Kyle Busch wins NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship

After securing his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title on Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kyle Busch is making the media rounds on Monday and Tuesday to talk about his epic victory and comeback from injuries sustained at Daytona in the XFINITY Series opener that caused him to miss the first 11 races of the season.

Last year’s championship experience taught Kevin Harvick that he’d likely have to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim back-to-back Sprint Cup titles.

Keselowski and Logano had to settle for third and fourth, with Kyle Larson fifth but a potential victor had the final yellow not come out when he had passed Busch for second and started closing on Keselowski.

Jimmie Johnson, a victor of four races heading into the Chase (five overall), had mechanical issues at Dover in the first-cut race of the Chase.

That’s exactly what happened, too, as Busch finally won his first Sprint Cup title on Sunday. He also gave every driver in the 43-car field an inscribed carbon fiber box commemorating his last-ever race, similar to the “Petty Blue” money clip Richard Petty gifted drivers (including Gordon) in his last ever race in 1992. A 30-year-old driver who started the season by crashing badly and breaking his leg winds up winning both the final race and the title. If you were hoping for just a bit more time with Gordon behind the wheel, you might be in luck, according to his manager, Zak Brown. Harvick, who finished second in the race and in the Cup standings, never seriously challenged after the final restart. “Kept doing everything as much as we could, as quickly as we could, and you know, were able to power through and get back”. This will be quite the exciting picture for the Ford EcoBoost 400 as the race draws into a close.

Several drivers from other racing series were at Homestead to honor Gordon including reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, past Indianapolis 500 champions Mario Andretti and Helio Castroneves.

“All he’s been through this year, nobody’s more deserving than him”, Gordon said about the new champion.

“He said, ‘I should have waited to extend my contract, ‘” Gibbs said.

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. Sebastian Vettel won the Race of Champions in London… and Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley won the 2015 World Endurance Championship in the finale at Bahrain. Kurt Busch won the title in 2004, the inaugural season of NASCAR’s Chase format.

“We thank you for all you’ve done for NASCAR and will do”, NASCAR vice chairman Mike Helton said.

“The competitor in me is still rewinding the race and trying to figure out what we could have done differently”. But he was eliminated from the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship a week before the finale in a crushing end to his best season in at least seven years. It made Busch the first driver to win the Cup title in a Toyota. “After past year, I felt like we had everything go our way, and tonight, it didn’t go our way”. “I enjoy starting people”, he would say of a few of his lesser-known drivers.

“Congratulations to Kyle Busch”. “Me and Martin (Truex, Jr.) had a heck of a battle there; but unfortunately it wasn’t for the championship”. He’s only 16. I think he was cheating on that, so they did kick him out’. At the Glen, fans who waited Gordon out at the garage gate were rewarded with autographs as they told him, “Thanks for all the years Jeff”.

It didn’t happen, mostly because Gordon fought an ill-handling race auto all afternoon.

“When you can deal with a professional athlete and you can go 23 years and you don’t need a lawyer, you can take a handshake and we’ve never had a disagreement… he’s a rare commodity”, said team owner Rick Hendrick.