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. 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. Now Homestead is a highly banked, fast 1.5 mile oval. The corners are progressively banked from 18 degrees at the bottom to 20 degrees at the top. There’s a lot of grip in the track and that means a lot of speed. Best of all, the progressive banking gives us multiple groove, side-by-side racing.

Drivers say turns one and two are slicker and trickier than turns three and four.

They've tried to make this place better over the years, and they have. Progressive banking was a smart idea that seemed to add a second groove right away. Still, it's too bad it doesn't have more character for the last race of the year.