Ford EcoBoost 400

 

Tony Stewart wins 3rd championship | Defining moments of Chase | Homestead Photos

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The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season ends with a tie at the top of the standings, but Tony Stewart wins it all by virtue of having more wins this season over Carl Edwards.

CHECKERED FLAG! TONY STEWART WINS AND CLAIMS HIS THIRD CAREER SPRINT CUP CHAMPIONSHIP!

WHITE FLAG: Tony Stewart leads - he is 1.5 miles away from a championship.

2 laps remaining: Stewart's lead is now 1.2 seconds.

4 laps remaining: Stewart's lead is now 1.104 seconds.

5 laps remaining: Stewart's lead is back over 1 second.

8 laps remaining: Edwards cuts into deficit, Stewart leads by less than a second.

10 laps remaining - Stewart leads by 1.131 seconds.

Radio chatter on Lap 253: No. 99 crew chief Bob Osborne: "I know you're doing all you can but we need that position"

14 laps remaining - Stewart leads by 1.320 seconds.

Radio chatter on Lap 240: No. 99 spotter Hedlesky: "Don't overdrive it, you got nothing out back"

Lap 239: Tony Stewart's lead is 1.189 over Carl Edwards. As they run right now, the championship is tied and the trophy would go to Stewart because of the first tiebreaker (most wins).

Lap 234: Edwards passes Keselowski - "Go get the 14 now" he is told!

Radio chatter on Lap 232: No. 99 spotter Hedlesky: "Drive right around this guy (Keselowski) -- you're better"

Lap 232: Tony Stewart charges to the lead!

Lap 231: WHOA! Tony Stewart goes 3-wide and moves up to P2!

Radio chatter on Lap 230: No. 99 spotter Hedlesky "37 laps left when we go green, let's go after these guys"

RESTART - Lap 230: Top 10 - Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Stewart, Bowyer, Edwards, Kenseth, Kahne, Truex, Jeff Gordon and Harvick.

Radio chatter on Lap 228: Stewart's team tells him they are five laps to the good on fuel.

Radio chatter on Lap 226: Osborne tells Edwards "we're good on fuel -- by three laps"

Radio chatter on Lap 225: Edwards is asking about the weather again

Radio chatter on Lap 217: Edwards was asking if he could shut it off and Matt could push him. Crew chief Osborne: "negative"

Lap 217: Edwards wants to know what position he's in -- and where is Stewart. "I dont want to go to battle here with only two tires"

Lap 216: Top 10 right now - Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Allmendinger, Stewart, Bowyer, Edwards, Kenseth, Kahne, Truex and Jeff Gordon.

Lap 215: Bob Osborne tells Carl Edwards they are five laps short on fuel.

Lap 214: Pit road is open - and race leader Carl Edwards pits! He takes two tires and fuel.

Just before rain caused the caution, Carl Edwards took the lead. Stewart back down to 16th.

CAUTION 8 - Lap 213: Rain

Lap 210: Tony Stewart is on pit road now. His stop is 14.6 seconds long.

Radio chatter on Lap 209: Edwards: "Do we have to stop twice and they only have to stop once?" Osborne: "Yes" Edwards: "I better go as fast as I can then"

Radio chatter on Lap 208: Edwards asks Osborne what 14 is doing: "I think he's going to try and stretch it on one more stop"

Lap 206: Edwards passes Stewart and gets back on lead lap - Stewart just stretching it out to the very end.

Lap 205: Tony Stewart still out - team is debating trying to stretch out gas mileage so their stop is the last one of the day.

Lap 202: No. 99 spotter Hedlesky: "Let's dig hard now"

Lap 201: Carl Edwards pits from the lead, gives up top spot to title rival Tony Stewart. 13.5 second stop for Edwards.

Lap 198: For all the cars pitting right now, they will have to pit once more to make it the distance.

Lap 193: Dale Earnhardt Jr. among those pitting - he's had a solid top-10 day today.

Lap 192: Oh no - Greg Biffle goes to the garage. Another likely engine issue for the Roush Yates Engines package?

Lap 191: Some drivers are starting to pit under green.

