Kyle Busch wins Sprint Cup Championship; Jeff Gordon calls it a career

After Sunday’s race, Busch was even more philosophical-“I guess I feel more at peace a little bit”, he said.

“A day of a lifetime”, he said.

“This championship is for my wife, my family, everyone who sacrificed so much this year to get me here”, Busch said after the victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Busch led the foursome throughout the race and then ended up in the lead over the final laps, pulling away from Harvick to get the win. Petty gave each driver in that race a “Petty blue” money clip.

From the late 1990’s into the early 2000’s, Jeff Gordon was the man. He won four championships in a seven-year span from 1995 to 2001, and won 93 Sprint Cup races, the third-most in history, and the most in what is considered the modern era (from 1972 to present).

Three weeks after his victory at Indy – and in just his 12th race back – Busch qualified for the Chase when cracked the top 30 after finishing 11th at MI.

And the son crying – “boohooing as loud as a person can boohoo, ” Gordon said. “I might have a flat tire”.

Brad Keselowski and two other non-Chase drivers – Joey Logano and Kyle Larson – finished third through fifth.

“The 18 vehicle, he just had us beat all night”, Harvick said. So, it’s fun to be able to run like this. You always want to win, but I’ve learned not to get greedy. After previous year, I felt like we had everything go our way way and tonight, it didn’t go our way. “Beyond that it’s absolutely been a dream come true”. I told everybody before the race that no matter what we are going to be happy and celebrate. “We’re going to be sub-twenty seconds around here”, he forecast.

Martin Truex Jr. was on fire during the championship race for the Sprint Cup.

Truex, who drives for the one-car operation Furniture Row Racing, drove off without much incident. “But when the sun went down we were missing something and we just didn’t quite have (the speed) when the track cooled down we had to work on it”.

He led for 41 laps on the night, with Kevin Harvick (who led 46) on his heels most of the night. His teammate Keselowski overcame an early race pit penalty for too many men over the wall.

To commemorate his last race, Gordon gave each driver in the finale a carbon-fiber ring box inscribed with “Thanks For The Memories” and his or her starting position.

Truex gambled to pit early on Lap 168 and momentarily held the lead. “I thought going into today’s race we had something for them”.

Gordon will retire after Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he pushed aside a season of mediocrity and clawed his way into the championship picture.

Busch, who opened the season in a hospital bed, needled his coach after the race that perhaps he shouldn’t have rushed to sign the deal.

“Amazing comeback throughout the year”, said Earnhardt. “But just the opportunity that the amount of people that have poured their life and soul into everything that Kyle Busch does and is about”. He celebrated that win as if it was the first victory of his career.

Gordon said the old Busch was easy to rile up and prone to pushing his auto past its limits.

“Not in a million years, I never would have dreamed this moment to finish this year”. It’s all worth it in the end. Gordon made sure his colleagues will remember the day, too.

That made the championship race a two-car battle between Busch and Harvick, and the outgoing champion simply didn’t have enough for Busch. Not only was it his first Cup crown, it was also the first time that Toyota have powered the championship-winning driver to success since they entered the series in 2007. The full results can be found here.

IndyCar legend Mario Andretti, who also has a Daytona 500 win and a Formula One championship to his credit, was basking in Gordon’s limelight.