not make any mistakes and get another win.”
Other Notes
- Anthony Alfredo enjoyed his strongest run to date in the Xfinity Series, staying on the led lap as Gragson carved up the field and making the most of the final restart to rise to a career-best result of fourth.
- Michael Annett made the most of a quiet day to come home in sixth, earning his best result since last fall’s fourth-place effort at Kansas Speedway.
- Riley Herbst scored a 10th-place effort to snag his first top-10 in five races. The rookie had reached the top-10 in three of the opening four 2020 races prior to the struggling stretch.
- JJ Yeley’s 11th-place finish for SS Greenlight Racing was the veteran’s best result in years, tying his finish from Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2018 and not being bettered since a sixth-place effort at Iowa Speedway in 2017.
- Early brake issues relegated Justin Allgaier to a 32nd-place finish on Saturday, his worst result since a similar finish in last June’s trip to Chicagoland Speedway.
- Colin Garrett came home a respectable 21st to match his career-best result, which also came at Homestead in November’s season finale.
