History of Miami-Homestead Speedway

Homestead-Miami Speedway is a race track in Homestead, Florida southwest of Miami. It plays host to Ford Championship Weekend, the final races of the season in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, Busch Series, and the Craftsman Truck Series. These races are currently all sponsored by Ford Motors, taking the names Ford 400, Ford 300, and Ford 200, respectively. 

The speedway was constructed, with the efforts of promotor Ralph Sanchez, as part of a plan to help Homestead rebound after the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew. Groundbreaking began August 24, 1993, less than a year after the hurricane. It opened in November 1995 with a NASCAR Busch Series race. In the spring of 1996, the CART series held its first race there. 

The facility is considered by some to be one of the most beautiful in the country. Though located southwest of Miami, the track reflects the art deco district of downtown Miami with its liberal use of colors such as aqua, purple and silver, among other colors. 

However, the racing at Homestead was initially not considered very good. The track opened as a four-turn, rectangular-oval, based on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's layout. The sharp, flat turns and aprons made passing difficult and lowered overall speed. The geometry also created unfavorably severe crash angles. In 1996, track management attempted to correct the problems by widening the aprons of the turns by as much as 24 feet. In the summer of 1997, an $8.2 million reconfiguration project changed the turns from a quad-oval to a traditional, continuous turn oval. 

In 2003, the track was reconfigured once again. The turns were changed from mostly flat to steep variable banking. Shortly afterwards, lights were installed to allow night racing for the first time. The renovations were praised by fans, and the track has produced a number of close finishes, including 2005's last-lap battle between Greg Biffle and Mark Martin. 

On March 26, 2006 however, Indy Racing League driver Paul Dana suffered fatal injuries in the warm-up session before the season-opening round of the championship. He was involved in a high-speed collision, with Ed Carpenter at over 215 mph. His death is the first in the Indy Racing League since Tony Renna died at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October 2003, and only the 3rd ever since the series started. He also is the only other driver to suffer fatal injuries at the speedway since John Nemechek in a Craftsman Truck Race in March 1997, and Jeff Clinton who died in a Grand Am sports car event at the track in March 2002.