Edwards Ends the NASCAR Sprint Cup Season With a Win at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—After breaking a 70-race winless streak at Phoenix last week, Carl Edwards started building a winning streak with a victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford 400 at Miami-Homestead Speedway Sunday.

“If you would have told me 10 races into the season that this is how we were going to wrap this thing up, I would not have believed you,” Edwards said after the race. “This is beyond the comeback that I expected or it’s really beyond what I hoped for. This is a very good, good finish to the season.”

Edwards led 190 of the 267 laps, and had the fastest car on the track through the final stints. The #99 Aflac Ford ran perfectly, the new Ford engine delivered ample power, and the Jack Roush crew got him in and out quickly and with the right adjustments.

Edwards started second, took the lead on lap four, and except for a mid-race battle with Martin Truex, was not challenged.

Jimmie Johnson, who won his fifth consecutive sprint Cup title by finishing second, might have had something for Edwards at the end, but Johnson was not eager to risks a wreck when he knew he already had the points lead.

In the post-race press conference Edwards talked about how glad he was to have been out in front of the Championship battle through most of the race.

“I don’t think anyone wanted to be out there racing those guys too hard because of the potential disaster you could be part of. We said, ‘It would be nice to watch the whole thing in our rear-view mirror,’ and what we did almost all day.”

Hamlin Wrecks Early

The drama did indeed unfold behind Edwards at Homestead. Points leader Denny Hamlin, after a tough time in qualifying and practice, started 37th. Third-place Kevin Harvick qualified 28th. Both would be pushing hard to reach the front, and both would be at risk while carving through traffic.

Hamlin fell victim to his poor qualifying effort on lap 23, when he collided with Greg Biffle and went bouncing across the infield. His off-road excursion did enough suspension damage that despite his crew’s best efforts, the car never quite worked right for the rest of the day.

“We gave it our shot trying to fix the car. [Crew chief Mike Ford] and the guys kept working on it, but ever since the wreck the car just did not drive the same.

“At the beginning we were flying through the pack. That incident kind of took it out of us.”

Hamlin’s 14th-place finish was enough to earn him second in the points.

Harvick Third in the Race and in Points

Kevin Harvick had much better luck than his rival Denny Hamlin, and a much faster car through most of the race, but none of that could get him ahead. Harvick came into the race third in points, and went home third, though he did cut the margin to two.

On lap 86 Harvick took the race lead, and the points lead, by getting out of the pits ahead of the field. The lead didn’t last; in his haste to get in, Harvick sped down pit road, clipping a Kasey Kahne crew member on the way to the RCR pit stall.

Harvick was hit with a drive-through penalty which sent him to the back of the field.

Undaunted, Harvick racfed through the pack as he had at the start of the race, getting back into the top ten by lap 205, when Jeff Gordon blew his engine, bringing out the day’s ninth yellow flag.

Harvick continued his charge once the green flag fell, but didn’t have to the speed to catch Jimmie Johnson
‘A dumb bonehead move’

Though there were ten cautions, there were not many multi-car collisions. The most notable exception to that came on lap 243 when Kevin Harvick nudged Kyle Busch in Turn Four, spinning him into the infield wall near Turn One.

Busch’s M&Ms Toyota ignited and trailed bright orange flames behind it as it rolled down the apron. Busch escaped uninjured but not unruffled.

“It’s just a guy [Harvick] that doesn’t have his head on straight today,” Busch told ESPN. “We got dumped by a dumb bonehead move.

“I talked to him in the pre-race drivers’ meeting about how we would race, and everything was good. He’s such a two-faced guy; you never can trust that guy.

For his part, Kevin Harvick was unrepentant. “He raced me like a clown all day, driving all over me, running all over my back bumper, cutting in front of me,” Harvick explained,” and I had enough.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway
	#	Driver	Make	Sponsor	Pts/Bns	Laps	Status
1	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac	195/10	267	Running
2	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's	175/5	267	Running
3	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	165/0	267	Running
4	9	Aric Almirola	Ford	Budweiser	160/0	267	Running
5	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	Insignia HDTV / Best Buy	155/0	267	Running
6	83	Kasey Kahne	Toyota	Red Bull	155/5	267	Running
7	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	146/0	267	Running
8	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Old Spice	147/5	267	Running
9	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Crown Royal	143/5	267	Running
10	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	134/0	267	Running
11	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	135/5	267	Running
12	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper	127/0	267	Running
13	12	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Penske Racing	124/0	267	Running
14	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	121/0	267	Running
15	21	Bill Elliott	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	118/0	267	Running
16	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	115/0	267	Running
17	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	112/0	267	Running
18	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	109/0	267	Running
19	98	Paul Menard	Ford	MasterCraft Doors / Menards	106/0	267	Running
20	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	103/0	267	Running
21	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	100/0	267	Running
22	09	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	C&J Energy	97/0	267	Running
23	82	Scott Speed	Toyota	Red Bull	94/0	267	Running
24	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Mobil 1	91/0	267	Running
25	37	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	88/0	267	Running
26	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	Clorox / Kleenex	85/0	267	Running
27	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / Amp Energy	82/0	267	Running
28	19	Elliott Sadler	Ford	Stanley	79/0	267	Running
29	71	Andy Lally	Chevrolet	Anderson's Maple Syrup	76/0	266	Running
30	7	Kevin Conway *	Toyota	Extenze	73/0	263	Fuel
31	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	75/5	253	Running
32	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's	67/0	242	Accident
33	13	Casey Mears	Toyota	GEICO	64/0	233	Trans
34	34	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Long John Silver's	61/0	231	Rear Gear
35	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	58/0	231	Accident
36	38	Dave Blaney	Ford	A&W All American Food	55/0	203	Accident
37	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont	52/0	199	Engine
38	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	49/0	185	Running
39	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	46/0	166	Accident
40	164	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Empire Steel Buildings	43/0	35	Vibration
41	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	HeatRedefined.com / EAA Young Eagles	29	40/0	Trans
42	36	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	42/5	25	Brakes
43	66	Mike Bliss	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	34/0	10	Electrical