HOMESTEAD, Fla. • Holy smoke!
Tony Stewart earned his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship the same way he got himself back in the title hunt — by winning.
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 both ended the Chase for the Cup with exactly 2,403 points, but Stewart won the tiebreaker by virtue of number of wins this season (Stewart has five, Edwards one).
A Cup title has never before been decided by a tiebreaker.
"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 after winning his third championship.
"... 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. 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 the Chase with finishes of eighth, seventh, first, first, third and first.
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 season finale with a three-point margin on Stewart. But the only way Edwards could guarantee his first series title was by winning Sunday's race.
He came up one position short.
"This night is about Tony Stewart," Edwards said. "They beat us fair and square. That's all I had at the end."
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 front grill.
Stewart pitted again for extended repairs under the race's second caution, and 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 over 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.
