8:47 PM
JD
But even more amazing than how tight the season actually finished are the many stories included in how they reached the final laps of the Ford 400. Stewart entered the Chase as an unlikely contender who had struggled throughout the summer and had no wins. Edwards entered as the points leader who had one win and was not dominant, but highly consistent with top 5 finishes.
Although Edwards had no wins in the Chase, in fact, he had no wins since March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he seemed flawless with an average finish of 4.9 for the Chase races, even finishing with three straight runner-up finishes. However, Stewart proved to much, overcoming his own Chase average finish of 6.3 with 5 wins, 3 of which came in the last 4 races, to win his 3rd NASCAR Sprint Cup Champtionship.
The last race itself was full of drama, seemingly start to finish, with Stewart having to restart 40th just a few laps in, as he sustained some early damage to his car. He made his way to the front quickly, however, often threading the needle and even going 4 wide at times to make up the positions on his competitor, Edwards. In the end, with all of the fuel mileage out the window, Edwards simply could not catch Stewart and became the closest second place Cup finisher in NASCAR history.
With the new points system put into place this year focused on both tightening the standings and placing more emphasis on winning, NASCAR has to feel the 2011 season has been a success. The 3 point gap heading into Homestead is not mind blowing of when you extrapolate that that would be equal to about 10-11 points in the old system, but NASCAR has never had to rely on the tiebreaker to settle the series championship.
Congratulations to NASCAR, Tony Stewart, and even Carl Edwards. Anyone know how many days until the Daytona 500??
Posted in: Carl Edwards,Nascar,Nascar Blog,nascar news,NASCAR Race Results,Racing,racing blog,Tony Stewart
3 comments:
When you look at top 5's and top 10's and the average finish and getting your points erased entering the chase after leading the points all season who is the real champion? Hardly seems fair to award 4 points for finishing just one position ahead of someone when every one else gets only 1 point per position.
To answer previous comment...ISN'T the idea of racing to WIN the race..not just run hard, be safe and settle for 2 or 3? Wouldn't the Chase have been boring without all those bonsai passes Stewart made the last 10 races? Carl drove a pretty wheel..but Stewart drove like a man on fire. I think the lesson Carl said he learned through this years Chase is..drive it like you stole it..not like you're taking a new car out for a test drive. Bonsai !! !!
How many Champions in the past 20 years have driven a Ford? What if the shoe was on the other foot? Just saying.Thank goodness Jr. don't drive a ford right?
Post a Comment