South Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway Hosts NASCAR Cup Series Season Finale
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 2, 2026) – Jimmy Buffett lived many lives. Perhaps the singer, songwriter and businessman could’ve also been a NASCAR Cup Series driver. He at least knew the lingo.
Lookin’ to the left, lookin’ to the right
Lookin’ to the stars to shed some light
Hopin’ for a breath, hopin’ for a break
Hopin’ for the give without the take
Those lines were from his 1986 fan favorite “Floridays,” and 40 years later, they’re just as applicable to the Cup Series season finale this Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where drivers like Cody Ware are Lookin’ for better days, lookin’ for Floridays.
“I’m cautiously optimistic going into Homestead,” said Ware, driver of the No. 51 Super.com/Rocket Doctor Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing. “Our intermediate-track package has definitely improved here in this last stretch of races between Kansas, Vegas and Charlotte, so I’m hopeful that will continue at Homestead.
“The track is a pretty unique mile-and-a-half oval. It’s its own animal. It’s not a traditional tri-oval, so we’ll see how much it translates. But for us to be able to hang our hat on some of the positives we’ve learned this season by just having a good run at Homestead – a no-frills, no-chaos weekend where we execute and earn a good result – that’ll give us all something to build off of for next year.”
It’s been seven years since Homestead last served as the final race on the Cup Series schedule. From 2002 through 2019, the 1.5-mile oval at the gateway to the Florida Keys was where Cup Series champions were crowned. Beginning in 2020, however, Phoenix Raceway hosted the season-ender. With this year’s final race back at Homestead, there’s a collective sense of belonging, where “dreamers,” “pale invaders” and “tan crusaders” gravitate down to U.S. 1 in a shared search for “better days.”
“I’ve raced the finale at Phoenix for all of my career, so it’s nice to have a little bit of a change,” Ware said. “It’s tough, though, because Homestead’s probably the racetrack where I have the least amount of experience in Cup.”
Ware has only three Cup Series starts at Homestead, and the first came in 2021 amid COVID-related restrictions, which meant no practice and no qualifying. His next start came in 2022 when there was just a 15-minute practice ahead of qualifying. In his most recent Homestead start last year, practice expanded to 25 minutes. Now in 2026, Ware and his Cup Series counterparts get a 50-minute session.
“There’s a lot of nuance to Homestead, and I’m still learning it,” Ware said. “For most of my starts there, it was just show up and race. I’m looking forward to getting back there this year with twice the practice time.”
Despite his limited time at Homestead, Ware shares the widely held opinion that Homestead is a driver’s track. It is a favorite among competitors because of its weathered asphalt, long straightaways and variable banking. It allows drivers to search different racing lines while managing their tires.
“Homestead is super aggressive, super abrasive. It’s almost like Darlington times 10, where the track surface, after a lap or two, your tires are shot. Everyone’s got a terrible racecar 10 laps into a run. That’s why it’s a more driver-oriented track,” Ware said.
“It’s all about making the most of what you have. I think even the guy leading the race at Homestead is going to be complaining about how bad his car is, but he’s just the one who’s making the most of it.”
Those who make the most of it will have the kind of Floriday Buffett sang of, for Homestead is now the focal point of a once distant gaze.
The Homestead race weekend begins Friday with a 50-minute practice session starting at 5:30 p.m. EST. Teams will have Friday evening and Saturday morning to debrief and make changes to their cars before qualifying Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The final race of the 2026 season goes off Sunday at 3 p.m. truTV will provide live coverage of practice and qualifying, with NBC broadcasting the 267-lap race. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will serve as the audio home for the entire race weekend.
About Rick Ware Racing:
Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age 6 when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver’s seat and into full-time team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with his wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that competes full-time in the elite NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track, FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) and zMAX CARS Tour.
