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2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead Live Coverage

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2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead
The round of 8 of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs began last week in Las Vegas, where Joey Logano won, securing a place in the Championship 4. With only two weeks left before the championship finale in Phoenix, the stakes will be incredibly high at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The last time NASCAR raced in Miami was in February of 2021, when William Byron took the victory. He is looking to repeat that performance as he is six points below the playoff cut line. Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin is a three-time winner in Miami and is currently in the cutoff spot.

Byron starts from the pole, followed by Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, and Kyle Larson.

The Dixie Vodka 400 kicks off at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Live updates (ended):

21:55 UTC 

21:54 UTC  The top ten at the end of the race:

  • 1 - #5 - Kyle Larson
  • 2 - #1 - Ross Chastain
  • 3 - #16 - A.J. Allmendinger
  • 4 - #3 - Austin Dillon
  • 5 - #6 - Brad Keselowski
  • 6 - #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
  • 7 - #11 - Denny Hamlin
  • 8 - #4 - Kevin Harvick
  • 9 - #18 - Kyle Busch
  • 10 - #99 - Daniel Suarez

21:53 UTC  Ross Chastain kept his second place ahead of Allmendinger.

21:53 UTC 

21:51 UTC  Chastain and Allmendinger are fighting like crazy for second place.

21:51 UTC  Kyle Larson wins here in Miami!!!

21:51 UTC 

21:50 UTC  Kyle Larson's lead is now 1.5 seconds. Two laps to go.

21:49 UTC  Kyle Larson looks comfortably in the lead.

21:49 UTC  Less than five laps to go.

21:48 UTC 

21:48 UTC  Ross Chastain takes second place back after Allmendinger brushes the wall at the Turn 4.

21:46 UTC  Ten laps to go.

21:45 UTC  Ross Chastain overtakes Hamlin as well, and now Denny is in P4.

21:44 UTC  AJ Allmendinger takes second from Hamlin!

21:44 UTC  At the restart we have 17 laps to go.

21:42 UTC  Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin will be the top two drivers at the restart.

21:38 UTC  Truex's team is more than nervous with how things turned out!

21:38 UTC 

21:37 UTC 

21:37 UTC  His crew is going to service his car in reverse, but he's going to lose ALL of his track position after getting turned by Kyle Larson!

21:36 UTC  INCREDIBLE!! The leader Martin Truex Jr. gets spun coming into his pit stall!

21:35 UTC  With 23 laps to go, caution is out once again.

21:35 UTC  Tyler Reddick has spun and gone head-on into the inside wall.

21:31 UTC 

21:30 UTC  He's now got two seconds to make up on Truex with still 31 laps to go.

21:30 UTC  Kyle Larson gets to the wall and easily makes the pass on Ross Chastain.

21:25 UTC  Kyle Larson makes the pass on Hamlin for third.

21:25 UTC  Meanwhile, AJ Allmendinger has passed Brad Keselowski for fifth, and he's now challenging Kyle Larson for fourth.

21:25 UTC  However, Larson avoided a distaster. He is now trying to overtake Hamlin for third place.

21:24 UTC  Larson chopped Keselowski's nose off entering Turn 1, and those two about came together!

21:24 UTC 

21:23 UTC 

21:23 UTC  Battle for the lead now between Hamlin and Truex.

21:23 UTC 

21:22 UTC  Side-by-side for second between Truex and Chastain.

21:22 UTC  Green flag is out with 51 laps to go.

21:17 UTC  For a driver like Ryan Blaney that mistake was more than unusual. That's should show us that those things could happen even to the best of us.

21:14 UTC 

21:13 UTC  Blaney didn't suffer any damage but he came very close to sliding into the racing groove

21:13 UTC 

21:13 UTC  That came JUST as Truex and Chastain had come to pit road, and just as Kyle Larson had been preparing to pit from the lead.

21:13 UTC  Ryan Blaney spins on the access road and brings the caution out with 56 laps to go!

21:12 UTC  After that he stalled while leaving the pits.

21:12 UTC  His crew didn't get the lugnut on!

21:11 UTC  And William Byron's strategy is destroyed!!!!

21:09 UTC  We're going to see which teams employ two-stop strategies and which teams employ one-stop strategies. We now have almost 50 laps to go until the end.

21:01 UTC  That gap is growing as Truex begins to run Blaney down on the long run.

20:59 UTC  Kyle Larson has opened a lead of almost five seconds.

20:54 UTC 

20:54 UTC  He's fallen to fifth and is now under attack from Daniel Suarez for that spot.

20:53 UTC  Hamlin got sideways trying to overtake Blaney. He was saved by the wall, otherwise he would have spunned into traffic.

20:53 UTC  Problems for Denny Hamlin!

20:50 UTC 

20:49 UTC  Martin Truex Jr. has fallen back to fifth.

20:46 UTC  Four-wide for P3.

20:45 UTC  Green flag is back out with 97 laps to go.

20:43 UTC 

20:40 UTC  Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin gains three spots to move up to 7th.

20:40 UTC  Kyle Larson holds the lead off pit road.

20:39 UTC  The top ten after Stage 2:

  • 1 - #5 - Kyle Larson
  • 2 - #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
  • 3 - #24 - William Byron
  • 4 - #12 - Ryan Blaney
  • 5 - #6 - Brad Keselowski
  • 6 - #9 - Chase Elliott
  • 7 - #99 - Daniel Suarez
  • 8 - #1 - Ross Chastain
  • 9 - #22 - Joey Logano
  • 10 - #11 - Denny Hamlin

20:38 UTC 

20:38 UTC  Kyle Larson wins Stage 2 as well.

