Homestead-Miami Speedway

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Location	1 Speedway Boulevard Homestead, Florida 33035
Capacity	65,000
Owner	International Speedway Corporation
Operator	International Speedway Corporation
Broke ground	August 24, 1993
Opened	November 5, 1995
Construction cost	$70 million
Former names	Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex (1995–1996)
Major events	NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford 400 NASCAR Nationwide Series Ford 300 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Ford 200 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series GAINSCO Grand Prix of Miami
Oval
Length	1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Banking	Turns 18–20° (progressive) Straights 3°
Lap record	0:24.462 (Sam Hornish, Jr., Penske Racing, 2006, IRL IndyCar Series)
Road Course
Length	2.3 mi (3.7 km)
Turns	11
Lap record	1:13.022 (David Donohue, Brumos Porsche, 2008, Daytona Prototype)

Homestead-Miami Speedway is a race track in Homestead, Florida southwest of Miami.

Since 2002 Homestead has hosted the final races of the season in all three of NASCAR's series: the Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series, and the Camping World Truck Series. Ford Motor Company sponsors all three of the season-ending races; the races have the names Ford 400, Ford 300, and Ford 200, respectively, and the weekend is marketed as Ford Championship Weekend. The Nationwide Series (then known as the Busch Series) has held its season-ending races at Homestead since 1995.

The track also hosts the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series during its season, but not as the series' final race as with NASCAR.

History

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.

It opened in November 1995 with a NASCAR Busch Series (currently the Nationwide 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. Since 2002 NASCAR has marketed the seasons-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 asthetically 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. 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 24 feet (7.3 m). 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 warmup session before the race when he was involved in a high-speed collision with Ed Carpenter at over 215 mph (346 km/h). Other drivers to suffer fatal injuries at the speedway are John Nemechek in a Camping World 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 Indy Car series would discontinue its Homestead race while the Rolex Series later changed its Homestead race to a date earlier in the season.

Map gallery of courses available

All maps use dashed gray lines for the other courses. Solid gray lines represent other pit road options for the shown course.

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  Speedway

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  Road course

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  Modified Road Course

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Records

(As of 11/21/10)

Most Wins	3	Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart
Most Top 5s	5	Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick
Most Top 10s	9	Jeff Gordon
Starts	12	5 Drivers
Poles	2	Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne
Most Laps Completed	3206	Tony Stewart
Most Laps Led	441	Carl Edwards
Avg. Start*	7.9	Kasey Kahne
Avg. Finish*	5.7	Carl Edwards

* from minimum 4 starts.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Winners

*Race extended due to Green-White-Checker Finish

Season	Date	Official Race Name	Winning Driver	Car #	Sponsor	Make	Distance	Avg Speed	Margin of Victory
1999	November 14	Pennzoil 400 presented by Kmart	Tony Stewart	20	Home Depot	Pontiac Grand Prix	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	140.355 mph (225.879 km/h)	5.289 sec
2000	November 12	Pennzoil 400	Tony Stewart	20	Home Depot	Pontiac Grand Prix	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	127.48 mph (205.159 km/h)	4.561 sec
2001	November 11	Pennzoil Freedom 400	Bill Elliott	9	Dodge/UAW	Dodge Intrepid	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	117.449 mph (189.016 km/h)	1.42 sec
2002	November 16	Ford 400	Kurt Busch	97	Little Tikes/Rubbermaid	Ford Taurus	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	116.462 mph (187.427 km/h)	2.070 sec
2003	November 16	Ford 400	Bobby Labonte	18	Interstate Batteries	Chevrolet Monte Carlo	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	116.868 mph (188.081 km/h)	1.749 sec
2004	November 21	Ford 400	Greg Biffle	16	National Guard/Subway	Ford Taurus	406.5 mi (654.2 km) *	105.623 mph (169.984 km/h)	0.342 sec
2005	November 20	Ford 400	Greg Biffle	16	National Guard/Post-it	Ford Taurus	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	131.431 mph (211.518 km/h)	0.017 sec
2006	November 19	Ford 400	Greg Biffle	16	National Guard	Ford Fusion	402 mi (647 km) *	125.375 mph (201.772 km/h)	0.389 sec
2007	November 18	Ford 400	Matt Kenseth	17	DeWalt Nano	Ford Fusion	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	131.888 mph (212.253 km/h)	0.852 sec
2008	November 16	Ford 400	Carl Edwards	99	Office Depot	Ford Fusion	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	129.472 mph (208.365 km/h)	7.548 sec
2009	November 22	Ford 400	Denny Hamlin	11	FedEx Express	Toyota Camry	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	126.986 mph (204.364 km/h)	2.63 sec
2010	November 21	Ford 400	Carl Edwards	99	Aflac	Ford Fusion	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	126.585 mph (203.719 km/h)	1.608 sec
2011	November 20	Ford 400	Tony Stewart	14	Office Depot, Mobil 1	Chevrolet Impala	400.5 mi (644.5 km)	114.76 mph (184.69 km/h)	1.306 sec

Records

IndyCar

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	0:00:24.462	218.539 / 351.704
Race (200 laps)	300.000 / 477.975	March 26, 2006	Dan Wheldon	Dallara / Honda	1:46:15.530	167.730 / 269.935

NASCAR

Record	Year	Date	Driver	Car Make	Time	Average Speed (mph)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Qualifying	2003	November 14, 2003	Jamie McMurray	Dodge	29.816	181.111
Race (400 miles)	1999	November 14	Tony Stewart	Pontiac	2:51:14	140.335 (before reconfiguration)
NASCAR Nationwide Series
Qualifying	2004	November 20, 2004	Casey Mears	Dodge	30.348	177.936
Race (300 miles)	2001	November 10	Joe Nemechek	Chevy	2:16:10	132.191 (before reconfiguration)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Qualifying	2007	November 16	Jon Wood	Ford	31.180	173.188
Race (200 miles)	2002	November 15	Ron Hornaday	Chevy	1:30:30	133.260 (before reconfiguration)

See also

• List of NASCAR race tracks

External links

• Homestead-Miami Speedway Official Site
• Homestead-Miami Speedway Page on NASCAR.com
• Trackpedia guide to driving this track
• High Resolution image from Google Maps

• [1]
• 2006 Toyota 300 Indy Race League Video Summary