Stewart Wins Ford 400 and Championship

HOMESTEAD, FL - RIS - Tony Stewart earned his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship the same way he got himself back in the title hunt - by winning.  When changing the points system whereby winning got bonus points, NASCAR made it possible for a driver to get back into the championship pool by winning.  Stewart won half of the ten races, and that was the difference.

Despite battling from the back field twice early in the race, Stewart moved into the lead with 36 of 267 laps remaining and held off Carl Edwards to win Sunday night's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the series title.

Stewart and Edwards ended the Chase for the Cup with exactly 2,403 points, but Stewart won the tie-breaker by virtue of number of wins this season (Stewart has five, Edwards one).

A Cup title has never before been decided by a tie-breaker.

"It's been a tough, tough summer and a tough fall for us and you got to believe in something and the man upstairs held the rain off long enough for us to get the job done," Stewart said from Victory Lane.

"We said all week we just go out and win the race (and) we didn't have to worry about what (Edwards) did and that's what we did.

"If this doesn't go down as one of the greatest championship battles in history, I don't know what will."

Stewart entered the Chase without any wins in the first 26 races and even he said if he did make the Chase, he didn't expect to have a chance to win it.

But Stewart and his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team opened the 10-race playoff with two consecutive wins. He struggled at Dover, Del., and Kansas, but he closed with Chase with finishes of eighth, seventh, first, first, third and first.

"There was no quit here and (crew chief) Darian Grubb and everybody on this team has just dug deep and never given up," Stewart said.

"I've got the best team in the business and it's just awesome."

Stewart becomes the first owner/driver to win a Cup series title since Alan Kulwicki in 1992 and the first series champion since the Chase format was adapted in 2004 to win the series finale.

Edwards entered the last race with a three-point margin on Stewart. But the only way Edwards could guarantee his first series title was by winning.

He came up one position short.

"This night is about Tony Stewart," said Edwards. "They beat us fair and square. That's all I had at the end.

"I told my wife, if I can't win this thing I'll be the best loser NASCAR has ever had. So I'm going to try very hard to keep my head up and know that we'll go next year and be just as hard to beat next year."

Edwards, who started from the pole, took early control of the race, leading 60 of the first 78 laps.

Stewart ran into problems early, having to pit under the race's first caution for an extended period of time to fix a hole that had been ripped in his grill.

Stewart pitted again for extended repairs under the race's second caution. On the restart on Lap 38, Juan Pablo Montoya was in the lead, with Edwards sixth and Stewart in 38th.

By Lap 90, Stewart was back in the Top 10.

Rain brought out a caution on Lap 108 and the race was halted for almost one hour and 15 minutes.

On the restart on Lap 117, Kevin Harvick was the leader followed by Jeff Gordon, Edwards and Stewart.

Stewart made his way into the lead for the first time on Lap 123, passing Gordon.

Stewart's problems were not yet over.

Trevor Bayne, Landon Cassill and Cole Whitt wrecked on Lap 154, and all of the lead-lap cars pitted for fuel and tires. During the pit stops, a lug gun failed during Stewart's stop and his team was forced to switch from a four-tire to two-tire pit stop.

A round of green-flag pit stops began on Lap 198, and just as they were completed, rain brought out yet another caution.

Kyle Busch took the lead on the restart on Lap 231, followed by Brad Keselowski and AJ Allmendinger. Stewart restarted fourth and Edwards sixth.

It took less than a lap before Stewart moved into the lead. Four laps later, Edwards moved into second behind Stewart, and the race to the finish was on.

"Carl is a great competitor," Stewart said. "He's a great guy and we've been giving him a rough time this week, but it was all in an effort to do what we did and that's win the championship."