Lap 190: Spotter Hedlesky to Carl Edwards: "You're doing a good job. Stay focussed. Keep it off the fence"

Lap 187: Carl Edwards has clinched the most laps led bonus for this race - he now has a four-point lead in the standings.

Lap 185: No. 99 spotter Hedlesky: "(Tony Stewart's) line is identical for both of you"

Radio chatter on Lap 180: No. 99 spotter Hedlesky: "14 has moved into P2 now. He's about 14 back"

Lap 180: Tony Stewart passes Kenseth for second!

Radio chatter on Lap 178: Edwards: "If we get this thing a little tight in the corners, we're going to be good"

Lap 175: Carl Edwards motors past teammate Kenseth and takes the lead!

Lap 173: Edwards just squeezes past Truex to take over P2.

Radio chatter on Lap 171: Edwards: "It's just a little free off"

Lap 169: Truex gets past Carl Edwards to take over second. Tony Stewart now right behind his title rival Edwards in fourth.

Lap 163: Matt Kenseth takes the lead.

RESTART - Lap 161: Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray stayed out during the stop and lead the field. Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards follow.

Lap 158: Leaders hit pit road. Carl Edwards gains a spot over stop, emerges second among those who pitted. Tony Stewart is ninth in that group.

CAUTION 7 - Lap 154: Big crash on the backstretch includes Landon Cassill, Cole Whitt, Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and a few others! Jamie McMurray just barely clipped Cassill and got him squirrely, leading to a chain reaction that caught many others.

Lap 152: And now Stewart just zooms past Truex to take the lead! Edwards moves up to third too!

Lap 151: Stewart now moves up to second! Edwards moves up to fourth!

Lap 148: Stewart gets to third! He is two spots ahead of Edwards.

Lap 147: Edwards, Stewart right next to each other!

RESTART - Lap 146: Harvick leads. Truex, Edwards, Newman and Kyle Busch are your top five. Stewart restarts ninth.

Lap 143: The leaders stay out, but some drivers further back pit.

Radio chatter on Lap 141: Osborne tells Edwards: "Leave plenty of room, we're going to stay out"

CAUTION 6 - Lap 141: Jimmie Johnson goes for a spin in Turn 4.

Lap 139: WHOA! Tony Stewart takes it 3-wide on the restart as he jockeys for positions. He's down to 11th.

RESTART - Lap 138: Harvick leads.

Radio chatter on Lap 137: No. 99 crew chief Bob Osborne said everything looks fine with the car. Edwards thanks him and says, I just need to keep my head on "Real good job guys"

Lap 137: Top 10 after pit stops - Harvick, Newman, Martin, Edwards, J. Gordon, Truex, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Stewart and Kenseth.

Lap 135: Tony Stewart's team had issues on the right front tire - which combined with some traffic on pit road cost Stewart lots of positions.

Lap 135: Leaders come down pit road for service. Four tires and fuel for Stewart, same for Edwards. Lots of different strategies - Harvick comes out first (took two tires).

CAUTION 5 - Lap 134: Right at the halfway point, the caution comes out as Trevor Bayne is slow on track.

Lap 132: Trevor Bayne scrubs the wall again and is slowing.

Lap 130: Carl Edwards passes Jeff Gordon for P2. As they run right now, this championship race is tied.

Radio chatter on Lap 125: No. 99 spotter Jason Hedlesky: "You're doing good. Don't overdrive your stuff"

Lap 123: WOW! Tony Stewart slides past Jeff Gordon to take the lead and get a valuable bonus point for leading a lap.

Lap 122: Oh by the way, this is the only active track on the NASCAR schedule where race leader Jeff Gordon has never won before.

Lap 120: Juan Pablo Montoya scrubs the wall in Turn 4 - now he is sliding back. He was running 10th.

Radio chatter on Lap 119: Edwards tells his crew to talk to NASCAR about the 29: He is running into us blocking affecting the outcome

Lap 118: Carl Edwards moves up to P3 - behind Stewart.

Lap 117: Jeff Gordon takes the lead - Tony Stewart up to P2! This is the first time today that Stewart has been ahead of Edwards.

