Stewart Sizzles In Winning Ford 400 And Sprint Cup Championship

Homestead, Fla. – Tony Stewart sizzled at the Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday as he overcame adversity, rain storms, a bout with another car and the relentless competition put up by title contender Carl Edwards to win the Ford 400 and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship.

An estimated crowd of 73,000 fans cheered loudly as the hotly contested race came to a dramatic conclusion with Stewart showcased as the shining star. Experts believe the race will go down in history as one of the greatest events ever.

Edwards and Stewart came into the weekend separated by only three points and while they both thought it would be neat to have the race decided on the last lap, they never realized how close it came to playing out.

When the checkered flag dropped, the two titans were tied with 2,403 points with Stewart winning out through a tie breaker rule that awards the championship to the driver with the most wins. For the season, Stewart won five races, all during the Chase, with Edwards scoring just once.

In winning the championship, Stewart joined an elite group of three-time Sprint Cup champions – Darrell Waltrip, Lee Petty, Cale Yarborough and David Pearson. He also became the seventh champion to win the season finale and the championship at the same time. His average finish during the Chase was 6.3 while Edwards had an average of 4.9.

Also, Stewart becomes the first owner-driver to win the series championship since Alan Kulwicki did it in 1992.

In total, Stewart led 65 of the 267 laps in the Ford 400 while Edwards led the most circuits with 119 laps in front.

Said the new champion, “Thank the Lord for this one. I’m telling you it’s been a tough, tough summer and a tough fall. You have to believe in something and the man upstairs held the rain off long enough for us to get the job done.

“I said all week we just had to go out and win the race, and that’s what we did. If this doesn’t go down as one of the greatest championship battles in history, I don’t know what will.”

Stewart’s run was a classic from start to finish. Starting 15th, his charge to the front was derailed quickly when his car sustained an unexplained hole in the grill. It took the Stewart team a series of pit stops to make the repairs. Later on, he had to survive a brush with another car.

At one point during the drama, Stewart dropped to 40th place and another time to 37th. Regardless of the situation, Stewart never let up, and he made his first appearance at the head of the field on the 124th lap.

Thereafter, two slow pit stops took away his advantageous track position but that didn’t affect his determination. He managed to pass cars with seeming ease and over the course of the lengthy race, he passed 118 cars.

Stewart drove the Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet to victory.

Rain dampened the action on three occasions, once stopping the race for 1 hour and 14 minutes on the 109th lap. A brief shower occurred late in the going but the field kept going under the caution flag.

And in victory lane another shower rolled in, dousing the large crowd that gathered to toast the champion.

“After the way those first 109 laps went today, I could not be more proud,” Stewart said. “We had the problem early and everyone did a great job getting it back going. Then we had the contact with David Reutimann and had to fix it again. I told my crew, ‘Man, it is really going to make these guys mad when we come back twice and kick their butt.’

“If this wasn’t an exciting race to watch or an exciting championship to see, you have to go and get checked out. I have been racing for 31 years and while I can’t remember every race I have won, I believe this was one of the greatest races of my life.”

During the post-race ceremonies, Stewart’s hero A. J. Foyt called to offer his congratulations. “That brought a tear to my eye – to have your life-long hero say that about me,” the champion said.

Stewart went on to say, “It is an honor to be in the same category with Alan Kulwicki, but Alan did it all on his own and I have a great co-owner with Gene Haas. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.

“I wanted to win this thing bad. When you are going for a championship, you don’t hold anything back. We just could not leave anything on the table, and we had to go on restarts. It is just an awesome night when your car drives that good, and you can go get it done like that.”

As Edwards picked up the pace during the late stages, Stewart said he had something left in his pocket. “We knew we could go when we needed to.”

Said crew chief Darian Grubb, “Five wins in the Chase are impressive. We had our ups and downs, but the team and Tony gave it his all. He went and out earned this one.”

Grubb’s call to Stewart to save fuel in the late-race going was met with mixed emotions by Stewart, who was frustrated to watch other cars fly by him. As it turned out, the call seemingly made the difference between first and second place.

“That was the call of the race,” said Stewart, who then made a sensational multi-car pass during a subsequent restart while slashing his way to the front.

Grubb’s work was made more difficult after being advised in mid-season that he will not retained for next season.

Team co-owner Gene Haas beamed all over about the championship. “It is awesome and it leaves you speechless,” he said.

Edwards, who tried not to let his frustration show, came in second 1.3 seconds behind the victor. He drove the Aflac Ford.

“Whether we won tonight or we lost, I mean, tomorrow is the start of the next season,” he said. “We knew all of the circumstances that could happen, but this was the least probable. For us to finish like that, tied, fighting for the win. That was the least probable outcome.”

Responding to his inability to catch the fleeing Stewart, Edwards said, “I was reminded of the second (Nationwide Series) race at Iowa with Ricky Stenhouse and that was never, ever, give up, period, ever. I was fully prepared for Tony to run out of fuel, have a tire problem, for a caution to come out and have a restart. That’s all I can do is to be as prepared as I can be.

“I didn’t really let myself think about the consequences of what was going on. I just had to go drive the hardest I could, and I did. I mean I drove it to the edge and beyond, and that’s all I had.”

When Edwards exited the post-race press conference, he received a large ovation from the assembled crowd.

While the television cameras and the fans focused on the two title contenders, there were many battles going on around the track.

Martin Truex Jr. tried to make up for his near-miss a year ago but he could only hold out for third place in the NAPA Auto Parts Toyota.

“We were no match for Tony and Carl tonight,” he said. “We were a sold third-place car, and for us, that was a good day. We have ended the season on a strong note. All in all, a good way to end the season and I am proud of my team for what they have done.”

Describing the race in front of him, he added, “It was really cool to see those guys up front so long. You could not ask for a championship to be more exciting. Those two guys were really fast and when you watch that, you understand why they race for the championship. It was pretty incredible.”

Matt Kenseth finished fourth in the Crown Royal Ford and Jeff Gordon ended up fifth in the Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet.

Clint Bowyer Jr., Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. trailed the others in 11th place.

Jimmie Johnson ran well but spun and was collected by David Gilliland. The five-time champion finished 32nd, six laps behind the leaders.
There were a race record 26 lead changes among 15 drivers and eight caution flags slowed the event for 54 laps.

In the final point standings, Stewart and Edwards finished 1-2 with Harvick third, Kenseth fourth, Brad Keselowski fifth and Johnson sixth. Earnhardt, Gordon, Hamlin, Newman, Kurt and Kyle Busch finished behind them in the scorebook.

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