Monday Racing Roundup: Kyle Busch Wins NASCAR Sprint Cup Title at Homestead
November 23, 2015 | By IMS
Finishing off one of the most remarkable comebacks in NASCAR history—indeed, in the annals of sport—Kyle Busch won Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and, with it, his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
Absent from the first 11 races of the season because of a broken right leg and left foot sustained in the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener at Daytona in February, Busch pulled away from fellow Championship Round driver Kevin Harvick after a restart with seven laps left and crossed the finish line 1.553 seconds ahead of the defending series champion.
"I don’t know if I understand life yet, but there’s something to be said about this year," a jubilant Busch said after crossing the finish line.
Indeed. The victory was Busch’s fifth of the season, his first at Homestead and the 34th of his career. The championship was the first by a Toyota driver at NASCAR’s highest level. It was the fourth for Joe Gibbs Racing with three different drivers, with Bobby Labonte (2000) and Tony Stewart (2002, 2005) preceding Busch in that achievement.
Kyle and Kurt Busch, who won the first Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2004, make up the second pair of brothers to win Sprint Cup titles, joining Terry (1984, 1996) and Bobby Labonte.
In his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon, who was seeking a fifth series crown, finished sixth behind Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson to secure third place in the series standings behind Kyle Busch and Harvick.
Martin Truex Jr., the fourth driver eligible for the title in the Championship Round of the Chase, finished 12th on Sunday.
"It’s pretty unbelievable!" Busch said. "A dream of a lifetime, a dream come true… I just can’t believe it, with everything that happened this year and all the turmoil, all the things that I went through, that my wife (Samantha) went through and the people that are around me went through.
"This championship is all for these guys, my wife, my family, everyone who has had to sacrifice so much to get me here to this place today, whether it was on my team right now, or on my teams in the past. It’s really awesome, awesome, awesome!"
Busch was running third, behind Keselowski and Larson—and roughly 10 seconds ahead of Harvick in fourth—when NASCAR called the seventh caution of the race because of debris on the frontstretch on lap 257 of 267.
After all contenders came to pit road for fresh tires, Busch restarted second beside Keselowski, who chose the inside lane, with Harvick immediately behind Busch in fourth.
Busch held his own through the first two corners, cleared Keselowski down the backstretch and began to pull away. Harvick also shot past Keselowski’s Ford on the restart lap, but the defending champ couldn’t match Busch’s pace over the last seven laps.
"On the restart, I just knew, ‘Don’t spin your tires,’" Busch said. "If you spin them a little bit, at least get them reattached – don’t matter if you lose a little bit of ground to who’s in front of you, just make sure you have a good run getting into Turn 1 and keep Harvick behind me.
"Did all of those things, got to Turn 1 side-by-side with (Brad) Keselowski and, man, I just put it on kill and held it wide open through there and was able to get by Keselowski there. And anybody that got out front, especially on new tires, they could drive away, and it felt so good to be out there at that moment."
The restart gave Harvick one last chance to defend his crown, but the driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet couldn’t capitalize.
"I thought there at the end at the restart, we might do a little better than that," Harvick said. "But, obviously, either the splitter was on the ground or the car was just tighter than it probably needed to be, and I just couldn't hustle it and got it tight and got it up the racetrack and got behind.
"The 18 car (Busch), he just had the speed all night, for the most part. As the night went, I just couldn't find anywhere that would make the car run better. The higher I would run, the looser it would get. I'd get on the seams, and then it would push the front and slide the back. Just never could find anything."
Harvick, who won the final two races of 2014 to secure his first title, finished second for the 13th time this season. With his three victories, he finished the year with 16 top-two results.
"It's been a great couple years, and I know we're disappointed about finishing second tonight, but it's kind of the theme of the year—finishing second," Harvick said.
"Unfortunately, it's just one short, but all in all, it's been a great couple years, and I couldn't be prouder of our bunch of guys."
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Chris Buescher Clinches Series Crown
Kyle Larson took out a season of frustration on the NASCAR XFINITY Series field Saturday in the season finale, tracking down Austin Dillon in the closing laps to win the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway by slightly less than a second.
Despite Larson’s dominance in leading 118 of 200 laps, Chris Buescher ran a clean race, finishing 11th to clinch his first XFINITY Series title. Buescher came into the race needing to finish 13th or better to guarantee himself the championship.
After winning a pair of XFINITY Series races last season, Larson, 23, had visions of qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this year, but those hopes failed to materialize. And prior to Saturday, although managing three top-five finishes, the NASCAR Drive for Diversity alum had gone winless in 13 XFINITY starts.
But Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet out of the Harry Scott Jr. shop was so strong on Saturday that by Lap 97, only three other cars were chasing him on the lead lap. Larson had opened a 6.7-second lead over early-race leader Kyle Busch (who led 62 of the first 79 laps from the Coors Light Pole) when the race’s third caution flag waved on Lap 117.
Busch’s threat fizzled when he was penalized for having a loose tire in the pits, then crashed after contact with NASCAR Drive for Diversity alum Darrell Wallace Jr. on Lap 182. On the final restart, however, Larson slipped to fourth and had to recover with a late race charge to catch Dillon. Both Larson and Dillon, seeking the speed of the outside line at Homestead-Miami Speedway, brushed the wall in the final laps.
"To win is really special, especially when you haven’t won in over a year in a NASCAR national series," said Larson, admitting he wasn’t sure he could catch Dillon, who led laps 180-195. "There’s no other track that suits me like this track. I’m just really comfortable running up against the wall. I seem to always have good race cars when I come here.
"We’ve been frustrated a number of times this year. Some races, we haven’t had the speed we had last year. Also, we’ve had a lot of races where we were pretty fast, then had something happen to us in the last run of the races. It’s just been a really inconsistent year."
When it came time to celebrate, however, Larson drove directly to Victory Lane, respectfully leaving the burnout to the XFINITY Series champ.
"This is championship week, so congratulations to Chris Buescher," Larson said. "I wanted Chris to have his moment there."
Buescher, who won races at Iowa and Dover this season, came into the race with a string of nine consecutive top-10 finishes, but played it safe throughout the day at HMS. Crew chief Scott Graves did make a pivotal call, electing to pit while other title contenders remained on the track for the final 21 laps. That put Buescher in position to claim the free pass, which he did moments later when Busch hit the wall. "We thought having fresh tires on it was going to put us in a better position," Graves said. "We knew if we could be in the ‘Lucky Dog’ situation … we were basically going to be on even ground (with our competitors). With the number of laps that was left, we felt that was going to be our best option."
"Our Fastenal Mustang had good speed in it, but we just had to be careful out there," Buescher said. "It’s unbelievable for us to be able to pull it off. I’m not a ‘points’ racer. I don’t like it. But it was important (to finish) what we’ve been fighting for since February and Daytona."
While Buescher gave Roush Fenway Racing Owner Jack Roush his fifth XFINITY Series title, the owner’s championship went to Team Penske's No. 22 Ford for a third consecutive season. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Alex Tagliani and Ryan Blaney—who finished fifth behind Erik Jones (Toyota) and Brian Scott (Chevrolet) in the Ford EcoBoost 300—all made starts in the No. 22 this season.