Denny Hamlin left the Homestead-Miami Speedway last November disgusted. Following a career best season where he won the Daytona 500, the Bristol Night race and was in the Championship 4, they made the wrong pit call at the end and put too much tape on his No. 11 Toyota which caused it to overheat.

In his first trip back to the South Florida race track, Hamlin was left feeling the complete opposite as he was seven months ago.

Hamlin, caught Chase Elliott and passed him for the lead on Lap 237. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver would lead the final 30 laps en route to the victory in Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400. It was Hamlin’s third win of the season and third on the 1.5-mile track to go along with him becoming the 20th Cup Series driver to win at least 40 victories in NASCAR’s premiere series.

He also becomes the first driver to sweep both stages in a race this season and wind up celebrating in victory lane when it was all said and done. Chase Elliott did so twice (Las Vegas, Bristol) but never won. Martin Truex Jr. did it last Sunday in Atlanta but finished third. Clint Bowyer did it in the race Hamlin last won at Darlington last month — before his triumph on Sunday, but he finished 28th.

Hamlin, never left this win in doubt as the pole sitter led a race-high 137 of 267 laps.

Elliott, settled for second in his No. 9 Chevrolet for his sixth top five finish of the season and third top seven in his last four Homestead starts. Elliott, said that he didn’t do a good enough job in dealing with lapped traffic, which allowed Hamlin to catch him and pass him in the closing stages. Still, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has three top two finishes in his last six starts on the season and if not for being crashed at Darlington while running second and crashing with Joey Logano going for the win at Bristol, Elliott could very easily have five top two’s in his last seven starts on the year.

Ryan Blaney earned his first Darlington top 10 finish with a third place run in his No. 12 Ford for his fifth top four result in his last six starts in 2020.

Rookie Tyler Reddick was fourth in his No. 8 Chevrolet to earn his seventh top six finish in as many tries in his Homestead starts across three divisions of NASCAR.

Aric Almirola rounded out the top five in his No. 10 Ford.

The race struggled to get going on Sunday with rain falling on the speedway in Turns 3 and 4 just after the engines were fired to start the day. After a near hour long delay, we got going but only briefly. On Lap 3, more lightning streaked across the sky, bringing a 30+ minute delay that ended up being 2-hours and 8-minutes in length. In the middle of that delay, the drivers were summoned to their cars only to see them hop out after lightning came back right after the engines were fired again.

On Lap 31, we’d have more lightning which left a 38-minute, 43-second red flag again. But, once that was lifted, we ran a quick race with the only stoppages from then on out being twice for stage breaks and a third time for Ryan Newman and Logano getting together in Turn 2 on Lap 170.

Here are my main takeaways.

Elliott Arguably Fastest Car This Season

Denny Hamlin was the fastest car in Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400, but the quickest car in the field right now may be Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet. Elliott, led 27 laps in Sunday’s race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, including 17 of them towards the end, but Hamlin caught Elliott and passed him with 30 to go when Elliott struggled to get through lapped traffic.

Elliott, crossed the finish line .895-seconds arrears to Hamlin for his sixth top five finish of the season already.

But, Elliott could very easily have scored five top two finishes in his last six starts overall though. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was running second last month at Darlington before Kyle Busch crashed him out with 20 laps remaining.

At the time, Denny Hamlin was leading the race but on much older tires. Elliott, would have easily passed him in the next lap or two. Instead, Busch got into his left rear quarter panel, sending him crashing into the inside SAFER barrier and leaving Elliott with a 38th place finish.

During the caution, it started raining again and ended the race early. If that doesn’t happen, Elliott finishes no worse than second but most likely would have won.

The next race, the Coca-Cola 600, Elliott was well on his way to a win on Memorial Day weekend. While he was leading though, his teammate William Byron brought out a late race caution, negating Elliott’s lead and forcing him in a no-win situation where if he pitted, no one else would and if he didn’t, everyone else would have hit pit lane. So, he hit pit road in hopes everyone would follow. No one really did. Elliott, would restart 11th and finish second.

