At Homestead, Brad Keselowski wins first NASCAR championship

When last week began, Jeff Gordon didn’t even know if he would be racing in the NASCAR season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The uncertainty had to do with him intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer at Phoenix. But Gordon escaped suspension and not only raced at Homestead, but ended the season in Victory Lane celebrating his first-ever win at the South Florida track.

The guys over at Getty Images produce some awesome stuff, and Brad Keselowski’s NASCAR championship celebration at Homestead on Sunday night was no exception.

Here are some of the best images we found from the post-race scene.

Entering the last race of the NASCAR season, Jimmie Johnson knew what he had to do at Homestead-Miami Speedway if he was going to win the Sprint Cup Series championship.

Trailing points leader by Brad Keselowski by 20, Johnson’s only chance to catch and pass him was to lead as many laps possible, take whatever risks were needed to win and hope that Keselowski stubbed his toe somehow.

Brad Keselowski, feeling quite buzzed (and probably drunk) after guzzling celebratory Miller Lite after he won the NASCAR championship on Sunday, went on ESPN’s SportsCenter for a live interview.

And it was awesome.

I’m sitting here in the Homestead-Miami Speedway press box trying to put my thoughts together, distracted by the flashbulbs and “woo!“s from the championship celebration down below.

Mostly, it’s hard to wrap my head around this fact: Brad Keselowski is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.

Brad Keselowski won NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series championship on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, giving him the title by 39 points.

Surprisingly, though, it wasn’t Jimmie Johnson who finished second in the standings – it was Clint Bowyer, thanks to Johnson’s stunning DNF.

In 2008, Brad Keselowski was sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting on a commercial flight to a standalone Nationwide Series race when a couple reporters walked by his gate.

The reporters were not on his flight, but rather headed to a Sprint Cup Series race – the big show where every NASCAR driver wants to be.

Here are some storylines, notes and drivers to watch for during today’s NASCAR season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway:

Varying strategies for Keselowski and Johnson

As the NASCAR season draws to a close, today’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway marks some important lasts: The last time the current Sprint Cup Series car will race, the last time a Dodge might appear in NASCAR and the last time for some longtime driver/team/sponsor pairings.

Here’s a closer look at some of the goodbyes we’ll see today:

It’s NASCAR race day at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about today’s Ford EcoBoost 400 for you below.

Race name/distance: Today’s race is the Ford EcoBoost 400, which is 267 laps and 400 miles to close out the NASCAR season. Ford is the sponsor of “Ford Championship Weekend” at Homestead, which is the conclusion of all three national series in NASCAR.

There was no rust on Regan Smith.

Making his first NASCAR Nationwide Series start in five years, Smith drove the No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to victory in Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, beating polesitter Kyle Busch to the finish line by 1.375 seconds.

As Smith scored his first victory in the series for the team that has hired him full-time for next year, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rolled to a workmanlike, problem-free sixth-place result to lock up his second straight Nationwide championship.

Brendan Gaughan ran third, followed by Sam Hornish Jr. and Austin Dillon. Elliott Sadler came home ninth and held on to second place in the final series standings.

Trying to extend an eight-year streak of winning at least one Nationwide race per year, Busch led 65 of the first 66 laps, pulling out to a lead of more than nine seconds over second-place Regan Smith. The dynamic of the race charged dramatically, however, after two quick cautions, the first on Lap 66 for Ryan Truex’s crash in Turn 4.

Busch’s Toyota developed an extremely loose handling condition, and Smith and Dillon took turns at the front of the field. As the race progressed, Dillon became every bit as dominant as Busch had been earlier, building a lead of more than eight seconds over Smith before a cycle of green-flag pit stops that ran from Lap 145 through Lap 152.

Dillon’s lead shrank to 3.093 seconds after the exchange of pit stops, and Smith subsequently chopped it down to 1.7 seconds before NASCAR called the fourth caution, for debris, on Lap 174.

Busch took advantage to the late cautions to regain his form but was no match for Smith over a 15-lap green-flag run to the finish.

Danica Patrick ran 13th and finished 10th in the final Nationwide standings, the highest ever for a female driver in one of NASCAR’s top three touring series.

In a bizarre crash that left even the participants scratching their heads, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle and Joey Logano collided during a Saturday afternoon Sprint Cup Series practice at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The incident forced all three drivers to pull out backup cars, which means they’ll lose their starting spots for Sunday’s NASCAR finale.

Logano, an innocent bystander in the crash who was collected when Biffle accidentally hooked Hamlin, will lose his pole position for the Ford 400. Because the pole-sitter has lane choice for the race, Logano said he’ll choose the inside lane to allow future teammate Brad Keselowski – who was slated to start third – to move up to the front row and take what is essentially the pole spot.

When Brad Keselowski was fined by NASCAR earlier in the week for having a cell phone in his car, it left many scratching their heads. After all, it was Keselowski who became a Twitter sensation during the Daytona 500 for live-tweeting the aftermath of the jet dryer explosion in Turn 3.

But according to NASCAR chairman Brian France, who gave his annual year-end address Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, there was no contradiction. The sanctioning body was only following the rules that have always been in place and, in France’s words, only “evolved” since Daytona.

Stalled front just off the eastern coast of Florida will keep a small threat of showers across southeast Florida today and even into Sunday. Although there is a threat of showers, it doesn’t look to be anything that would delay or postpone any races.

We will see a mix of sunshine and clouds today but with that stalled boundary just off to the east, a stray shower can’t be ruled out. It will be nice and warm with highs near 80 degrees.

James Buescher won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship on Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but that’s not what people will remember from the Ford EcoBoost 200.

No, they’ll remember an epic finish which included first-time winner Cale Gale catching Kyle Busch on a green-white-checkered finish and putting him into the wall to claim victory.

Just as Clint Bowyer likes to sit in a deer stand and stalk his prey, the media hunted the Michael Waltrip Racing driver on Friday.

Bowyer proved to be elusive, though. Apparently he’s gained some techniques while watching all those deer.

Joey Logano won the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but it was Brad Keselowski who perhaps came away the happiest after Friday’s qualifying session.

Keselowski will be third in the Ford 400’s starting lineup and he’ll start seven positions ahead of Jimmie Johnson, the man chasing him for the Sprint Cup Series championship.

When Jeff Gordon wrecked Clint Bowyer last week at Phoenix, setting off a brawl in the garage, it seemed to be a simple case of retaliation.

But the emotions leading up to the incident – which date back to the spring – were deeper than many people may have realized.

The 2012 NASCAR season comes to an end this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. I expect most of the time to be dry this weekend, but a chance of a passing shower later this afternoon and on Saturday cannot be ruled out.

This afternoon there is a broken line of showers to the east of Homestead-Miami Speedway just off shore, slowly drifting west-southwest. Many of these are falling apart as they reach land but a few could hold together and reach the track. These showers are strong enough that they could cancel any scheduled practice or qualifying later today. See below for full schedule and forecast.

As much of a constant as parity has been in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this season, it’s only fitting that a wide-open field of five drivers have mathematical chances at clinching the title. The only certainty heading to the weekend is that it will be a new face on the championship stage.

A first-time series champion will be crowned in Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 (8 p.m. ET, SPEED) at Homestead-Miami Speedway. James Buescher holds a tenuous 11-point lead in the standings, meaning he can clinch the series title with a seventh-place finish, but two of his four rivals are in close proximity.

Timothy Peters ranks second, 11 points back, with top rookie Ty Dillon in third, 12 points off the lead. Joey Coulter (29 points behind) and Parker Kligerman (37 points back) also have mathematical shots at the title, but their title hopes are less realistic.

For Buescher, a championship would be the culmination of a stellar breakthrough season. At Homestead, his Turner Motorsports team will deploy the same tenacious chassis -- nicknamed “Honey Badger” -- that has carried Buescher to all of his series-best four wins this season, all of which have come on 1.5-mile tracks.

“What can you say, this team knows what it needs to do,” Buescher said. “We’ve been running great all year long and I don’t expect anything less than great for the last race of the year. We’re going to go down to Miami to run our own race and hopefully we’ll be celebrating a championship when the race is done. This team never gives up.”

Brad Keselowski is fond of saying there are two kinds of pressure: Pressure applied and pressure felt.

Five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson spent much of Thursday afternoon trying to apply the pressure to Keselowski, who has never won a Sprint Cup Series championship but carries a 20-point lead into Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.