Garrett Smithley Homestead preview

The race: 300 miles, 200 laps; race 33 of 33

SMITHLEY ENDS ROOKIE SEASON

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Garrett Smithley will close out his rookie season in the Xfinity Series in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Smithley has scored eight top-20 runs in a season in which he raced on many of the Xfinity tracks for the first time. He enters Saturday’s race 18th in Xfinity points – in front of three drivers who have run the entire schedule (Smithley missed the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway).

“I feel like we’ve had a good season,” Smithley said. “We’ve brought good cars to the track, and we learned a bunch. Now we want to end the year in a big way Saturday.”

Smithley has raced twice at the Homestead track.

The Xfinity Series champion will be determined in Saturday’s race.

Practice is scheduled at 2 and 5 p.m. (ET) Friday, with qualifying set for 11:15 a.m. Saturday. The race will get the green flag at 3:30 p.m.