RESTART - Lap 116: Harvick leads, Jeff Gordon alongside him. Carl Edwards is third, and right NEXT to him is title rival Tony Stewart!

Lap 113: Pit road is open and everybody comes down. Kevin Harvick takes two tires and comes out first! Everybody else took four - Jeff Gordon comes out second, Carl Edwards is third.

Radio chatter at 6:05 p.m. ET: Edwards is telling the TV that his Nationwide crew chief Mike Beam discussed adjustments from last night with his Sprint Cup crew chief Bob Osborne

Lap 110: Jet dryers are trying to dry up pit road before it opens up - at which time we expect everybody to come down for service.

Radio chatter at 6:00 p.m. ET: Osborne told Edwards to heat up the tires so he develops grip

6:00 p.m. ET: RED FLAG RESCINDED

Radio chatter at 5:58 p.m. ET: Edwards: "Well that was a nice intermission. I even had some popcorn"

Radio chatter at 5:57 p.m. ET: Edwards asks his car chief Pierre Kuettel to wipe off his mirror and windshield

Radio chatter at 5:55 p.m. ET: No. 99 crew chief Bob Osborne: "Alright guys let's get back in our game. Focus up"

5:51 p.m. ET: Drivers called back to their race cars!

5:48 p.m. ET: Track dryers telling officials they are about 10-15 minutes away from being done with their job.

5:14 p.m. ET: During the rain delay, Doug Yates (principal at Roush Yates Racing Engines) told ESPN that the No. 6 car had an experimental engine, but the No. 9 engine failure "we didn't expect."

5:02 p.m. ET: A quick update from NASCAR VP Steve O'Donnell via his twitter account - "Quick re-cap so far: avg speed of race 124.577mph, 109 laps complete, 158 to go, 4 cautions for 16 laps, 99 leads 14 by twelve pts"

4:53 p.m. ET: Track drying is already underway at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

RED FLAG - 4:45 p.m. ET: Rain forces a stoppage to today's race. It shouldn't last longer than a few minutes - it's a relatively small rain cell.

Lap 108: Cars heading down pit road, and NASCAR is about to put out the red flag.

CAUTION 4 - Lap 107: Rain.

Lap 104: Jimmie Johnson comes into the pits, having a problem. The team has opened the hood and is checking the engine.

Lap 103: And now Tony Stewart passes Jimmie Johnson to break into the top five for the first time today.

Lap 100: Matt Kenseth just rubbed the wall in Turn 4, allowing Tony Stewart to scoot past him and take over sixth.

Lap 93: Tony Stewart bounces back to seventh.

Lap 92: Carl Edwards' spotter tells him that his main competition right now is Jeff Gordon.

Lap 90: Tony Stewart falls to 10th.

GREEN FLAG - Lap 87: Carl Edwards leads. Stewart has a slow start, but recovers quickly.

Radio chatter on Lap 86: Spotter Jason Hedlesky tells Carl: "Nice smooth shifts, dont buzz the tires."

Lap 84: The leaders stay out, but a lot of cars further back pit during this yellow.

Radio chatter on Lap 83: Right front tire on the 99 was split. Crew chief Bob Osborne said Edwards went too far on this set.

Lap 82: This is really bad news for Carl Edwards. Two drivers using Roush Yates engines (David Ragan, Marcos Ambrose) have had engine issues so far today.

CAUTION 3 - Lap 82: Oh no! David Ragan's engine blows up.

Lap 82: Jimmie Johnson pits, will give up top spot to Carl Ewards as the pit cycle comes to completion.

Lap 81: Matt Kenseth pits, gives up spot to five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.

Lap 80: Jeff Gordon pits, gives up top spot to Matt Kenseth.

Lap 79: Carl Edwards pits, gives up lead to Jeff Gordon.

Lap 78: Tony Stewart pits, so does Dale Earnhardt Jr. and others.

Lap 77: A slew of cars come in - including Harvick and Bowyer.

Lap 75: Mark Martin, David Ragan and Paul Menard pit.

Lap 73: Marcos Ambrose pits. More green flag pit stops coming soon.

Lap 62: Marcos Ambrose reporting a possible engine issue.

