The Round of 8 continues its geographical whiplashing this week with a visit to the southern end of Florida's peninsula. Not "Key West" south, but south. So far south you have to drive about an hour north to get to Miami.

That didn't keep them from incorporating the big neighbor's name into the official label: Homestead-Miami Speedway.

It was Las Vegas last week and the hills of southern Virginia next week. In between it's the far reaches of Miami-Dade County, so let's get to know a little about the place.

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Homestead-Miami is nearly 30 years old

∎ The dimensions: Homestead is a 1.5-mile oval with banking at 18-20 degrees.

∎ Speedway founder Ralph Sanchez originally wanted to build a track in Miami but couldn’t make it work with local government leaders. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated Homestead, almost completely leveling the city with Cat 5 winds of 165 mph. Among the casualties was the sparkling new spring training facilities built for the Cleveland Indians, who would instead relocate their spring home in Winter Haven.

∎ Shortly after Andrew’s wrath, the City of Homestead began seriously courting Sanchez to come to Homestead. He did, and the track would be built alongside the shredded baseball complex. NASCAR president Bill France Jr. was among those at the 1993 groundbreaking. Soon thereafter, construction began facing a gauntlet of delays, including roadblocks erected by the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Go figure.

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∎ The track finally opened in 1995 and was known as the Homestead Motorsports Complex. For its first few years, it was host to NASCAR’s Busch and Trucks Series, as well as the CART Indy-car series. Dale Jarrett won the first Busch Series race there.

∎ In 1997, NASCAR’s track-ownership division, the former International Speedway Corp., partnered with Roger Penske to each attain 40% ownership of the speedway.

∎ Within two years, the track had a new name — Homestead-Miami Speedway — and a Cup Series date. ISC bought out the Penske ownership stake and maintained ownership, officially anyway, until the 2019 NASCAR-ISC merger. The Speedway is now part of the NASCAR track portfolio.

Between South Beach and the Keys

∎ While the track location was ideal in many respects, the actual racing surface drew wide criticism and was reconfigured prior to the 2003 racing season. The introduction of gradual banking was generally met with approval.

∎ From 2002-2018, Homestead-Miami served as host of NASCAR’s final weekend of each season. That honor went to Phoenix in 2019.

∎ The track also features a 2.3-mile road course with 11 turns.

∎ For social life, the speedway is some 40 miles from the hot spots of Miami’s South Beach to the north. However, point your car south and you’re just 17 miles from Alabama Jack’s on the upper keys bypass of Card Sound Road. At Alabama Jack’s you can get conch three ways: fritters, salad and chowder. Hell, get all three, hand the barkeep a 20, and you'll get change back.

∎ Another 17 miles south of Jack’s is the Caribbean Club in Key Largo, where strangers become friends, and vice versa.

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Homestead-Miami Speedway info as NASCAR playoffs continue Round of 8