Kyle Busch wins first Sprint Cup championship

Kyle Busch watched the season opener from a hospital bed, his pregnant wife and his dogs by his side. At the start of the Ford EcoBoost 400, Gordon’s team owner, Rick Hendrick, relinquished his seat on Gordon’s pit box so Andretti could get an up-close view of the start of the race.

Sports’ Jeff Gluck weighs in from Homestead on the wild finish in the 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Harvick, the reigning champion, finished a distant second. Three-time champion Tony Stewart has already added his name to the list, announcing his retirement at the end of the 2016 season at the age of 45.

Older brother Kurt Busch won the first Chase, in 2004.

“It’s been a great couple of years and I’m looking forward to next year”. He didn’t win another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in his final race.

“It’s really awesome, awesome, awesome”, he continued. “It did cross my mind, I was thinking, ‘My wife’s pregnant and I got no job.’ I think that’s just the emotion that goes through in that moment”. Busch’s immediate concern was learning how to walk again rather than getting back into a vehicle.

“I’m so appreciative. It’s been the most fantastic experience”.

The season finale is delayed because of rain.

Truex was the underdog driving for the small team.

At the front, the lead was proving to be something of a poisoned chalice and hard to hold on to for very long. It was also fitting because Joe Gibbs Racing dominated a huge portion of this season and was the overwhelming favorite to win the title with one of its four drivers.

Kevin Harvick, last season’s champion finished second and was also runner-up in this season’s title chase. Martin Truex Jr., who gambled by taking two tires during his last pit stop, had faded from first to 12th. The race could be the last time, for now at least, that cars with the historic Lotus badge will take the track in Formula 1. Truex was ninth and Gordon had dropped back to 14th.

My eyes were glued to the television for the final race of the season, but my interest had nothing to do with Gordon’s debut in NASCAR’s premier series.

HOW BUSCH WON: Busch blew past Brad Keselowski on the final restart on Lap 261 and sailed away.

The race had 18 lead changes among eight drivers. He would miss the first 11 races of the season but did what he had to do once granted a waiver by NASCAR. After three more nondescript starts at Dover, Pocono and MI, Busch’s season took a turn.

“I knew it was time to go”, Busch said.

“But we showed what we’re made of and what got us here”, he said. Back in the day, Busch would melt down over the slightest mishap. Now?

Brad Keselowski and two other non-Chase drivers – Joey Logano and Kyle Larson – finishied third through fifth. Gordon finished sixth. Kevin Harvick made a run at Busch but settled for second.

During the race, he got to hang with the frontrunners (after qualifying 14th) and even lead the pack around for nine laps-the first of which drew a standing ovation from the crowd-until his teammate Kasey Kahne smacked the wall and brought out the second caution of the day.

Harvick failed in his bid to win back-to-back Sprint Cup championships, settling for yet another runner-up finish. “We had a lot of trouble getting up off the corner and putting the power down”. And the longer the run went, the looser that we would get up off the corner. It’s fun to be able to run like this. “Gosh, I’m a little bit disappointed”.

NBC later said there are “too many variables in play right now” to know when the race would air Monday, if necessary. “We just kept throwing stuff at it and could never get it anywhere near what we needed. We just weren’t fast enough and I don’t think it would have mattered either way”. “We thank you for all you’ve done for NASCAR and will do”, NASCAR vice chairman Mike Helton said.

“I thought there at the end, I thought we’d do a little better”, Harvick said.

“We were just struggling all night, to be honest with you, with our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevy”, Harvick said. “I’m not sure what we were missing, but we were missing something”. We just didn’t quite have it when the track cooled down.

Jul 27, 2014; Speedway, IN, U.S.; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeff Gordon (24) kisses the brick after winning the Crown Royal Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.