Tony Stewart Wins Sprint Cup Championship

By - Kris Fletcher

Tony Stewart ran the race of his life Sunday, twice rallying from deep in the pack to win the Ford 400 and the Sprint Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Photo by: Kevin Liles

Stewart and Carl Edwards actually finished in a points tie at the top of the final standings, but Stewart won the title based on the first tiebreaker - race victories. Stewart had five, all in the Chase, while Edwards had only one.

Edwards chased Stewart from about a second down over the final thirty laps but couldn’t make up the deficit to make a serious challenge for the lead and the win. Stewart won by 1.30 seconds.

"That's as hard as I can drive," Edwards said afterwards. "I'm going to try to keep my head up and go again next year."

In winning his third championship, Stewart ended Jimmie Johnson’s five-year reign atop the NASCAR world.

"Man, it's been a tough summer and a tough fall for us," Stewart said in Victory Lane. "The man upstairs held the rain off just long enough for us to get the job done."

He becomes the first owner-driver to win a title since Alan Kulwicki in 1992 and the first new driver to win it since Johnson in 2006, the year after Stewart's second championship.