Kyle Busch may have won the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship Sunday, but Jeff Gordon was still elated following his last-ever race behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet.
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“It’s pretty unbelievable”, Busch said. “A dream of a lifetime, a dream come true and something that only happens every so often”.
“I just can’t believe it, with everything that happened this year, all the turmoil, everything I went through, my wife went through”, Busch said. He restarted in second with seven laps remaining and took the lead from Brad Keselowski. Even though he had been passed for second place by Ganassi’s Kyle Larson, Busch’s lead over Harvick had now stretched out to over eight seconds following the final scheduled round of pit stops which meant the race wouldn’t end up becoming a fuel conservation damp squib. He didn’t win another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in his final race.
“Well, you know, I’d be lying if I said I had any idea what we’ve even accomplished”, Stevens said in the glorious aftermath. I just had to protect whatever Harvick planned to do, whether he’d try to shoot the middle or shoot the gap or where he was going to be. “I have learned there’s no such thing as a flawless day or a ideal life”.
“I think from the fans, to NASCAR, all of that is what made Jeff feel so good and us so proud”. Brad Keselowski was second, Joey Logano finished third and Kyle Larson fifth.
The 30-year-old Busch beat fellow title contenders Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr.to the checkered flag Sunday. Not from a lack of effort. Gordon had managed to stay consistent throughout the whole day before he began to get a lot of breaks. “We’re going to bask in a moment and enjoy it”. Although able to run in the top 10, Truex had faded to ninth, 15.9 seconds off the pace, by Lap 125. We came from finishing 24th last season to fourth this season.
The start of the season-ending race, already delayed by rain, was held a little longer to allow for Gordon to make his way to his auto and take a few final pictures with friends and fans.
It was after that last-place finish at MI that he recognized he had to be a more patient driver if he had any shot at all at making the playoffs.
“I don’t know if I quite understand life yet”, an emotional Busch said on the team radio, “but there’s something to be said about this year”. “But I thought we showed what we’re made of and what got us here”. But as I spoke to him as he walked to a waiting golf cart, he wasn’t into reflecting on the past, his focus was still on the future and putting him and his team into position for another title, which of course, he did.
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 auto this far and to have a chance to come in and battle for this championship”. His electrifying wins, his eye-catching cars and his incredible dominance over certain parts of his career defined how much he impacted the sport of NASCAR.
How remarkable was it that Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 in 2011, one day after his 20 birthday, in only his second Cup start? His teammate Keselowski overcame an early race pit penalty for too many men over the wall. Yeah he Salt Lake back through that and got us on the right track it and thankfully we have a lot of help from us. FOXSports.com says he was “largely responsible” for healing a major rift between IndyCar and Phoenix worldwide Raceway president Bryan Sperber stemming from negotiations that went badly in 2012. “I love football. It’s just a thrill for me”.
Busch missed the first 11 Cup races of the season after breaking his right leg and left foot during a wreck in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona (Fla.) global Speedway. Busch didn’t “bask” for very long however.
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For that matter, who could have seen that Tony Stewart would go winless in the first 26 races of 2011 and then win five of the 10 Chase races to take the title in a tiebreaker with Carl Edwards when the two ended the year with exactly the same number of points?
