The Champ
Monday, November 21st, 2005Tony Stewart won his second Nextel Cup last night. Technically, it was his first Nextel Cup, as his previous win in 2002 was a Winston Cup. But I digress.
I’ve been a Tony fan since 1999, and I must admit this is just great great stuff. The drama that ensued last night, knowing that Tony had a good shot of winning (he had to finish 9th or better to clench the win, below that and it was based on how others finished) was helpful, but since he ran anywhere from 9th to 15th place last night, it was a bit dramatic. When his main competitor, Jimmy Johnson, left the racetrack after a crash from a blown tire, things again looked good for Tony. His next rival, Carl Edwards, was leading the race, but even then Tony would have to finish worse than 25th in order for Carl to be the victor. The 26th place car was two laps down, which meant Tony had a pretty good shot of finishing better than that. After a late race caution with 10 laps to go, and the fact that Carl Edwards took four tires when just about everyone else seemed to take two, Carl moved back into 11th place and all but guaranteed Tony the championship. In the end, four of five Roush Racing cars took the top four spots (the 5th car, normally driven by Kurt Busch but due to sponsor suspension was being driven by Kenny Wallace wasn’t even in contention).
Here’s to the end of a great race season. My Sunday afternoons are free again until February.