Kevin Harvick wins 2014 Sprint Cup championship

Kevin Harvick outran Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano to win both the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 and the 2014 Sprint Cup Series championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

For a majority of the afternoon the four title contenders ran together in the top-10, but a pivotal sequence of pit strategy with 20 laps remaining juggled the running order and ultimately decided the championship.

Under a yellow flag for debris on the surface, Hamlin surprisingly stayed on the track forgoing new tires, while Newman took just two. Harvick elected to get four, as did Logano, but as his crew was changing the left-sides the No. 22 car fell off the jack.

When the race resumed Hamlin restarted second, Newman third, Harvick 12th and Logano 21st. The advantage, which appeared to be Hamlin’s before the caution, tilted in Harvick’s favor with fresher tires than Hamlin and Newman, and Logano buried in the field.

Wasting little time Harvick seized on opportunity by grabbing six positions as Hamlin and Newman moved to first and second, respectively, before another caution fell for a crash with 12 laps to go.

Restarting sixth, Harvick charged quickly when the race resumed, passing Hamlin for the lead with seven laps remaining. On older tires, Hamlin began backsliding with Newman moving to second.

A final caution again bunched the field, but Harvick withstood a determined Newman to maintain the lead and pull away.

“This is unbelievable, what a year,” Harvick radioed immediately after crossing the start/finish line.

Newman finished second, Hamlin seventh and Logano 16th.

“By no means did we have a seventh-place car,” Hamlin said. “To come out there and at least have a shot at it and be leading this thing with a few things to go, but we just couldn’t overcome those tires and that was all she wrote.”

Non-Chaser Brad Keselowski finished third, with Paul Menard fourth and Jamie McMurray fifth.

“I am proud of (his crew guys) but it is hard to be proud right now after coming home wherever we finished in this race,” Logano said. “I don’t even know what that is, I don’t even care. You don’t get shots at championships often. Hopefully we get another next year. This car had a lot of wins and a lot of top fives and it doesn’t mean a thing.”

The victory was Harvick’s fifth of the season and propelled him to his first Sprint Cup championship and the second for Stewart-Haas Racing, co-owned by Tony Stewart. Himself a three-time Cup champion, Stewart visited Victory Lane and shared an emotional embrace with Harvick, who joined SHR this season.

“They gave us all the resources that we needed, and said whatever you guys think you need, you go get,” Harvick said of his new team. “We never talked about money, we never talked about any anything financial. It was just go get what you need. We built all brand new race cars, trucks, trailers ... all new people.”

Homestead was the culmination of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which for the first time saw four drivers enter the finale tied for the championship lead. NASCAR modified its playoff format prior to the season, expanding the field from 12 to 16, implementing eliminations after the third, sixth and ninth events and turning the season-finale into essentially a winner-take-all race.

“This format really helped us build through the year,” Harvick said. “We had really fast cars but it helped us build as a team. All the character-building moments that led to this moment here; to close that deal out at the end to get a championship.”