The second race in the Round of 8 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series takes place Saturday in the back half of a NASCAR doubleheader at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Contender Boats 300 (3 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the 29th series race at the 1.5-mile track – most of any NASCAR series there – and there have been 22 different race winners.
By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
Last weekend Las Vegas native Riley Herbst – who is not in Playoff contention – scored his first ever NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in front of his hometown crowd. The 14-second win was the largest margin of victory this season for the series and that win means the Championship 4 picture remains wide open this weekend for the eight title-eligible drivers.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s John Hunter Nemechek leads the championship standings coming to a track where his father Joe holds multiple Xfinity Series records from wins (three) to laps completed (3,514). The 26-year-old Nemechek – a career best seven-race winner this season – holds a healthy 47-point edge on the four-driver Playoff cutoff line.
JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, a three-time winner this season, sits second in points with a 21-point cushion among the top-4, followed by Regular Season Champion, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill (+19) and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer (+15).
Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith is 15 points below the cutoff, followed by JR Motorsports Sam Mayer (-16), Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sammy Smith (-35) and RCR’s Sheldon Creed (-41).
Only two previous Homestead winners are entered this weekend – Custer (2017) and Myatt Snider (2021). Noah Gragson is the defending race winner.
Much to the pleasure of NASCAR fans, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be making his second start of the season, driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. A two-time Xfinity Series champion, the NASCAR Hall of Famer has four top-10s in six career Homestead races. Earnhardt led 47 laps in the Bristol, Tenn. Xfinity Series race two weeks ago before a fire in the car left him to a 30th-place finish.
Practice and then qualifying sessions for the Contender Boats 300 are scheduled to begin at 6:05 p.m. ET on Friday and will be televised on the USA Network and streamed on the NBC Sports App.
