kyle busch

1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson held off Joey Logano on an overtime restart and won at Homestead, earning his seventh Sprint Cup championship.

That's a wrap on the 2016 NASCAR season and history was made as Jimmie Johnson tied Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt to become a seven-time champion. It was a huge moment in NASCAR, with plenty of strategy and drama being played out in the closing laps.

So it ends. Another NASCAR season. A Hall of Fame career for Tony Stewart. The reign of a title sponsor. The wait for another seven-time champion, or a repeat champion, or maybe the crowning of the newest member of NASCAR royalty.

It sucks not to matter. Forty cars took to the track at Phoenix, and only six of them mattered. Not Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards. Both had already locked in a final four berth at Homestead, so they mattered not. Not Kyle Larson or Trevor Bayne, who spun early.

1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished 38th at Phoenix, 28 laps down, his day ruined by a penalty for passing the pit car during a pit stop.

AVONDALE, Ariz. – It was just another routine Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway for Kyle Busch. But nothing else in the Ticket Galaxy 200 was at all ordinary. All the drama unfolded behind Busch, as eight drivers scrambled for four positions in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase’s Championship 4 Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Kyle Busch topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Phoenix International Raceway. The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 26.401 and a speed of 136.358 mph.

I like being nice. Sure, I can bitch with the best of them, but it is nice when one can say nice things about someone. For instance, I think NASCAR did the right thing by calling the race at Texas last week. Let me see, the race was already delayed by five hours and the skies really opened up with 40 to go. Damn right they should have wrapped things up when they did.

Edwards beat martin Truex, Jr. out of the pits on the race’s final stop and was declared the winner when rain end the AAA Texas 500. Edwards joins Jimmie Johnson as qualifiers for the Chase finale at Homestead.

It was the Chase race in Texas, and the big winner...was the weather. From an afternoon event on a rubbered up track, we went to an evening contest under the lights. A rain washed surface greeted the boys and girl after a more than five-hour delay.