He won the next race though a few nights later in Charlotte then crashed with Joey Logano while going for the win with two laps-to-go at Bristol.

If those finishes end differently, Elliott is heading to Talladega, a race he’s the defending race winner in, with a top two finish in all but two races since May 18.

Blaney Close Again

Ryan Blaney said on Wednesday night that he felt that he was close to a win. He’s had a front row seat this season to witness his two Team Penske teammates combine to win four races this year, two a piece, while he himself was shutout. Blaney, last won at Talladega last October.

“Very close,” Blaney said on how close he is to winning. “I mean, I thought it was going to be tonight (Wednesday In Martinsville). You keep bringing speed like this every weekend, eventually you’re going to find a little bit more and be able to win the race.

“We just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing. I think it’s going to come soon, we just got to keep working really hard.”

It nearly happened again on Sunday night at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Blaney, brought his No. 12 Ford home third for his fifth top four finish in his last six starts on the season.

Yes, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have multiple trips to victory lane this season, but I feel Blaney is the top Penske car in the speed department.

Blaney, should have started the season off with a top two finish in each of the first three races. A late race caution in Vegas and a tire problem at the end of Fontana derailed that.

If you take those finishes with the one at Bristol to where he led 60 laps and crashed while leading, Blaney could easily have nine top four finishes in 12 starts on the season.

Streaks End For Logano and Harvick

An early race pit stop saw both Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick suffer damage to their race cars. Neither would be able to rebound on Sunday night which as a result, saw both of their long top 10 streaks end at Homestead.

For Logano, he started off with the lead in this race, but on an early race pit stop, he had contact on pit road and slightly damaged his No. 22 Ford. That set him back enough that he never could rebound.

Logano, was 20th and 23rd respectively in the two stages and limped home two laps down in 27th. That ended a five year streak of a top six finish every year in Homestead as this was his worst finish there since 2010.

In the case of Harvick, he was an easy pick to finish in the top 10 of Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 right? Harvick, had finished in the top 10 in the first nine races of the season to go along with 12 straight top 10 finishes at Homestead and 16 in his last 17 tries.

Furthermore, Harvick had six straight top four finishes on the 1.5-mile track too. On top of all of that, Homestead can be closely compared to Darlington and Atlanta and Harvick’s two wins in 2020 were on both tracks.

But, this wasn’t a good showing out of Harvick and his No. 4 Ford team on Sunday evening. He was 14th in Stage 1 and 11th in Stage 2. In the final stage, he had a tire go down and forced to an unscheduled pit stop. He’d come home one spot better than Logano in 26th as a result, one lap down.

Now, after a top 10 finish in the first nine races run, he’s failed to score a top 10 in three of the last four start on the season overall.

Rookies Shine Again

It’s been 13 years since a rookie last earned a top 10 finish at Homestead. We had two rookies in the top 10 on Sunday night. Despite that, we shouldn’t be all shocked that Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick were strong on Sunday at Homestead. Each now have three top 10 finishes this season and looking stronger and stronger as the year goes on.

Plus, Bell was fifth in his last start at Homestead in NXS competition last November to go along with four top 11 finishes in six tries on the South Florida race track. The Oklahoma native brought his No. 95 Toyota home in eighth.

His rookie counterpart in Reddick is at his best at Homestead too. Reddick, has never finished worse than sixth in six prior Homestead starts heading into this weekend, including two straight wins in NXS competition and a fourth place run in the other. In three Truck Series starts, he finished sixth, third and second respectively too.

On Sunday night, Reddick was third and second respectively in the two stages and brought his No. 8 Chevrolet home.

Reddick Scores Best Career Finish at Homestead

Tyler Reddick knew that Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway would be his shot to win a NASCAR Cup Series race. But, he also knew that he’d have some problems too.

See, a rookie hasn’t scored a top 10 finish on this 1.5-mile track in 13 years. Plus, Reddick rolled off 24th in the race itself. Could he come through the field?

