2024 Homestead Race Report

The 2024 Homestead race report features a record number of lead changes and a last-lap pass that catapulted Tyler Reddick into the Championship 4.

The 2024 Homestead Race Report Lead-/Caution-o-Gram

As usual, we start the 2023 Homestead race report with a race overview. The top diagram shows the cautions and the bottom the lead changes.

Cautions

The 2024 Homestead race had six total cautions, which right in line with recent races. The last four races have had either five or six cautions.

Two of this race’s six cautions were stage cautions, which means there were four unexpected cautions.

• All six cautions contributed to 30 laps worth of yellow flags
• The unexpected cautions took up 18 of the 30 laps.
  • That’s an average of 4.5 laps per unexpected caution and 6.0 laps per stage caution.
• The unexpected caution breakdown:
  • 2 accidents (50% of all unexpected cautions)
  • 1 spin (25%)
  • 1 tire issue (25%)

I label the second caution a tire incident because Kyle Larson was 100% certain that the tire went, which caused him to hit the wall, rather than the other way around. NASCAR classified it as a debris caution, but that obscures the actual reason.

Larson and the No. 5 team had a rough time of it at Homestead, ending up responsible for two of the four unexpected cautions.

• Larson caused the second caution of the race when a right rear tire problem sent his car into the wall.
• Larson spun again on lap 255, losing five spots on pit road while resetting the diffuser flap.
• He didn’t fare much better off track. The No. 47 spun the 17 on pit road, causing Larson to have to wait to get into his pit box.

And yet Larson still finished 13th. Few drivers can have an incident that close to the end of the race and still salvage a top-15 finish. It doesn’t do him as much good, however, because six of the eight drivers still competing for the Championship 4 finished 1 through 6 in the race. The last driver, Joey Logano, had problems all weekend, but since he won Las Vegas, he’s already through.

Lead Changes

The 2024 Homestead race reports a record 33 lead changes. But before you get too excited, there were three relatively long green-flag pit-stop cycles. Because different teams pursued different strategies, this led to a lot of drivers leading only because the driver ahead of them pitted.

As the table above shows, 13 of the 33 lead changes were of the inherited type. That is more a function of strategy and lack of accidents than great racing.

Not that there wasn’t great racing. The table doesn’t show all the lead changes that happened in-between the start/finish line. There was some absolutely great racing, especially toward the end.

The previous record for lead changes (26) was set in 2011. I don’t have the data to break down the lead changes into different types. There were, however, eight cautions and the more cautions you get — especially at a track where tires are really important — the more lead changes you’ll have.

This isn’t to argue that this was or wasn’t a good race. It’s merely to remind you you can’t learn anything from numbers unless you understand where they come from and what they mean.

Reddick Rules

This represents a massive win for Reddick given that six of the eight playoff drivers finished in the top six. Reddick left Homestead having earned 57 points, only three short of a perfect 60.

His closest competitor, Chase Elliott, finished fifth with 17 stage points for a total of 49 points. But that still leaves Elliott with the fewest points of all non-winners.

Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney each earned 48 points and Christopher Bell 46. Bell has the most points of any playoff driver, but both Hamlin and Blaney are below the cut line at present, despite how well they finished.

Everyone else is just as close, which will make Martinsville a real nail biter. Reddick, however, doesn’t have to chew any fingernails. He’s in.

And that’s your 2024 Homestead Race Report!