NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Homestead
Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Tony Stewart: Stewart won at Homestead, his fifth win of the Chase, and took home the 2011 Sprint Cup championship, the third of his career. Stewart and Carl Edwards both scored 2,403 points in the Chase, but Stewart won by virtue of his Chase victories.
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[/media-credit]“If being a car owner in tough financial times has taught me one thing,” Stewart said, “it’s how to close the deal.
“I’m going to enjoy a long, off-season celebration, one that may require a rewrite of an infamous Rolling Stone article. My work here is done, and so is crew chief Darien Grubb’s. He’s looking for a job. Oddly enough, it seems someone counted Darien out too early, as well.”
2. Carl Edwards: Edwards was unable to run down Tony Stewart over the closing laps at Homestead and finished second, failing in his bid to win his first Sprint Cup championship.
“Everyone has lauded my graciousness in a losing effort,” Edwards said. “So, I’m going out like a champion, but not as one.”
3. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished eighth at Homestead, earning his sixth top-10 result of the Chase. He finished third in the standings, 58 out of first.
“Tony Stewart had ‘Destiny’ on his side,” Harvick said, “and probably on his lap late Sunday night. I can only imagine what the victory celebration was like. I can only imagine it because I wasn’t invited.”
4. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth came home fourth in the Ford 400, posting his fifth top-5 result of the Chase and finishing fourth in the point standings.
“My first order of business next year,” Kenseth said, “is to exact my revenge on Brian Vickers in a race that matters to him. I vow that I will make sure his go-cart slams the wall.”
5. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson ended the Chase For The Cup without a championship for the first time in six years. He finished 32nd, six laps down, and ended the year sixth in the point standings, 99 out of first.
“Congratulations to Tony Stewart,” Johnson said, “for synchronizing his best Chase performance with my worst. What’s the bigger story here? Stewart’s crowning, or my uncrowning? I hate to ‘reign’ on Stewart’s parade, but the end of a five-year run as champion trumps Stewart’s third title in ten years.
6. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished 20th in the Ford 400, one lap down after a strong qualifying effort of fifth. He finished fifth in the Sprint Cup point standings, 84 out of first.
“NASCAR fined me $25,000 for criticizing fuel injection,” Keselowski said. “That’s called getting ‘throttled.’”
7. Jeff Gordon: Gordon finished strong in the Chase, taking fifth at Homestead for his 18th top-5 result of the year. He improved three place to eighth in the point standings, 116 out of first.
“Congratulations to Tony Stewart,” Gordon said. “It’s amazing that Tony won five of the ten Chase races. And even more amazing that it still took a tiebreaker for him to win the Cup. Ironically, Stewart will have loads of personal appearances to make, so it appears he’ll be back in a ‘tie’ soon.”
8. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt just missed a top-10 finish at Homestead, crossing the line 11th in the Ford 400. He finished the season seventh in the point standings, 113 out of first.
“My winless streak continue and we made no noise in the Chase whatsoever,” Earnhardt said. “If I had to grade my performance, it would be somewhere between a ‘D’ and an ‘F,’ which would make it a little ‘E.’”
9. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin closed a disappointing season with a ninth at Homestead, ending the Chase For The Cup ninth in the standings, 119 out of first.
“Joe Gibbs Racing faces a long off-season,” Hamlin said. “Kyle Busch faces a longer off-season, and a shorter leash. Most of us in the organization will be strategizing for the 2012. We’ll put our heads together, while Busch will try to get his together.”
10. (tie) Kyle Busch/Kurt Busch: Kyle and Kurt finished 23rd and 34th, respectively, at Homestead to mercifully end a disappointing Chase for both. Kurt finished 11th in the final Chase standings, 141 out of first, while Kyle finished 12th, 16 behind Kurt.
“If there was any doubt as to our kinship,” Kurt Busch said, “this should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are, in fact, brothers. Luckily, our parents still claim us. I wish I could say the same for our race teams. Who did more yelling this year? Me at my team, or Kyle’s at him?”
The Final 2011 Nationwide Standings… With A Splash of Cup Drivers
When NASCAR revealed their new points distribution system at the start of the year, much fanfare was given to the fact that drivers could earn points in only one series. This meant that for the first time in a half decade, the Nationwide Series would crown one of their own as series champion.
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[/media-credit]Naturally after the completion of the Ford 300 at Homestead, one of the initial questions was, “How would the Cup drivers have fared had they been able to accumulate points during the season?”
Only four Cup drivers started more than twenty Nationwide Series races this year, and only three of those accrued enough high finishes to warrant consideration. It provides an interesting glimpse as to how definitely the championship would have turned out. Or, conversely, how well Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. ran over the course of the year.
And now, I present to you the final 2011 Nationwide Driver Standings… with a splash of Cup drivers.
