NASCAR Sprint Cup Ends with a Duel

As the final race of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday offered excitement from start to finish, ending with Tony Stewart taking the checkered flag and the championship title. Having won the NASCAR season championships in 2002 and 2005, this was Stewart’s third championship victory – a victory for which he had to battle against very strong competition. The last 40 laps of the 267-lap event proved to be a duel between Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards that kept fans in suspense right to the finish line. Although Stewart and Edwards ended the season tied in points, the championship title went to Stewart because of his five victories during the season, compared with one victory for Edwards.

What made Stewart’s victory even sweeter was the fact that it was not without obstacles. Eearly on in the race he discovered a hole in his car’s front grille forcing him to stop for repairs. His team put a new grille over the damaged one, securing it in place with electrical tape, and sending him on his way again. At one stage Stewart was 40th in the field, but climbed to 5th place before a 74-minute rain delay broke his stride once more. But nothing was going to stand in Stewart’s way as he fought his way to the front of the field, and the battlefor first place became a duel between himself and Edwards.

In a post-race interview, Stewart acknowledged that the first 109 laps of the race had been very challenging and commended his crew for their hard work. Commenting on his daring driving style which saw him passing a trio of cars on the inside of the track, Stewart said:”That shows you how bad I wanted to win this thing.” He also noted that a driver can’t hold anything back when going for a championship.

Martin Truex Jr. finished in third place, with Matt Kenseth taking the fourth spot and Jeff Gordon coming in fifth. Having scored two wins in the season, Jimmie Johnson had a disappointing finish to the season, finishing 32nd due to engine trouble and an incident in lap 143 where he spun out and hit the wall. Nevertheless, Johnson ended in sixth place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings with 2304 points. Both Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards clocked up 2403 points, with Kevin Harvick taking third place with 2345 points, Matt Kenseth at fourth place with 2330 points, and Brad Keselowski in fifth place with 2319 points.

Kenseth’s Position Boosted by Charlotte Victory

Claiming first place in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, 15 October, Matt Kenseth has moved up to third position in points in the 2011 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. Carl Edwards is in first position with points, and Kevin Harvick in second. While Kyle Busch took the lead in 111 laps of the race, Kenseth moved into a serious battle for the lead late in the race, bagging his third win of the season and moving up in the championship stakes. He is now just seven markers behind Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards, and with Talladega Superspeedway next on the championship calendar, the competition is definitely heating up.

The 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship started off on a disappointing note for Kenseth as he came in 21st with the opening race at Chicagoland. His form showed definite improvement as he finished in 6th place at Loudon, 5th place at Dover and 4th at Kansas, with his win at Charlotte showing his talent as a driver. Since his rookie campaign in 2000 when he took the checkered flag at Charlotte, Kenseth counts the 2003 Cup championship and a Daytona 500 win among his achievements. Reportedly considered by some to be a “boring” driver, Kenseth has stated that he was hired to try and win races and that’s what he tries to do week after week.

The top-five of the Bank of America 500 were Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose. Other highlights of the racing action at Charlotte on Saturday included some intense on-track rivalry between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, which they resolved off-track after the race. Jimmie Johnson – five-time defending series champion – was involved in a hard accident just 17 laps short of the finish line, when he made contact with Ryan Newman. As the winner of the race at Kansas last week, Johnson had started Saturday’s race ranking third in points, with only four points between him and Edwards – he has now dropped to 8th in the standings. But as all auto racing fans know, each new race presents its challenges and opportunities, and anything can happen as drivers Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

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