This weekend, the third round of the Cup playoffs continues at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
After his victory at Las Vegas last week, Joey Logano has earned his place in the Championship 4. This leaves seven drivers still contending for the remaining three spots.
William Byron currently occupies the last transfer position as the race approaches on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Denny Hamlin sits 27 points behind the cutline, followed closely by Tyler Reddick (-30), Ryan Blaney (-47), and Chase Elliott (-53).
Here’s a roundup of the positives and negatives for the teams competing in the Homestead playoff race.
23XI Racing — Good news: Homestead ranks as one of Tyler Reddick’s top tracks, with three top-five finishes out of his four Cup starts there. He has also claimed two victories in the Xfinity Series at this venue. Additionally, Bubba Wallace has finished 12th or better in four of his last five races. Bad news: Reddick has not placed in the top 10 in any of his last six races this season.
Reddick flips in wild sequence at Las Vegas
Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott collided exiting Turn 4 at Las Vegas, causing the No. 45 to flip down the frontstretch, with Brad Keselowski also caught up in the incident.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: This season, the organization has led 384 laps over 33 races, a significant increase from 110 laps at this same point last year. Bad news: Michael McDowell has only one top-10 finish in his last 17 races on 1.5-mile tracks. Furthermore, Todd Gilliland has not finished higher than 25th in his two Cup starts at Homestead.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: Kyle Larson tops the series with six wins, 12 stage victories, and 1,615 laps led. He has achieved top-five finishes in five of the last eight races at Homestead. William Byron has finished in the top four in his last four races, while Alex Bowman has equaled his career highs with eight top fives and 16 top 10s in a season. Bad news: Chase Elliott is currently in last place in the playoff standings, sitting 53 points below the cutline, and has only managed to finish better than 14th in one of his last five races at Homestead.
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Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Christopher Bell secured a victory at Homestead last year. … He leads the series with 21 top-10 finishes this season. … Bell is just one lap away from achieving a total of 1,000 laps led this year, ranking him second in that category. … Denny Hamlin has triumphed three times at Homestead. Bad news: Martin Truex Jr., who placed sixth at Las Vegas last week, has not recorded back-to-back top-10 finishes since Dover and Kansas in late April and early May. … Over the last seven stages, Hamlin has managed to score only one point. … Although he ranks third in laps led this season, Hamlin has only led five laps during the seven playoff races. … Ty Gibbs finished in 35th and 30th place in the last two races, marking the second instance this year where he has placed 25th or worse in consecutive events.
Christopher Bell has achieved eight top-10 finishes in the past nine races.
