NASCAR insider: Homestead Cup Series race 'was a quintessential stock car race'

A NASCAR insider enjoyed watching and covering the Homestead Cup Series race this past weekend. On The Teardown podcast, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic praised the race for being like what NASCAR used to be.

“This was a quintessential stock car race,” Bianchi said. This was fantastic. This is exactly what you want to see on an intermediate racetrack, and this is why Homestead, with along Kansas, maybe Charlotte, those are the three tracks where they’re going to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.

“This was everything today. It was entertaining, sure. Stage 1, I think it’s fair to say it wasn’t the most exciting at times, but you also have to tip your hand to Ryan Blaney and say he went out there and kicked everybody’s but. You still had an entertaining race unfolding behind him and different strategies that were going on. This was a classic, old-school quintessential NASCAR.”

Was the NASCAR Homestead race a throwback from the past?

Bianchi added, “These kind of races is what put NASCAR on the map back in the day. Today, it naturally unfolded. You got a great finish, you got different guys in coming and going. I would be really hard-pressed to look at this race and point fingers and say, ‘Oh man, this wasn’t good.’ It’s like I don’t know what to tell you. If you don’t like what unfolded today, I really question why you’re watching this sport in general.”

Kyle Larson won the Homestead Cup Series race to earn his 30th career Cup Series victory. He beat Hendrick Sports teammate Alex Bowman, who earned pole for the race. Bubba Wallace, who led a season-high 56 laps on Sunday, finished third, while Chase Briscoe came in fourth. Denny Hamlin, who won stage 2, rounded out the top five of the final results.

“I knew me coming towards those guys they were going to start moving around and making mistakes and I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex [Bowman], he may make a mistake and he caught the wall there and I got around him easier than I expected to,” Larson said after the race. “Still had to work hard, though. My balance in clean air was really loose, just like those guys were. Hats off to the whole team.”