His advantage at Homestead in Xfinity Series and Truck competition was to rim ride the SAFER barriers in the corners. Would that translate well over to a Cup ride?

He questioned that on Thursday.

“With how Atlanta went, it’s very important to manage the expectations,” Reddick said in his pre race weekend media availability. “We’re racing Cup cars, not Xfinity cars, against Cup drivers. So, it’s very important to remember that and understand that we may feel really good about our chances, but we just have to make the most of our day. With the X factor, if you will, the fence, finding speed along the race and steel bodies that don’t bounce back out like the Xfinity composite body, you just have to be really smart and just make sure that we have a solid car there at the end for the final run.

“One of the biggest things that will be difficult is the way you get around the fence will be a lot different in a Cup car. With more downforce, less horsepower, you have a moment in the middle of the corner in the Xfinity car that you can drive it out of it with power and still run within a tenth or two of what you want to.

“In a Cup car, if you have a moment in the middle of one and two up by the fence that you check up, you’re losing a half of a second maybe even a second. So, you have zero room for error. On top of that, you hit the fence and you’re really going to hinder your day if you have to pit and you go down a lap or two trying to fix the damage and get tires. That’s a track that’s very sensitive – kind of like Martinsville in a way, kind of like Atlanta – so you just have to really pay attention to what the better cars are doing around you. And if you can’t run that line that seems to be the best on-track, then what can we do to help our car get there.

“With the hot conditions, slicker track, I think it’s going to have everybody kind of wondering what the cars are going to do over the course of a run. And obviously everyone is curious how well the fence is going to work in the heat of the day. It’s normally tough in the Xfinity car, just because you’re uncomfortable and the back of the car is dancing around. With that, on top of the steel body, you just tap the wall a little bit, it’s just going to take away the performance of the car.”

Reddick noted that he also took a lot of things that he has learned from other NASCAR series’ on his way to Cup, and tried to apply them to certain areas this season and that it didn’t work.

“I had a lot of things that I took from my Xfinity races at Atlanta, Truck races at Atlanta, that I brought to the Cup side and they didn’t work out for me very good. So, I just have to stay on my toes. We’re working really hard to just bring the best car that we can and, from there, it’s going to be important to keep on top of the balance. The track is going to lay rubber, it’s going to change – just staying on top of those things are important. I think keeping on top of the balance, staying ahead of the curve of the race track as it changes will be very important. The veterans of our sport understand that very well, so we’re just going to have to dig down deep and really make sure that we don’t go too far or go to little on the adjustments we need to make when the track does change.”

Still, he found his way to the front. Reddick, was third and second respectively in the two stages and would bring his No. 8 Chevrolet home in fourth, his best career finish.

RCR Gaining Steam

Austin Dillon was needing medical attention during the last NASCAR race run this past Wednesday night in Martinsville. The crash panel was knocked out of his No. 3 Chevrolet during an early race incident which saw Dillon not only get sick while trying to rough it out, his water pack in his car spilled and started boiling in his seat, causing burns to his backside.

It was a rough night for him. That came after a rough race at Atlanta in a 500 mile event run in high temps under humid conditions. Then, his wife delivered birth to their first child overnight.

So, you could forgive Dillon for just getting by on Sunday at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in what drivers called this week as the most grueling stretch for NASCAR races in a long while. Dillon, became a father in the middle of this.

Still, he shined in the race, bringing his No. 3 Chevrolet home seventh for his third top 10 and fourth top 11 in his last five starts on the season. Also, it was Dillon’s fourth straight top 11 finish on the 1.5-mile track as his finishes have gotten better and better each trip to Homestead.

He went from 25th to 14th to 12th to 11th to 11th again to 8th to 7th.

Then, throw in Tyler Reddick’s night to come from 24th to finish fourth and finished third and second respectively in the two stages, gave RCR their first dual top 10 finishes in a Cup race since 2018.

