TRACK – Homestead-Miami Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
NXS RACE – Hard Rock Bet 300 (200 laps / 300 miles)
TUNE IN – CW, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90 at 4:00 p.m. (ET)
- Carson Kvapil heads south this weekend for his first start at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
- Kvapil has two starts on 1.5-mile tracks in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (Atlanta, Las Vegas) with an average start of fifth.
- According to NASCAR Loop Data Statistics, the 21-year-old Mooresville native is ranked fourth for late-race speed this season.
- Crew chief Andrew Overstreet has called once previous race atop the box at Homestead, recording a 12th-place finish in this event last season with the No. 88 team.
- Justin Allgaier heads to South Beach as the most recent winner in the NXS, going to Victory Lane last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after leading a race-high 102 laps.
- Allgaier now sits atop the championship standings by virtue of the win in Las Vegas, 19 points above second and enters this weekend as one of four drivers eligible for the $100,000 prize in Xfinity’s Dash-4-Cash Bonus program.
- In 16 previous starts at Homestead in the NXS, Allgaier has scored a best finish of sixth, coming in the 2016 season finale.
- This weekend also marks the second co-branded scheme for primary partner BRANDT Professional Agriculture as TradeMark Nitrogen comes onboard for Saturday afternoon’s NXS matinee.
- Sammy Smith heads to the Sunshine State to run his third NXS event at the 1.5-mile track since 2023.
- In Smith’s two previous starts at Homestead, he qualified in the top-10 twice and brought home one top-10 finish, a ninth in 2023.
- On speedways 1-2 miles in length, Smith has 35 starts, one win (at Phoenix in the spring of 2023) six top-fives and 18 top-10 finishes.
- According to NASCAR’s Loop Details Statistics, Smith is fourth for most laps run in the top-15. After the first five races, 87.8 percent of the laps Smith has run have been in the top-15 (669).
- Smith’s No. 8 Chevrolet will be joined by the Allstate Peterbilt Group this weekend at Homestead for the first of two primary races in 2025.
- Connor Zilisch will be making his second NXS start at Homestead on Saturday afternoon. Zilisch finished 12th on the lead lap in his first NXS race at the 1.5-mile speedway last October.
- Zilisch enters Homestead after posting a strong run this past weekend at Las Vegas. He rebounded from a speeding penalty with 54 laps to go to grab a ninth-place finish, his second top-10 of the season. He also collected the Xfinity Fastest Lap bonus.
- Zilisch is continuing to move forward in the NXS driver standings. He gained five positions after Las Vegas and enters Homestead ninth in the standings, 67 points behind the leader and just 23 outside the top-five. Zilisch has gained 23 positions in the driver standings over the past three races.
Carson Kvapil: “This No. 1 team has been giving me a fast race car every week, so I have no doubt we will unload another one at Homestead. This is a new track for me so I have been studying with Andrew (Overstreet, crew chief) to make sure I’m as prepared as possible. We’re working to minimize mistakes and put all the pieces together to have a solid finish in our Bass Pro Shops/Clarience Technologies Chevrolet.”
Justin Allgaier: “Homestead has always been a unique challenge, but I feel really confident heading there this weekend, especially coming off the win in Las Vegas. Jim (Pohlman, crew chief) gave me a strong car here last year and I feel like we can build off that notebook despite this race now being in the spring and be in contention when it counts on Saturday with our BRANDT Professional Agriculture / TradeMark Nitrogen Chevrolet.”
Sammy Smith: “Qualifying on the pole last week in Las Vegas was a great confidence booster for my team and I. They brought a fast Pilot Chevrolet and we stayed in the game until we had to serve a penalty there at the end. We’ve been working hard to clean those up because the small mistakes add up and I feel really good about the direction we’re heading. We’ve run well in the past at Homestead so I’m looking forward to getting the Allstate Peterbilt Group Chevrolet up front and staying there.”
Connor Zilisch: “I feel really good about Homestead. We’ve definitely made gains on what I raced last year. I’m excited to go back there and see if we can make progress with the result. I feel comfortable running the wall but last year the guy who ran up front and won the race wasn’t really running up there. Homestead is such a cool track with so many different lanes to run and a lot of tire fall-off and it creates some really good racing. I’m curious to see what the track is going to be like when we get there for practice on Saturday.”
JRM Team Updates
JR Motorsports at Homestead-Miami Speedway: JR Motorsports has competed at Homestead-Miami Speedway a combined 64 times in the NXS since 2005. In those starts at the 1.5-mile oval, the organization has recorded four wins, 13 top-fives and 31 top-10s. The average finish is 14.1.
Souvenir Rig: JRM drivers Carson Kvapil, Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Connor Zilisch will be signing autographs at the JR Motorsports / HMS-Byron/Bowman souvenir rig on Saturday, March 22 from 1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. ET.