Kyle Busch, who missed the first eleven races of the season because of injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona Speedway in February, has won NASCAR’s top championship by outrunning defending champion Kevin Harvick. He also won in 1997 and would later win the race in 2005. Busch also won Toyota its first NSCS race at Atlanta in 2008.
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Gibbs led the Redskins to three Super Bowl titles (1982, 1987 and 1991).
Busch’s story is how an aggressive, brash driver toned down his act and matured into a husband, father and – now – Cup champion. “Beyond that, it’s absolutely been a dream come true”.
“It’s really awesome, awesome, awesome”, he continued.
“I just started thanking her over and over again”, he said. “He wasn’t sitting there just like, ‘Oh, I’m going to stay at home and have a margarita on the beach.’ He was learning to walk again”. And he said he loved me.
And on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Gordon’s career ended with considerably more fanfare and attention than it had begun. Jeff Gordon, the sentimental favorite for the title in his final season, was sixth and Martin Truex Jr.
And then finally it was time to get the show on the road, and the cars streamed off pit road and got to work.
Megastar Lewis Hamilton, who recently wrapped up his third F1 championship, made the rounds with Gordon after driver introductions, as Gordon paused for a seemingly endless succession of last-race photos with the famous and not-so-famous.
NASCAR granted Busch a waiver that allowed him to be eligible for the Chase despite missing those 11 races. Busch didn’t “bask” for very long however. But he has mellowed with marriage, gained perspective after the Daytona wreck, and was determined to be on his feet in the delivery room when wife Samantha delivered their first baby, a boy born in May – right after Busch returned to the race auto and celebrated his 30th birthday. JGR also has three Xfinity Series teams and Busch won the series championship in 2009.
The green came back out on lap 172; Keselowski on the inside was able to grab the lead, Truex fell into second. Even so, it was clear that Truex like Gordon simply didn’t have the pace to win the day.
But Harvick fell one point shy of repeating as champion.
While Harvick blasted through to second, by the time he got there Busch was already out of reach.
As the laps ticked down it was soon becoming clear that without a caution, that chance simply wasn’t coming. The system has been tweaked several times and is in the second year of an elimination format that sends four drivers to Homestead to race for the title.
The 44-year-old Gordon announced in January that this would be his last season.
With 54 laps to go, Truex took another gamble by pitting early while running 14th. “It didn’t take the championship for me to feel like I’m on top of the world”. I don’t know if Brad spun his tyres or what. Brad Keselowski was second, Joey Logano finished third and Kyle Larson fifth. On the restart the top three drivers were Chasers – Harvick, Busch and Gordon. We came here and really tried everything we knew to put out our best performance.
“He said, ‘I should have waited to extend my contract, ‘” Gibbs said. Larson was able to gather his auto back up and made another run on Busch and took second on lap 253. “So, it’s just a great feeling”.
On the restart on Lap 155, Busch raced to the lead past Logano.
The race started an hour-and-a-half late due to a rain delay. “I wanted to end on a strong note for everyone at MWR (this was the final race for Michael Waltrip Racing, which will cease operations in the off-season)”. He was aware of Harvick, who was fourth on the restart and right behind him. “We had a fast Shell/Pennzoil Ford that led a lot of laps, so I’m proud of the laps we led. We couldn’t redeem ourselves after a couple mistakes tonight”. With Brexton’s birth set for delivery May 18, Busch used that date as a goal to drive himself to not only be ready to assist in the birth, but to get back in his race auto far earlier than anyone honestly expected.
“The big news is: I’m driving today”, McGraw joked. Not from a lack of effort.
“I had such a blast knowing that we had a good race auto and could battle with these guys”, he said.
The race marked the 20th anniversary of the Homestead track that rose in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, and the 14th consecutive year NASCAR has held its season-ending championship race here.
“Congratulations to Kyle Busch”.
“I do believe he’s the greatest driver of all time”, Gordon said of Andretti. Gordon seemed overwhelmed by the attention, and many resented him for no good reason.
“There are certainly a lot of things that you learn and there’s certainly a lot of things in life that I don’t know that you’ll ever fully understand”, he said.
From his time as an NFL football coach into NASCAR team ownership, Joe Gibbs has always been known as a family-first kind of guy. “This is for everyone that sacrificed so much to get me to this place today”.
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Just as Petty’s final championship (1979) had been the year before Earnhardt’s first, Earnhardt’s last (1994) was the year before Gordon’s first.
