NASCAR at Homestead-Miami: Start time, lineup for 2015 championship race
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — It's NASCAR championship race day at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and we've got some essential information you need to get ready for today’s Sprint Cup Series race.
START TIME: Hoda Kotb from Today fame will instruct drivers to start their engines at 3:07 p.m. Eastern time today, followed by the green flag at 3:16 p.m. This might change due to rain, so check the forecast and plan to be in front of the TV around 3 p.m. ET.
RACE DISTANCE: The Ford EcoBoost 400 is 267 laps around the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway for a total of 400.5 miles.
Gluck gazes into the future to foretell NASCAR's Homestead finale
NATIONAL ANTHEM: Zachary Levi, star of NBC’s Heroes Reborn and also famous for playing the title role on Chuck, will sing the national anthem today.
TV/RADIO SCHEDULE: NBC will broadcast today's race and has a pre-race show beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) will call the race on the radio.
WEATHER: Iffy. The National Weather Service is calling for showers likely in the hours before the race, followed by scattered showers and storms after 2 p.m. The temperature will be near 81 and the overall chance of rain is 60%.
Gluck: Expect the unexpected in NASCAR Sprint Cup season finale
LAST TIME: Kevin Harvick won the race — and the championship — in the first year of NASCAR’s revamped Chase for the Sprint Cup format. A champion doesn’t have to win the race; he just has to finish first of the four playoff drivers (in this case Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.).
STARTING LINEUP: Denny Hamlin is on the pole for today’s race and will start alongside Joey Logano.
Here's the starting lineup for today's NASCAR championship race at Homestead:
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Kyle Busch
- Ryan Newman
- Jeff Gordon
- Ryan Blaney
- Carl Edwards
- Brad Keselowski
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Austin Dillon
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kevin Harvick
- Aric Almirola
- Kurt Busch
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Paul Menard
- Kasey Kahne
- Matt Kenseth
- AJ Allmendinger
- Greg Biffle
- Jamie McMurray
- Kyle Larson
- Clint Bowyer
- Ty Dillon
- Trevor Bayne
- Casey Mears
- Sam Hornish Jr.
- Michael McDowell
- Justin Allgaier
- JJ Yeley
- Josh Wise
- Alex Bowman
- Landon Cassill
- Danica Patrick
- Tony Stewart
- Matt DiBenedetto
- David Ragan
- Michael Annett
- Cole Whitt
- David Gilliland
- Brett Moffitt
- Ryan Preece
Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck
