Tony Stewart Wins Race And Championship At Homestead
It was Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway and it all came down to either Carl Edwards or Tony Stewart to take the trophy. A win for either would guarantee the championship and that's exactly what Tony Stewart did.
The race started with points leader Edwards on the pole. Stewart had trouble early on in the race after damage to the front grill and had to pit multiple times losing lots of track position, but he made ground up quickly by racing hard. Tony Got up to 5th place behind a race leading Edwards when the rains came causing officials to Red Flag the race for well over an hour!
When we got back to green flag racing both Edwards and Stewart kept racing hard. Stewart would eventually take the lead. A risky call to leave Tony on the track when he was low on fuel worked when a caution came out because of more rain. He was able to conserve gas under caution and blew threw the competition once again during the restart.
The race ended the way it should, the final lap saw Stewart leading with Edwards behind him in second as Stewart won his 3rd Sprint Cup Championship and his first since 2005. Martin Truex Jr. came in 3rd followed by Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon rounding out the top 5. Stewart and Edwards actually ended in a tie in points but the tiebreaker came due to Tony winning 5 races compared to Carl's 1.
Final Sprint Cup Standings:
1. Tony Stewart
2. Carl Edwards
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Matt Kenseth
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
8. Jeff Gordon
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Ryan Newman