Top

NASCAR FORD 400

November 21, 2011 by · Comments Off on NASCAR FORD 400 

NASCAR FORD 400, Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, is the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion following a thrilling victory in the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Stewart took his fourth and final lead of the race with 36 laps remaining and finished a little more than one second ahead Carl Edwards. Stewart won a points tie-breaker with Edwards, five victories to one, overcoming a three-point deficit in the finale’.

After going winless in the first 26 races of the season, Stewart won the first two races of the Chase, at Chicago and New Hampshire, and later added back-to-back victories at Martinsville and Texas before closing the season with the win at Homestead.

Stewart, who previously won titles in 2002 and 2005, becomes the eighth driver in series history to win three championships. Chevrolet now has won 28 driver’s championships, including each of the last seven. Stewart started the streak in 2005, and Jimmie Johnson won an unprecedented five in a row from 2006-2010.

Buck Baker won Chevrolet’s first driver’s championship in 1957.

Tonight’s victory was the 44th NSCS win for Stewart. He led four times for a total of 65 of the 267-lap race that was delayed by rain three times. Fighting back from adversity that sent him to the back of the field twice as a result of repairs made on pit road by the Darian Grubb-led crew, Stewart passed 118 cars on the way to Victory Lane and the Championship.

“After the way those first 109 laps went today, said Stewart from Victory Lane. “I could not be more proud. We had the problem early and had the hole in the nose, everybody on this Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy team did a great job of getting it back going, then we had the contact with (David) Reutimann and had to come back in and fix it again. I told them “Man, it is really going to make these guys mad when we come back twice and still kick their butt”. It was optimism and trying to keep the guys pumped up and then to come out here and actually do it, is awesome. “We just fought.

This Office Depot/Mobil 1 team is just incredible,” said Darian Grubb, Stewart’s crew chief. “We just didn’t give up. We kept fighting. We went out and earned this championship and showed we’re true champions.”

FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE
1 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet
2 99 Carl Edwards Ford
3 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota
4 17 Matt Kenseth Ford
5 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
6 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet
7 4 Kasey Kahne Toyota
8 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
9 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota
10 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet
11 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet
12 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet
13 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet
14 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet
15 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford
16 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet
17 83 Brian Vickers Toyota
18 0 David Reutimann Toyota
19 20 Joey Logano Toyota
20 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge
21 71 Mike Bliss Ford
22 38 Travis Kvapil Ford
23 18 Kyle Busch Toyota
24 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet
25 21 Trevor Bayne Ford
26 13 Casey Mears Toyota
27 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota
28 135 Dave Blaney Chevrolet
29 32 T.J. Bell * Ford
30 36 Geoffrey Bodine Chevrolet
31 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet
32 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
33 34 David Gilliland Ford
34 22 Kurt Busch Dodge
35 16 Greg Biffle Ford
36 51 Landon Cassill Chevrolet
37 84 Cole Whitt Toyota
38 6 David Ragan Ford
39 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford
40 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota
41 55 J.J. Yeley Ford
42 30 David Stremme Chevrolet
43 66 Michael McDowell Toyota

Bottom