Lap 55: Stewart up to 14th now.

Lap 51: After a lengthy stay in the garage, Kurt Busch is back on track.

Lap 49: Tony Stewart moves up to 18th - he's surging now.

Lap 48: Carl Edwards motors past Keselowski and takes the lead again!

Radio chatter on Lap 47: Stewart: "It feels the best it has all day...Doin' it"

Lap 42: WHOA! Trevor Bayne smacks the wall and slows a bit right in front of Tony Stewart, who had to swerve to avoid him.

Lap 41: Montoya drops to 12th - not pitting was not a good strategy.

Lap 39: Keselowski takes the lead as Montoya drops back a bit.

RESTART - Lap 37: Montoya (did not pit) leads.

Radio chatter on Lap 36: After another lengthy pit stop to make repairs, Stewart says "they're going to feel real bad when we come back and kick their (expletive) twice"

Lap 35: Leaders come into the pits for service. Lots of different strategies during this round of pit stops.

Radio chatter on Lap 33: Stewart: "I think we put four on and keep diggin' ... What's this nose look like" Crew chief Grubb says he thinks they split a seam ... they will check and add tape if need be.

CAUTION 2 - Lap 33: Correction - Dave Blaney spins to bring out the yellow

Lap 29: Jeff Gordon has moved up two spots in the last two laps.

Lap 24: Edwards, Truex, and Dale Jr. are top 3 - a Ford, Toyota and Chevrolet.

Lap 23: Two laps after the restart, Tony Stewart has already picked up seven positions and is up to 31st.

RESTART - Lap 22: Edwards leads.

Radio chatter on Lap 20: Stewart: "They're going to feel like (expletive) after we kick their (expletive) after this"

Lap 20: No. 14 crew chief Darian Grubb: "We're good to go." Most important for Stewart, he was able to pit and go enough times to fix the damage and also stay on lead lap.

Lap 17: Tony Stewart pits again during this caution so the team can continue trying to fix the front grille.

Lap 16: Tony Stewart pits again. He has a hole in the front of the grille. Crew chief Darian Grubb: "Get caught up there the best you can"

Lap 14: Juan Pablo Montoya busted for speeding leaving pit road - he'll restart from tail end of line.

Lap 14: Leaders hit pit road under the yellow. Two tires and fuel is the plan for most teams. Edwards, Truex come in and out first. Kevin Harvick gains seven positions and moves up to ninth.

CAUTION 1 - Lap 12: Debris (rain drops)

Lap 10: Dale Jr. breaks into the top five for the first time today.

Lap 8: Up front, Edwards and Truex have pulled away from the rest of the pack.

Lap 5: Tony Stewart breaks into the top 10.

Lap 4: Kevin Harvick moves up to 15th place.

Lap 3: Kurt Busch's car is smoking and slow on track - team thinks it's a transmission problem. He's going straight into the garage.

Lap 2: Dale Earhardt Jr. moves up to ninth.

Lap 1: Carl Edwards just noses past Martin Truex Jr. to lead lap 1, he gets a bonus point in the standings for leading a lap. Tony Stewart up to 12th (started 15th)

GREEN FLAG! Carl Edwards leads the field at the start of today's 267-lap race, the final one of the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season.

Radio chatter at 3:18 p.m. ET: Edwards tells TV that he doesn't underestimate Stewart - "I'm really grateful but I'm about to get real competitive"

Radio chatter at 3:16 p.m. et: Carl reports that his radio is clear as a bell.

3:13 p.m. ET: First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden help give the command - "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

Tom Jensen says: Which championship driver has the edge today? Tale of the tape. Edwards: 1 victory, 18 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes. 5.22 average Chase finish. Stewart: 4 victories, 8 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. 6.888 average Chase finish.

3:05 p.m. ET: Prerace festivities are complete - it's almost time to go racing!

As a reminder, points leader Carl Edwards starts from pole today. Rival Tony Stewart, who starts the day three points behind, starts 15th.

Today marks the final race of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Who will win it all? Stay with us all day long to find out.

Welcome to the FOXSports.com coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Green flag is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET.