Tony Stewart Doubles Up with Win and Title at Homestead

Racin’ with Russ—In the closest title battle in NASCAR Sprint Cup history, Tony Stewart won the race at Homestead, FL, with Carl Edwards large in his mirrors in second. The win tied them in points, but Stewart took the title by virtue of the tie breaker, that being the driver having the most wins with five.

In many ways, the irony of Stewart winning a third title came as a result of winning half the races in the Chase after not winning a single event before the Chase began. Very early in the race, his team overcame several adversities, starting with a large piece of debris in the front grille, dropping him to 40th.

Later on, there was a problem with a speed wrench while changing the tires, dropping him back a bit. But all through the night, Stewart threw the car into the turns with reckless abandon, often performing ‘slide jobs’ as per his history in sprint car racing, gaining numerous positions on the race track.

Edwards did all he could for the weekend by being the fastest in practice, taking the pole and leading the most laps, only to come up one point short of his first title. This was surely a disappointing event for him despite being an extremely gracious loser in post-race activities.

Perhaps the final restart with 40 laps to go changed the outcome of things: Stewart got ahead of  Brad Keselowski and Edwards, then Edwards was held up by Keselowski for several laps while Stewart pulled away.

Had Keselowski not held up Edwards, the battle may have been closer and perhaps even different at the stripe. Keselowski all the while knew he had to pit for fuel and wound up 20th on the charts. This will not be forgotten by Edwards and company.

Rounding off the top five competitors in the final race of the season were the cars of Martin Truex Jr, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon.

Note: Had Stewart not passed Jeff Burton on the last lap of the previous race for third, the title
would have gone to Edwards—WOW!

Nationwide

 Roush-Fenway Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr came into the final race with a large 41-point lead over Elliott Sadler. Having only to earn a 37th-place finish to grab that first title was certainly a comfortable margin for the 24-year-old driver.

The race began with Brad Keselowski on the pole with Carl Edwards on the outside. Those two held court out front for many laps as did Clint Bowyer, Elliott Sadler, Trevor Bayne and Stenhouse. In the closing laps, Keselowski was able to move by Edwards on the final restart and hold off a last turn, last lap outside charge from Stenhouse to take the checkers by a whisker.

Edwards, Bowyer and Hamlin capped the top five with Edwards able to earn the owner's trophy for Jack Roush by besting the Toyota of Hamlin by a couple of points. Danica Patrick’s season-ending race started mid-pack and ended in the wall when her car got away from her with 10 laps to go, netting a 32nd place finish.

She returns next year for a full-season nationwide effort and 10-race entry into Sprint Cup racing.

Truckin’

 Austin Dillon had a 20-point lead heading into the season finale with Johnny Sauter sitting in second. After waiting out rainy-day delays, the race began with James Buescher, Kevin Harvick, Ron Hornaday and even Elliott Sadler leading a bunch of laps. In the end, it was the strong-running truck of Sauter that rose to the occasion in the final laps to grab the checkers.

It also helped that it started raining with 17 laps remaining, whereupon NASCAR officials parked the trucks on pit lane before pulling the plug seven minutes later in calling the race. Literally seconds before calling the show, Denny Hamlin made an outside move on Sauter, only to have the door promptly shut down on the Toyota driver's effort.

Behind Sauter at the stripe was Harvick, Nelson Piquet Jr and Joey Coulter with new points champion Austin Dillon hanging on to a 10th place finish and a narrow six-point final-points margin of victory.

Dillon becomes the youngest NASCAR champion to ever claim a title at the tender age of 21. The young Childress Chevy team driver will move on to a full-time nationwide ride next year in a No. 3 Chevy, while his 19-year-old brother Ty will fill the truck seat full-time.

From Rumorville

 Many of the No. 29 Kevin Harvick crew members will be shuffled around after yesterday’s finale into various spots around the RCR conglomerate of three cars.

Still no word on definite plans for the Red Bull Toyota team beyond yesterday. The team has been up for sale and certainly is a competitive one as witnessed by the recent win by driver Kasey Kahne.

Kahne will move over to the No. 5 for Hendrick next year, yet teammate Brian Vickers is certainly on the outside looking in, especially after his latest two races wrecking everything in sight but the pace car.

That’s it for this week. Next week, RWR will review the NASCAR finales for the top three divisions in Homestead, FL, preview the F-1 finale in Brazil and have more racing news from around the globe.