Tony Stewart continued his relentless drive on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway and did exactly what it took to win his third Championship title, win!
[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”218″]
[/media-credit]“Are you kidding me? We said all week we’d just go out and win the race and didn’t have to worry about what (Edwards) did. If this doesn’t go down as one of the greatest championship battles in history, I don’t know what will.” Stewart said.
Stewart overcame a hole in the grill, rain delays, and made over 100 passed on the track in route to his fifth win of the season and the chase.
Edwards, who started the race with a three-point lead in the standings, led a race-high of 119 laps and finished in second place, tying Stewart in the series standings. But the tiebreaker was race wins, Edwards had one, Stewart five, so Stewart won the 2011 Sprint Cup Series Championship.
“This night is about Tony Stewart. Those guys rose to the occasion, and they beat us fair and square. That is all I had. We came here and sat on the pole, led the most laps and Tony still managed. That’s it. That’s all I got at the end. That’s as hard as I can drive.” Edwards said.
Stewart also became the first owner and driver to win the championship since the late Alan Kulwicki did it in 1992.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Ford 400, Homestead-Miami Speedway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/race.php?race=36 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 15 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | 47 |
| 2 | 1 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | 44 |
| 3 | 2 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 42 |
| 4 | 6 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | 41 |
| 5 | 7 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | 40 |
| 6 | 17 | 33 | Clint Bowyer | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 7 | 3 | 4 | Kasey Kahne | Toyota | 37 |
| 8 | 21 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 35 |
| 10 | 31 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | 35 |
| 11 | 11 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | 33 |
| 12 | 14 | 39 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 32 |
| 13 | 16 | 78 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | 31 |
| 14 | 26 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 30 |
| 15 | 12 | 43 | A.J. Allmendinger | Ford | 29 |
| 16 | 23 | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 28 |
| 17 | 24 | 83 | Brian Vickers | Toyota | 27 |
| 18 | 28 | 0 | David Reutimann | Toyota | 26 |
| 19 | 32 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 25 |
| 20 | 5 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 25 |
| 21 | 43 | 71 | Mike Bliss | Ford | 0 |
| 22 | 40 | 38 | Travis Kvapil | Ford | 0 |
| 23 | 19 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 22 |
| 24 | 25 | 5 | Mark Martin | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 20 | 21 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 0 |
| 26 | 39 | 13 | Casey Mears | Toyota | 18 |
| 27 | 35 | 47 | Bobby Labonte | Toyota | 17 |
| 28 | 34 | 135 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 41 | 32 | T.J. Bell * | Ford | 0 |
| 30 | 42 | 36 | Geoffrey Bodine | Chevrolet | 14 |
| 31 | 27 | 42 | Juan Montoya | Chevrolet | 14 |
| 32 | 9 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 13 |
| 33 | 38 | 34 | David Gilliland | Ford | 12 |
| 34 | 4 | 22 | Kurt Busch | Dodge | 10 |
| 35 | 8 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 10 |
| 36 | 22 | 51 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 37 | 29 | 84 | Cole Whitt | Toyota | 0 |
| 38 | 13 | 6 | David Ragan | Ford | 6 |
| 39 | 18 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | 5 |
| 40 | 37 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | 0 |
| 41 | 30 | 55 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | 3 |
| 42 | 36 | 30 | David Stremme | Chevrolet | 2 |
| 43 | 33 | 66 | Michael McDowell | Toyota | 1 |
