NASCAR Homestead 2014: Ryan Newman wasn’t going to wreck Kevin Harvick to win championship

Just to advance to the championship finale Ryan Newman attempted and pulled off a last-ditch pass, which saw him body-slam Kyle Larson into the wall. The aggressiveness allowed Newman to avoid Chase for the Sprint Cup elimination by a single point.

So how far would Newman go with the title on the line? The answer came Sunday in the final laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

On a restart with three laps remaining Kevin Harvick and Newman were 1-2 in the running order. At that very moment they were also 1-2 in the points and whoever finished ahead of the other would win the 2014 Sprint Cup championship.

But there was no replay of the events the week before at Phoenix International Raceway. Instead, what unfolded was just hard racing between Harvick and Newman. The advantage would eventually go to Harvick, who was on fresher tires, and he would pull away from Newman to win the championship and the Ford EcoBoost 400.

“I could have kept it wide open and washed up into him, but it wasn’t the right move,” Newman said. “It wasn’t what I would have wanted him to do to me. If we were close enough on the last lap, it might have been a different game, but I wasn’t.

“I really was hoping he would slip a tire, blow a motor, something like that, that was our only hope.”

Newman finished runner-up in the race and the championship. For a driver who had just four top-five finishes in 35 races this season and whose worthiness in the Chase finale was hotly debated, it was a fine way to conclude the season.

“It is disappointing, don’t get me wrong, but there’s no point in being a sore loser,” Newman said. “It’s some motivation -- some momentum for the offseason to get started for Daytona and just look forward to the opportunity for next year.”

Like Denny Hamlin, who was also competing for the championship, Newman’s bid came undone due to a series of late cautions. Each time the yellow flag waved it allowed Harvick, who had pitted for four tires, to close in on Hamlin and Newman, who had older tires.

Eventually, Harvick was able to make his way to front and charge past Newman and Hamlin. Newman would get one more shot at Harvick on the three to go restart, but it wasn’t to be.

“You live for the moment and you drive as hard as you can,” Newman said. “We didn’t have quite enough. That’s disappointing, but it was an awesome team effort.

“It was fun from my standpoint to come from where we came from this year. We started the season in Daytona getting spun out in the last five laps to being the runner-up for the championship. It was a good rebound for us.”