Gordon wins season finale; Keselowski wins 2012 NSCS championship

After a controversial race last week at Phoenix, Jeff Gordon stretched his fuel mileage and won Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Oh my gosh, it means so much. This is for DUPONT right here. 20 years. That is a long time to be together with a sponsor. For them to commemorate that with this awesome paint scheme, this silver car means so much. I knew we had a great race car going into the race.” Gordon said.

Gordon crossed the finish line 1.028 seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer for his second win of the season.

“Can you believe that? There was one restart where I had Joey (Logano) and maybe Aric (Almirola) and Clint right there surrounding me. That thing is going to work itself out some way through racing. I felt terrible how I went about it, and I still regret the way I went about it. But, I can’t take it back. But what we can do is look forward and race guys as hard and clean as we possibly can.” Gordon said.

Ryan Newman finished third, Kyle Busch fourth and Greg Biffle finished fifth.

The day, the battle, was between 5-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and the new contender, Brad Keselowski.

Johnson was leading the race and the championship until lap 213 during a schedules green flag pit stop. The pit crew left off a rear lug nut and Johnson had to come back in to pit again. Johnson lost a lap and the title started fading at that point. Then on lap 226 Johnson slowed and went to the pits for repairs……the championship was over for Johnson and the No.48 team.

“Pretty heartbreaking. We were doing what we needed to do, certainly in a position to put a lot of pressure on the 2 car. But that’s racing.” Johnson said.

Keselowski finished 15th, but more importantly, he finished first in the standings, 39 points ahead oh Johnson. This championship marks the first-ever Sprint Cup Series title for legendary car owner Roger Penske.

After exiting his car, Keselowski summed his life long story up.

“I saw this really cool video that Ray Lewis did and he said, ‘Throughout my whole life I’ve been told that I’m not big enough, I’m not fast enough, I’m not strong enough and I don’t have what it takes.’” Keselowski said.

“I’ve used that as a chip on my shoulder that’s carried me through my whole career. It took ’til this year for me to realize, they’re right. I’m not big enough, fast enough, strong enough. No person is. Only a team can do that. And these guys up here, they make me big enough, fast enough, strong enough to do anything we want to do.” Keselowski added.

Unofficial top-12 standings after Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Pos +/- Driver Points Behind Starts Poles Wins Top5 Top10
1 Brad Keselowski 2400 0 36 0 5 13 23
2 2 Clint Bowyer 2361 -39 36 0 3 10 23
3 -1 Jimmie Johnson 2360 -40 36 4 5 18 24
4 -1 Kasey Kahne 2345 -55 36 4 2 12 19
5 2 Greg Biffle 2332 -68 36 3 2 12 21
6 -1 Denny Hamlin 2329 -71 36 3 5 14 17
7 -1 Matt Kenseth 2324 -76 36 1 3 13 19
8 Kevin Harvick 2321 -79 36 0 1 5 14
9 Tony Stewart 2311 -89 36 1 3 12 16
10 1 Jeff Gordon 2303 -97 36 2 2 11 18
11 -1 Martin Truex Jr. 2299 -101 36 1 0 7 19
12 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2245 -155 34 1 1 10 20
Unofficial Race Results
Ford EcoBoost 400, Homestead-Miami
=========================================
Pos. St. No. Driver Make Points
=========================================
1 15 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 47
2 6 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 42
3 19 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 42
4 8 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 42
5 13 16 Greg Biffle Ford 39
6 7 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 39
7 5 43 Aric Almirola Ford 37
8 23 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 36
9 26 78 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 35
10 16 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 34
11 18 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 33
12 4 99 Carl Edwards Ford 32
13 2 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 32
14 1 20 Joey Logano Toyota 30
15 3 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge 29
16 9 55 Mark Martin Toyota 28
17 35 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 27
18 11 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 27
19 33 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 25
20 14 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 24
21 12 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 24
22 17 22 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 0
23 20 21 Trevor Bayne Ford 0
24 41 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 20
25 32 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 19
26 38 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota 18
27 30 83 Landon Cassill Toyota 17
28 21 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 16
29 28 13 Casey Mears Ford 15
30 24 51 Regan Smith Chevrolet 14
31 34 34 David Ragan Ford 13
32 31 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 12
33 40 38 David Gilliland Ford 11
34 37 10 David Reutimann Chevrolet 10
35 39 37 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 9
36 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 9
37 42 32 Ken Schrader Ford 7
38 22 30 David Stremme Toyota 6
39 27 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 0
40 36 26 Josh Wise * Ford 4
41 25 98 Michael McDowell Ford 3
42 43 23 Scott Riggs Chevrolet 2
43 29 119 Mike Bliss Toyota 0

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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