Tony Stewart wins NASCAR Sprint Cup title with victory in thrilling Homestead decider

The battle for the 2011 title will go down in the record books as the closest ever in the history of the series as Stewart and Edwards ended up tied in the points after 36 races, with Stewart clinching the title by virtue of his record-breaking five wins during the Chase to Edwards' single one during the year.

As Edwards had predicted the championship battle went all the way down to the final lap of the season as both title contenders raced for victory up front, clearly separating from the rest of the field as they did during the last few weeks of the play-off.

Stewart not only overcame the three-point deficit he had entering the season finale, but also circumstances that put him on the back foot a number of times during the 267 laps.

To start with, a broken grille caused by flying debris had to be replaced early on, putting him down to 40th after he had already broken into the top five from 15th on the grid. He then came from the back a second time after more repairs were necessary on the nose of his car during the second caution of the day.

Making some bold moves on restarts and passing many of his rivals for a second and even third time, Stewart eventually went on to claim the lead for the first time shortly before the halfway mark and right after the race was restarted from a red-flag interruption for rain.

Up until then Edwards had been the man at the front, leading the most laps and looking solidly in control of the race but Stewart's impressive recoveries made it clear to his rival that he could cope with almost anything the race threw at him.

Following the grille drama, Stewart faced further setbacks in the pits, both times after he had been leading the race. Meanwhile Edwards' pit crew did their job, allowing their driver to move up in front of Stewart again as they ended up running one-two entering the deciding stages of the race.

With 65 laps remaining Edwards pitted from the lead for four tyres and fuel, giving up the lead to Stewart, who entered fuel-conservation mode as his crew chief Darian Grubb made the call to try to complete the race with one stop less than Edwards.

For a while, Stewart had Edwards lapped as his rival's stop came under green flag conditions, but Edwards would get back on the lead lap and then jump to the front once the stops cycled. Stewart barely made it to his stall on the remaining fumes of fuel, getting his car's tank full for the last time plus taking four new tyres.

Rain then returned momentarily, causing the caution to wave for the eighth and eventually last time during the evening. Crew chief Bob Osborne called Edwards into the pits to top up with fuel and bolt on two new tyres, giving up track position but getting fuel initially out of the equation.

Although Edwards was later told he was short of fuel to make it to the end, the lengthy final caution ensured he was able to save enough to make it to the chequered flag, as did Stewart.

When the green waved, Stewart and Edwards surged to the front in that order again for a 36-lap showdown.

Edwards closed the gap to less than eight tenths of a second at one point as slower traffic marginally slowed down Stewart. Lap times were almost identical for both for most of the closing laps but despite Edwards' best efforts, he would end up crossing the finish line of the championship 1.306 seconds behind Stewart, losing the Chase lead that he had held for the past six weeks.

Stewart made 118 passes while overcoming trouble on the way to one of his best wins, becoming only the seventh driver in NASCAR history to clinch the title with a win in the season finale.

"I could not be more proud," said Stewart. "We had the problem early and had the hole in the nose, everybody on this team did a great job of getting it back going, then we had the contact with [David] Reutimann and had to come back in and fix it again.

"I told them 'Man, it is really going to make these guys mad when we come back twice and still kick their butt.'"

Edwards admitted defeat after giving his best on the track, which was not enough to claim his maiden Cup title. His main concerns during the race were tyre wear issues on his right front early on, and then engine dramas hitting fellow Ford drivers David Ragan, Marcos Ambrose and Greg Biffle.

In the end none of them hampered his performance in the deciding stages, but he just did not have enough to beat the charging Stewart.

"I just have to say congratulations to Tony," said Edwards. "Those guys earned it. They won half the races in the Chase and he is the champion and did a good job. My guys did a great job. We pushed him to the end and that is all I got. That is as hard as I can drive. I think it is really important to give Tony the credit. Those guys did a good job. That is everything I've got."

Martin Truex Jr, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five, while Kevin Harvick cliched third place in the championship with an eighth place finish.

The race, which took almost 3.5 hours to be completed, featured 26 lead changes which set a new record for the season finale at Homestead.

Results - 267 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       3h29m00.000s
 2.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                + 1.306s
 3.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 7.242s
 4.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford                + 7.539s
 5.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 9.967s
 6.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet             + 11.772s
 7.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota                 + 12.476s
 8.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet             + 14.279s
 9.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                    + 14.505s
10.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet             + 16.254s
11.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet              + 17.177s
12.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet          + 19.620s
13.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet         + 19.813s
14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet     + 22.397s
15.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                      + 22.624s
16.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet             + 24.700s
17.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota                 + 24.727s
18.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota                  + 27.117s
19.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                    + 27.489s
20.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                      + 1 lap
21.  Mike Bliss          TRG Ford                          + 1 lap
22.  Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford                    + 1 lap
23.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap
24.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet                + 1 lap
25.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford                + 1 lap
26.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota                    + 1 lap
27.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota              + 1 lap
28.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                + 2 laps
29.  TJ Bell             FAS Lane Ford                    + 2 laps
30.  Geoffrey Bodine     Baldwin Chevrolet                + 4 laps
31.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet      + 6 laps
32.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 6 laps
33.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                  + 22 laps
34.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                    + 47 laps

Retirements:

     Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                190 laps
     Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet                153 laps
     Cole Whitt          Red Bull Toyota                  153 laps
     David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford                 81 laps
     Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                        72 laps
     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      29 laps
     JJ Yeley            Front Row Ford                    25 laps
     David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet               14 laps
     Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                         13 laps