Kyle Larson secured his spot in the Championship 4 with his win in Las Vegas last week, leaving only three coveted spots remaining entering Sunday’s 4EVER 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The race was named in honor of Kevin Harvick, who will retire at the end of this season.
Larson’s teammate, William Byron, holds a seven-point margin atop the NASCAR Cup Series standings. The other two Championship spots are currently held by regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. and his teammate Denny Hamlin, but they are only two points clear of Christopher Bell.
“We’re looking forward to this weekend,” Hamlin said.
“Obviously, we would have liked to have finished last week a little better to be in a better spot in the points, but we feel good about Homestead. It’s a track we’ve had some success at and feel like we can run up front and score points.
“That’s the name of the game right now, to just qualify up front, score points in the stages and finish as good as we can. It’d be awesome to win the race and lock ourselves in, but if we can’t do that, we need to maximize our day.”
Tyler Reddick is 16 points out of a Championship 4 spot, followed by Ryan Blaney one point further back and Chris Buescher, who is 23 points behind Hamlin.
4EVER 400
Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Date: Sunday, Oct. 22, 2:30 p.m. ET
Distance: 400 miles on 1.5-mile track
Defending champion: Kyle Larson
Cup Series leader: William Byron
TV: NBC
Radio: SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
5 BEST BETS
Kyle Larson (+250 at BetMGM)
Larson is not only coming off a victory last week, he’s the defending champion of this race. He has been hit-and-miss this year — Larson also has seven DNFs to go with his four wins — but enters this week with a ton of momentum.
Tyler Reddick (+500)
Reddick won the Xfinity Series championship in 2018-19 after winning consecutive races at Homestead. He’s third at the book, having drawn 9.7 percent of the total money to win this week. Reddick has been running well of late with a sixth and eighth the past two weeks.
Martin Truex Jr. (+500)
Truex has good memories from Homestead, where he won in 2017 en route to claiming his first Cup Series title. He’s also sitting on the pole for Sunday’s race. “That’s the kind of track I really like,” Truex said of Homestead. “You can run all over and it’s really low-grip and it wears tires out. You really have to manage your car and your tires throughout runs. Be able to move around the track and find lines that work for you. It’s a big challenge and I enjoy tracks like that.”
William Byron (+700)
Byron won this race two years ago for his second Homestead victory — he also won the 2016 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the track. He already has a career-high and series-leading six wins this year. Byron’s 19 top-10 finishes in 2023 are also one shy of a career high. He’s the book’s second-biggest liability this week and leads the field with 11.2 percent of the total bets and 13.6 percent of the money since opening at +750.
Denny Hamlin (+900)
No active driver has won more races at Homestead than Hamlin, who visited Victory Lane here in 2009, 2013 and 2020. Another win and he would break the all-time record he shares with Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart. Hamlin owns a career average finish of 9.833 at Homestead. He’s second at the book, having been backed by 8.2 percent of the total bets.
LONGSHOT PICK
Christopher Bell (+1400)
Bell won at Martinsville a week before the 2022 finale and he’ll need to pull another rabbit out of his hat to qualify for the Championship 4 this year. He owns a career average finish of 13.0 at Homestead — best among the four drivers currently below the cut line.