Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead-Miami Speedway
1 Speedway Boulevard
Homestead, Florida
The Homestead-Miami Speedway is a NASCAR landmark with a rich history. It proudly hosts the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Ford 400, the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the Ford 300, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and the IRL IndyCar Series, among others.
Summary
Located outside of Miami, the Homestead-Miami Speedway is the host of Ford’s Championship Race Weekend – the last race of the season for the IRL Indy Car Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series, and Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The races are sponsored by the Ford Motor Company named the Ford 400, Ford 300, and Ford 200.
The facility is considered by some to be one of the most beautiful in the country. Though located southwest of Miami, the track colors reflect the art deco district of Miami Beach - aqua, purple, and silver.
The track opened as a four-turn track shaped like a rectangular-oval similar to Indianapolis Motor Speedway's famous design. Due to the track’s short distances, however, the track was not able to maintain the racing characteristics of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Instead, the sharp, flat turns made passing difficult and lowered the average speeds. The geometry also created severe crash angles. In 1996, track management attempted to fix the issues by widening the aprons by as much as 24 feet (7.3 m). One year later, during the summer of 1997, an $8.2 million track reconfiguration project modified the turns to form a traditional oval instead of a rectangular shape.
During 2003, the track was reconfigured again. The flats turns were changed to steeper, variable banks. Lights were also installed for night racing.
Overall, the renovations were successful. Since then, the track has featured a number of close finishes including 2005's last-lap final between Greg Biffle and Mark Martin.
On March 26, 2006 Indy Racing League driver Paul Dana died during a high-speed collision with Ed Carpenter at over 215 mph. Other drivers to suffer fatal injuries at the speedway include John Nemechek during a Camping World Truck Race (March 1997) and Jeff Clinton who died in a Grand Am sports car event at the track (March 2002).
Read more about Mark Green and his teammate Kenny Wallace, both of whom race for Jay Robinson Racing.