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Kyle Busch Doubles At Homestead – Wins Race And Cops Sprint Cup Championship

Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch carries victory flag down frontsretch. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch carries victory flag down frontsretch. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Homestead, Fla. – Kyle Busch not only raced to victory in the Ford EcoBoost NASCAR Sprint Cup season finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway but his effort fought propelled him to the 2015 Sprint Cup Championship.

Rain delayed the start of the event by 90 minutes, but the sellout crowd wasn’t concerned, as they traveled to south Florida to see intense racing and to be on hand for Jeff Gordon’s last race. And they did get their monies’ worth.

Said the new champion, “So far, it feels amazing. I don’t think anyone could have dreamed of this year, to be able to go out there and perform the way we did is remarkable. I had a great race car tonight and to do what we did in this format, winning the race and end up in victory lane and to win the championship by ending up in victory lane. It hasn’t sunk in yet; this night tonight is really, really special. I have to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing for the work they have put in, and Toyota, too. It is pretty cool to be in this spot.”

Busch drove the M&M’s Crispy Toyota.

Added crew chief Adam Stevens, “This has been a whirlwind year for us since I was asked to be crew chief. A lot of work has gone into building this team.”

“It is a thrill to win this championship,” Joe Gibbs said, complimenting everyone involved with the team. “We had a first for Toyota, which was a thrill for us. And M&M’s, too.”

Busch, who led 41 circuits and the all-important final seven, had been in contention throughout and forged into the lead as a result of the quickest pit stop seven from the end. When the caution flew for debris, Busch was running third behind Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson.

When the checkered flag dropped five minutes later, Busch held the point with Harvick 1.552 seconds behind. Keselowski and teammate Joey Logano were third and fourth with Larson fifth and Gordon sixth.

Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and title contender Martin Truex Jr .rounded out the top-12 finishers.

“We were just struggling all night, to be honest with you,” Harvick stated. “We had a lot of trouble getting up off the corner and putting the power down. And the longer the run went, the looser that we would get up off the corner. We just want to thank everybody. It’s been a great couple of years and I’m looking forward to next year. So, it’s fun to be able to run like this. You always want to win, but I’ve learned not to get greedy. After last year, I felt like we had everything go our way and tonight, it didn’t go our way. Congratulations to the No. 18 team and everything they did and all of our guys; they’ve done a great job all year. We were just a little bit off all weekend.”

Said the retiring Gordon, “When I took the lead, I got so excited, got my hopes up but after a restart, I knew I didn’t have what the others had. Right now, I am caught up in the moment, but it did show what we are made of and what got us here. Today was a perfect day but we came up a little bit short with the race. Overall, I am excited and proud the way my career went. I have learned there’s no such thing as a perfect day or a perfect life.”

The dejected Truex commented, “It was a big deal for us and for our team, for our owner, and for me personally to get this car this far and to have a chance to come in and battle for this championship. It was a big deal for us and I wish we could have performed better today. We struggled all weekend with this car and it definitely wasn’t for a lack of effort. The guys put a ton of effort into this car and really all weekend we just kept throwing stuff at it and we just could never get it where we needed it. I am not sure what we were missing, but we were missing something.”

Busch, Harvick, Gordon and Truex ran at or near the front throughout and among the quartet, they led 99 of the 267 laps.

Race winner Busch won for the 34th time in his career and for fifth time in 2015, and these wins came after he missed the opening 11 races of the season while recovering from injuries sustained at Daytona in February.

Champion Busch earned his first crown, becoming the 31st different series champion. He also became the fourth driver to win a Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series title. Kyle and Kurt Busch join Bobby and Terry Labonte as the only two brother combinations to win the coveted championship.

For car owner Joe Gibbs, the accomplished team took its fourth Cup crown to go along with its four Nationwide Series championships.

Brett Moffitt was named Sunoco Rookie of the Year.

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