By Jared Turner After having only modestly successful 2014 and 2015 seasons by his lofty standards, Jimmie Johnson entered the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season somewhat under the radar for a driver of his caliber and success. Johnson, who rang up a record-breaking five consecutive championships from 2006-2010 and added another in 2013, remained under the radar at the outset of the 2016 Chase thanks to a relatively quiet regular season performance that included just two wins – both in the first month-and-a-half of the season. But once the Chase commenced, Johnson showed his muscle with victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway and…
History has been made. Jimmie Johnson captured his record-tying seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship with a stirring victory Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, tying NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt atop the all-time list. Sunday’s win was Johnson’s 80th career victory. To win the 2016 championship, the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet outdueled the other Championship 4 drivers Joey Logano (fourth), Kyle Busch (sixth) and Carl Edwards (34th) at Homestead. It was a year of sevens for Johnson, who took over sole possession of seventh place on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series all-time wins list after his…
November 19, 2016 By Red Spencer NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Daniel Suarez streaked away from Elliott Sadler after the final restart in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and three laps later, NASCAR had its first foreign-born national touring series champion. Ultimately, the 24-year-old driver from Monterrey, Mexico beat Ty Dillon to the finish line by .968 seconds. Sadler, who had taken two tires and gained the second position on a Lap 193 pit stop, came home third and finished second in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase. “It’s very hard to put into words,” said Suarez, who led…
November 18, 2016 By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Johnny Sauter won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship with a third-place finish in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, leaving race winner William Byron to consider what might have been. As Byron and Tyler Reddick battled for the lead, Sauter passed Championship 4 contender Matt Crafton for third-place on Lap 119 of 134 at the 1.5-mile track. Sauter then pulled away to claim the championship as Crafton faded to seventh in the closing laps. Byron, the polesitter, claimed his rookie-record seventh victory of the season to…
By Keith Waltz The closest championship battle in NASCAR history was decided by a tiebreaker after Tony Stewart outran Carl Edwards to win the Ford 400 on Nov. 20, 2011, at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Stewart battled back from adversity early in the race to lead the final 36 laps as he beat Edwards to the checkered flag by 1.306 seconds. Stewart and Edwards ended up tied atop the point standings with the tiebreaker going to Stewart as the highest finishing driver in the season finale. “After the way those first 109 laps went today, I could not be more proud,” Stewart said. “We…