World of Sport: NASCAR Cup; Australian Supercars
NASCAR CUP HOMESTEAD (USA) 28 FEBRUARY ROUND 3/36
In the build-up to the 2021 NASCAR Cup season, many of the major talking points were based off-track. Whether it be the most radical calendar shake-up in championship history or household names entering as team owners, attention was directed away from the Gen6 car that was given a stay of execution as it was decided switching to an all-new machine in the middle of a pandemic probably wasn’t the best idea.
Moreover, a 2019 freeze on car development in certain areas, such as aero and limiting engines (designed to keep costs down for 2020), was rolled over to 2021 for the same reason.
The result has been a very open start to the 2021 term, with two first-time winners in the first two races in Michael Mcdowell and Christopher Bell. And last Sunday, William Byron scored his second series win with a dominant drive for Hendrick Motorsports at Homestead.
Whereas last season felt at times like a Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin charity event, the increased parity brought about by the freeze has tightened up the pack, so much so that seven different squads claimed a top 10 in southern Florida on Sunday.
While this was a single round, its broke down into two separate races: one taking place in the day, the other at night. The day was dominated by those running Ford Mustang equipment, with Penske duo Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano looking comfortable out front around the 1.5-mile oval. That was before Roush Fenway’s Chris Buescher crashed the party, passed Keselowski and quickly cleared off.
With Byron in the chasing gaggle, only a caution reeled Buescher back in, although he would once again muscle past Keselowski to seal the stage win, and lead a career-best 57 laps.
Only an undercut from Martin Truex Jr at green-flag pitstops midway through stage two cost Buescher the lead, although a late caution turned stage two into a one-lap shootout. Truex and his #19 crew were aggrieved that stablemate Denny Hamlin had the cheek to attempt to pass on that lap, where Byron sneaked through to pip Hamlin.
As the race transitioned into a cool Floridian night, the Fords dropped away as Byron began to assert control over the race in a manner expected of those who race Rick Hendrick’s cars. The
#24 led 100 of the last 108 laps to ease to a deserved win.
In a sign of the changing face of the race, Homestead specialist Tyler Reddick stormed forward as night set in, carving eight seconds out of Byron in 18 laps. Although Reddick felt earlier poor restarts left him with too much to do, he finished just 2.8 seconds behind Byron, with Truex pipping Kyle Larson to third.
Mcdowell steered his Front Row Motorsports machine to sixth – the first time either driver or car has recorded three successive top 10s. He described the run as “stinking awesome!”
Penske’s drubbing ended with Keselowski 16th, Logano 25th and Ryan Blaney 29th.