- Carl Edwards 1306
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -84
- Elliott Sadler -129
- Justin Allgaier -201
- Aric Almirola -211
- Reed Sorenson – 244
- Brad Keselowski -257
- Jason Leffler -278
- Kenny Wallace -343
- Brian Scott -359
- Michael Annett -362
- Steve Wallace -385
- Trevor Bayne -413
- Kyle Busch -475
- Mike Bliss -479
Maybe Carl Edwards is Too Nice of a Guy
After Tony Stewart tied Carl Edwards in points for the Sprint Cup championship, Stewart commented that he had thrown so much at Edwards and he was too nice of a guy to respond. Maybe there lies the reason why Tony will get the big bucks and the crown and Edwards will fall short another time. The old adage that nice guys finish last may apply here.
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[/media-credit]Not that Edwards didn’t perform. No one and I mean no one, had a better ten races in the Chase than Edwards. Maybe that was the problem. Edwards constantly finished in the top five race after race, with the notable exception of Martinsville where he struggled to finish tenth. It just wasn’t enough and the mind games Stewart put out were brutal. Stewart was the bully. Even during the race when his radio transmissions were pretty aggressive, he was confident and on plan. He was going to will this championship. One has to wonder why it didn’t happen in the first 26 races, and that becomes the problem. What makes a team flounder for 26 races and still win five of the last ten? It’s a mystery and mirrors the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that found itself 10 games behind in August, climb to the World Series championship. What causes this?
In the Cardinals case, it has a lot to do with desire and the competition. Good teams fins the weakness of the opposition. The Cardinals were able to find that weakness that each team had, exploit it, and find a way to win. The same could be said for Stewart. They knew Edwards would finish in the top five, so the only solution was to win, win, and win. And that’s exactly what they did.
I consider this the flaw of the Chase system. It places too much emphasis on the championship. I can remember years ago when David Pearson won two titles, and Cale Yarborough won three straight, and the fans only wondered how many races both had won. Richard Petty won seven titles, and likewise Dale Earnhardt, but the big question was how many races they won. Then came Pearson, running a partial schedule, and won race after race. Bill Elliott won 11 races and lost the championship to Darrell Waltrip. Who do you think was the most followed? Then someone in the offices at Daytona Beach (and I think you know who that is) decided we need to follow the stick and ball sports. We had to have a playoff and a champion.
My guess is the point system devised by Bob Latford so long ago (and I had the pleasure of discussing this with the late Mr. Latford) might have been the right method. A season with a playoff is pretty much an anomaly. It’s all about who gets hot at a certain point in time, but a season-long system that awards the team that had the best overall season should be the winner. But in NASCAR’s desire to be like the NFL, MLB, and NBA (the competition, you know), we had to have a playoff—a “game seven experience,” to justify our sport. Bunk.
But we will continue as we are as the media and everyone praises how the season came to an end with a tie and it was the closet championship in history, which it was with a little help from the sanctioning body.
Was Carl Edwards too nice a guy to win a championship? No, he was a victim of the system. A system that once rewarded a full season of excellence and changed to excellence over ten races. Jimmie Johnson rode this to five straight championships, and Tony Stewart rode it to the 2011 title. When you play within the rules, no one has a gripe.
Here’s to Lucky Dogs and Shotgun Starts. The old system worked for a long time. Congratulations to Tony Stewart, Rick Hendrick, and Chevrolet. You had a great year. Enjoy the championship you deserved, but beware of the contrived changes in the future
Three New Series Champions, One Great Season
The 2011 NASCAR season brought about three different champions. Two of the champions just finished their Second season and the third champion won his third title. Lets meet our NASCAR champions.
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[/media-credit]The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS), saw its youngest truck series champion. The 21 year old grandson of team owner Richard Childress from Lewisville, North Carolina, Austin Dillon, ended the season with four wins, 32 top tens and 12 poles. The 2010 NCWTS Rookie of the Year finished 10th in a rained shortened season finale to hold off championship runner up Johnny Sauter.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) saw another young driver win his first championship in his 2nd year in the Nationwide Series. The 24 year old Olive Branch, Mississippi native Ricky Stenhouse Jr, ended the season with two wins, 28 top tens and three poles. Dillon won the NNS championship by 45 points over runner up Elliott Sadler. Stenhouse also won Rookie of the Year honors in 2010.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) saw a new champion for the first time in five years. The 40 year old from Columbus, Indiana, Tony Stewart turned out to be the guy to beat. Stewart ended the season with five wins, all coming in the chase, 18 top tens and one pole. Stewart held off runner up and second place finisher Carl Edwards to win the final race and his 3rd NSCS championship. This ends Jimmie Johnson’s streak of five consecutive championships.
Tony Stewart also became the first owner-driver since Alan Kulwicki (1992) to win a cup series championship.
Congratulations to all three on a spectacular season!