Usual Suspects Didn’t Shine

For the first time ever, the NASCAR Cup Series was racing in South Florida and it not be November. See, Homestead has been the site of NASCAR’s championship weekend every year since 2002. But, with the finale site now being moved to Phoenix for 2020, Homestead needed a new place on the schedule.

This year, that new place was supposed to be March. Unfortunately, this was the second race affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The race was moved from March to this weekend in June.

The thing about Homestead in the past, especially under the Championship 4 format which was adopted in 2014, most drivers just got out of the way of the title contenders. It wasn’t uncommon for all four to finish in the top five of that race. In fact, since 2014, the winner each season at Homestead ended up being the series champion.

So, would the usual suspects still shine at Homestead when a championship trophy wasn’t the reward at the end?

Kevin Harvick had 12 straight top 10 finishes at Homestead and six top fours in-a-row. Martin Truex Jr. had three consecutive top two finishes and led 78 laps, 20 laps and 103 laps respectively in those races. Joey Logano had five straight top six finishes while Kyle Busch had five consecutive top six finishes, three of which being in the top two.

They’d be the top favorites right?

Instead, they combined to lead 29 laps all race on Sunday, 27 by Logano and two by Busch. Harvick and Logano finished off the lead lap, Harvick (-1) in 26th and Logano (-2) in 27th.

Truex, was only 12th. Busch, was sixth.

So, did this race run differently without drivers racing them more conservatively? I don’t necessarily think so.

To me, the top three cars in terms of speed this season finished 1-2-3.

Denny Hamlin won from the pole as he sits along with most wins this year now with three trips to victory lane. Chase Elliott was second as he should have five top two finishes in his last seven starts on the season. Ryan Blaney was third as he earned his fifth top four result in his last six tries. Throw in his early season speed, and you get Blaney with what should be eight top four finishes already in 2020.

The top three on Sunday are the top three this season, just as this race has run over the last six years prior too.

Key Stat

Hamlin beat the kids on Sunday. The 39 year old was one of only three drivers over the age of 28 in the top 10 in the Dixie Vodka 400. 24 year olds Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick were second and fourth respectively. 26 year old Ryan Blaney was third. 25 year old Christopher Bell was eighth while 22 year old William Byron was ninth.

The only other drivers in the top 10 was 36 year olds Brad Keselowski (10th) and Aric Almirola (5th), 35 year old Kyle Busch (6th) and 30 year old Austin Dillon (7th).

Top Quote

“I knew he was watching,” Hamlin said of Michael Jordan and why he shrugged after the race. “Why not? After a performance like that, you might as well live it up a bit.”

What Hamlin was referring to was the drama between he and Corey LaJoie on twitter this past week. The two have been beefing lately on social media and with LaJoie beating Hamlin at Martinsville, the talking got louder.

Hamlin, responds by winning on Sunday.

“Sometimes, like MJ says, you’ll find a way to motivate yourself.”

Dixie Vodka 400 Results

1. 11 Hamlin

2.  9 Elliott

3. 12 Blaney

4.  8 Reddick R

5. 10 Almirola

6. 18 KyBusch

7.  3 ADillon

8. 95 Bell R

9. 24 Byron

10.  2 Keselowski

11. 14 Bowyer

12. 19 Truex Jr.

13. 43 Wallace Jr.

14. 21 DiBenedetto

15. 34 McDowell

16. 48 Johnson -1

17.  1 KuBusch -1

18. 88 Bowman -1

19. 38 Nemechek R -1

20. 47 Stenhouse Jr. -1

21. 20 Jones -1

22. 41 Custer R -1

23. 17 Buescher -1

24. 37 Preece -1

25. 42 Kenseth -1

26.  4 Harvick -1

27. 22 Logano -1

28. 13 TDillon -2

29. 32 LaJoie -3

30. 6 Newman -4

31. 96 Suarez -4

32. 15 Poole R -7

33. 00 Houff R -8

34. 66 Hill -10

35. 77 McLeod -11

36. 51 Gase -12

37. 53 Bilicki -22

38. 27 Yeley -56