By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Race six of the NASCAR season brings the circuit to the Miami, Florida area and it appears to be wide open among competitors that could win. Toyota won three races in 2025, all courtesy of Christopher Bell. William Byron put Chevrolet in the winning circle at Daytona, and Josh Berry got Ford across the finish line. Alex Bowman will be on the pole for the straight Talk 400 and there have been three different winners of the race the last three years. So… here is what is going on at Homestead Miami Speedway.
Wood Brothers Co-Owner Eddie Wood
Q —Eddie, your team hasn’t won in seven years before winning twice in the last 17 races. Did you ever think it would ever start clicking again?
EDDIE WOOD: Through the years we’ve been through so many ups and downs. This sport’s just like every other sport: there’s more downs than there is ups. When you do get in position to be fortunate enough to have the ups, you really appreciate it. Q- In racing, it’s always next week. You got another week. You got another opportunity to turn things around if you’re not doing well.“
“That’s how I think we’ve survived this long, is just you never give up, you never quit, and you just keep going to the next race. All of a sudden things will start building. You stay on the corner long enough, it will be your turn eventually. That’s kind of the way we are.“
Steve Sweitzer- The Lasco Press and Josh Berry.
Q- UNDER THIS PLAYOFF FORMAT, WE’VE SEEN HOW IMPORTANT EVERY POINT IS. DOES HAVING A WIN MEAN YOU MIGHT BE WILLING TO TAKE CHANCES AND DO THINGS LIKE TRYING TO WIN A STAGE IF OTHER CARS PIT AND THE OPPORTUNITY IS THERE?
Josh Berry — “Yeah, I think that will give us some flexibility, and a lot of times that depends on how you’re running. To me, my personal opinion even going back to Xfinity racing, if you feel like you have a car that can go out and win the race, I think you have to call the race that way. That’s how I approach it, but if you don’t, maybe if you’re a 10th-15th place car and you have the opportunity to potentially get a playoff point, but even some more stage points, I think that opens up the door for that for sure.”
Alex Bowman wins the Pole
Q- A lot of people really love this racetrack. Do you have that same sort of relationship with it?
“Yeah, when your race car is good, it’s really, really fun. But it just gives you options. It is still really hard to pass, for sure, just like anywhere else we go. But there’s so many different lines you can run, and running the wall can be so technical and a lot of fun.
“It’s so high risk that there’s not many other things that we do that are that high risk, I don’t think.. aside from maybe making speed at the Chicago street course or some of those places. And maybe not so much with this car as it was with the steel body car, but it still makes it a lot of fun.”
Denny Hamlin loves Homestead- Miami
Q — Do you feel more optimistic of winning at Homestead compared to other tracks?
“Yeah, it’s (Homestead-Miami Speedway) is in the top-five for me. I feel like it’s one of those tracks, again, we (drivers), can make a difference and my car was very good here just a few months ago and we had some issues on pit road (during the race). We weren’t great but had a shot to win it with a couple laps to go, I just didn’t get it done ultimately. Looking back at the race, it was one where were pretty strong so hopefully, we can build upon (that). Ultimately, I just want to win, and this is a track where we can kick that off.”
We will have all the comments and the action of the race at www.skyviewsports.net
Roy J. Akers