20:36 UTC  Crew members began running to the garage area but it looks now like they'll try to make the repairs within the DVP clock on pit road.

20:36 UTC  Chase Briscoe's upper control arm is busted.

20:34 UTC 

20:34 UTC 

20:33 UTC  Caution is out with four to go in Stage 2!

20:33 UTC  A lot of front end damage and a lot of smoke from one of the playoff contenders!

20:33 UTC  CHASE BRISCOE HAS CRASHED!!!

20:30 UTC  Chase Briscoe had a nice save in Turn 2.

20:29 UTC 

20:29 UTC  Kyle Larson continues to cruise at 5.3 seconds ahead of Martin Truex Jr. with less than ten to go in Stage 2.

20:23 UTC  Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain are having a dog fight for P6.

20:23 UTC  Coming up on 20 to go in Stage 2.

20:19 UTC  He came to pit road with a right front down, and it looked like the crew was having trouble with that part of the car for some time.

20:19 UTC  Justin Haley has a problem.

20:18 UTC  Kyle Larson has almost six seconds over Truex.

20:18 UTC 

20:14 UTC  Tyler Reddick had issues on his stop as well.

20:13 UTC  Denny Hamlin stall just as Landon Cassill was coming into his pit box, and then he almost got into Kyle Larson in his stall.

20:08 UTC  Green flag pit stops now underway. Joey Logano is in along with Briscoe, Buescher, Yeley, Burton, Almirola and Truex. Expect a land rush over these next few laps.

20:03 UTC  Four playoff drivers in the Top 10: Byron, Blaney (4th), Elliott (5th), and Chastain (7th).

20:03 UTC  Kyle Larson is leading Martin Truex Jr. by more than two seconds.

19:56 UTC  Martin Truex Jr. overtakes William Byron for second spot.

19:50 UTC  He is starting to open the gap over Byron.

19:50 UTC  Larson has been able to overtake Byron.

19:48 UTC  Another good start by Byron, but a push from Truex helps Larson.

19:48 UTC  Green flag is back out on Lap 88.

19:43 UTC  Top three hold serve off pit road.

19:40 UTC  The top ten after Stage 1:

  • 1 - #5 - Kyle Larson
  • 2 - #24 - William Byron
  • 3 - #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
  • 4 - #8 - Tyler Reddick
  • 5 - #3 - Austin Dillon
  • 6 - #16 - A.J. Allmendinger
  • 7 - #6 - Brad Keselowski
  • 8 - #9 - Chase Elliott
  • 9 - #12 - Ryan Blaney
  • 10 - #22 - Joey Logano

19:40 UTC 

19:39 UTC  Kyle Larson dominates Stage 1 winning by more than eight seconds.

19:39 UTC 

19:36 UTC  Tyler Reddick has lost second to Byron and third to Martin Truex Jr. Looks like Reddick's right rear tire is shot. No grip left.

19:35 UTC  Corey LaJoie brushed the wall coming off Turn 4.

19:33 UTC  Kyle Larson was amazing with tire management. With less than ten to go in Stage 1 he opened a huge gap from Tyler Reddick.

19:28 UTC  Tire management will probably play a big factor at the end of the stage.

19:28 UTC  Less than 20 to go in Stage 1.

19:21 UTC  Kyle Larson has opened up his lead on Tyler Reddick. The gap is now up to almost three seconds.

19:18 UTC  Tyler Reddick overtakes Larson for second and now he is attacking Byron for the lead.

19:18 UTC 

19:18 UTC  The top five – Larson, Byron, Reddick, Allmendinger and Elliott – are all within a second of each other.

19:13 UTC  Larson gets to the inside of Byron with a great run off Turn 4, and it's going to get him past Byron for the lead.

19:13 UTC  William Byron had a great restart, while Reddick is challenging Kyle Larson for second spot.

19:13 UTC  Green flag is back out at Lap 36.

19:08 UTC  Everyone comes to pit road under yellow. Byron uses the No. 1 stall to win the race off pit road and get the lead back.

19:06 UTC 

19:06 UTC  Meanwhile Kyle Larson took the lead from William Byron.

19:06 UTC  Caution is out for the first time today. John Hunter Nemechek has spun on the backstretch after running inside the top five all throughout the first run.

19:01 UTC  The gap between Byron and Larson is pretty stable, but meanwhile, the leaders have to deal with the likes of Tyler Reddick and others who are coming hard.

18:58 UTC  Kyle Larson went to work and closed the gap a lot to William Byron.

18:55 UTC  However, Elliott lost the battle, falling all the way back to sixth.

18:54 UTC  Meanwhile, Chase Elliott was three wide for P4 with Nemechek and Allmendinger.

18:54 UTC  William Byron opened up a lead over one second.

18:53 UTC  Hendrick Motorsport is leading this race with a one-two.

18:53 UTC  Kyle Larson has passed Christopher Bell for second place.

18:52 UTC 

18:52 UTC  Pace car is off, and we're racing in South Beach. Green flag is out at Homestead!

18:36 UTC  Bubba Wallace serves his one race suspension.

18:35 UTC 

18:35 UTC 

18:35 UTC  Engines fired for the Dixie Vodka 400.

18:34 UTC  Pre-race ceremonies have begun at Homestead.

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About the author: Silvian Irimia
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Silvian may be the youngest member of our team, being born in the 2000s, but you won't find someone more passionate than him when it comes to motorsport. An automotive engineer by trade, Silvian considers the Ferrari F50 his favorite car, with the original Lamborghini Countach a close second.
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