Homestead-Miami Speedway
RACE:#36 11/22/09 Ford 400 3:00 p.m. ABC 2009 Winner Denny Hamlin
Not far from the bright lights of Miami are the bright lights of the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Featuring a 1.5 mile track on 600 acres near Miami, this premier NASCAR venue plays host to 65,000 fans at some of the biggest races every year. Since its opening in 1995 this track has been updated repeatedly. Now this beautiful oval track hosts races by day and night thanks to 2.4 million watts of lights that bring night racing to southern Florida. The Homestead-Miami Speedway has hosted the Ford Championship Weekend since 2002. The three top NASCAR series hold their final races to determine the champions of each series Recent Ford 400 Winners2009 Denny Hamlin2008 Carl Edwards 2007 Matt Kenseth 2006 Greg Biffle 2005 Greg Biffle 2004 Greg Biffle The Homestead-Miami Speedway was built by entrepreneur Ralph Sanchez with the help of Wayne Huizenga and more than $10 million in hotel taxes. Sanchez came up with the plan to help revitalize Homestead after the destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Less than a year later groundbreaking began on August 24, 1993, . It opened in November 1995 with a NASCAR Busch Series race and full expectations of landing a NASCAR Cup Series race, which it did on November 14th 1999, the inaugural Pennzoil 400 which was won by Tony Stewart. Originally designed as a four-turn rectangular oval track, similar to the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the flat, sharp turns at Homestead-Miami Speedway managed to produce the worst possible combination for a racetrack: slow, dangerous one-groove racing. The first major attempt to repair the speedway converted the track to a traditional, symmetrical oval, but kept the flat turns however the racing didn't improve. In 2003 the track was resigned again, adding the lights and some banking in the turns. Twenty degrees of variable banking to be exact. Variable banking is where the bottom of the track's turns are banked slightly less than the top, at Homestead-Miami the banking varies from 18 degrees on the bottom to 20 degrees on the top of the turns. Now the smooth, steeply-banked turns create multiple grooves of racing, lots of passing and a speedway worthy of the Championship Weekend. Safety is always a priority at a well-run track, and Homestead-Miami is no exception. In 1997 John Nemechek was killed during a Craftsman Truck Series Race. Since then the series of redesigns to the track also included safety features that reduced the severity of the crash angles and and in 2003 lessened the impact of crashes when the SAFER barrier system was installed, making Homestead-Miami one of the first NASCAR tracks to feature this NASCAR mandated system. Every year the Homestead-Miami Speedway hosts the last races of the year. Naturally, Homestead-Miami has been home to some dramatic finishes. In 2004 Kurt Busch needed a lucky...BREAK...to win the championship. Kurt Busch, the championship leader, was pitting because of what he thought was a flat tire. Just as he was about to enter pit road the right front wheel BROKE off the car and rolled down the speedway which actually was a LUCKY BREAK since it brought out the caution and Busch was able to change the tire and stay on the lead lap. Lucky for Kurt Busch that the mishap occurred on lap 102 of 267, early enough for him to rebound, finished fifth and win the championship by eight points over Jimmie Johnson. In 2005 fans at Homestead-Miami were lucky enough to see the last-lap battle between Greg Biffle and Mark Martin. Even though Biffle and Martin drew the spotlight on the track, Tony Stewart's 15th place finish was enough to win the championship on points. However the championship finishes each year, it'll be exciting. Fans lucky enough to be at the Homestead-Miami Speedway will see it all.
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