Lightning near the track delayed racing while Denny Hamlin‘s thunder on the track dominated the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

No sooner than the command to start the engines was given, rain on turn four shut them off. NASCAR had to delay the start of the race to dry the track. The race was finally started to only be put under the red flag after five laps due to lightning near the track. More than two hours later the race would restart. Then came more lightning on lap 33 for another stoppage of the race for another 38 minutes.

The weather cleared the area around Homestead-Miami and racing got going without interruption. Denny Hamlin was the only force around or on the track that hampered the other cars racing. Denny was able to claim the win in both the first and second stages of the race. He led a race-high 137 laps in the 267 lap race. That was nearly twice as many as the next driver on the laps led list, Ryan Blaney at 70 laps led.

The most important part for Denny was that he led the race for the final 30 laps including the last lap to claim the checkered flag. This gave Denny his third Cup Series win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It also gave him his third win of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. The win is career milestone as well for Denny as he now has 40 wins in NASCAR’s top division.

Chase Elliott finished in second place with Ryan Blaney taking home a third place finish. Rookie Tyler Reddick had a great race finishing in fourth place. Aric Almirola rounded out the top five. See the complete race results for the Dixie Vodka 400 here.

Following the race Kevin Harvick remained the leader in the point standings. Chase Elliott moved up to second place in the standings pushing Joey Logano back to third place. Brad Keselwoski moved up to fourth place while Ryan Blaney moved up to take over fifth place. See the complete NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.

The next race is set for Sunday, June 21st with the GEICO 500 taking place at Talladega Superspeedway.

By: Buck Stevens