So today was the last race of the season at Homestead, FL. Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart were the last two drivers who had a shot at winning the championship. Whoever won the race won the whole thing. The point difference between the two was that close. Actually, the score was tied at the end of the race, but Tony won the tiebreaker purely because he won more races than Carl. Spoiler Alert: Yes, Tony won the race.
6:30 is when it gets interesting.
In the final couple of laps, the Top 2 drivers were Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart. Seriously, it was almost movie-esque that both drivers would rise to the occasion and completely smoke the rest of the crowd. You figured at least one of them would run into bad luck or simply fall behind but no. Actually, Tony had some back luck (some wreck debris hit his grill but did no serious damage) and fell back to around 30-ish position but he came back again and again. The rest of the pack just parted like the Red Sea to allow these two to race. It was a drag race to the finish for both of them.
There were two rain delays. After the rain and a few caution flags 38 laps were all that remained. Tony was in 1st, Carl was in 2nd. And I swear, watching this live, you KNEW that Stewart was going to win. The possibility of a spinout or mistake was completely out of the picture. It was destiny. He drove PERFECT laps. He drove like a madman. And so did Carl cause he was able to hang with him. Tony had a one-second lead on Carl the entire 38 laps. That lead never deviated from there. Nothing could have stopped Tony outside of an Act of God or running out of gas on the final lap Dale Jr-style. And all Carl could do was finish second.
I don't have a preference on who won or not. It's great that Tony won his 3rd championship but damn, Carl really deserve a lot of credit for giving Tony a run for his money. Seriously, if Tony didn't drive out of his mind, Carl would've won the championship, hands down. He congratulated Tony after the race...ran up to Tony's car and gave him a handshake. Took the loss like a champ. He deserves credit for being the best loser in NASCAR history...well at least in the last few hours of history. I'm not brimming with NASCAR knowledge here, please bear with me.
Tony Stewart & Carl Edwards.
And I also must say something about Jimmie Johnson. He won the last FIVE championships. Yes, FIVE IN A ROW. An unprecedented streak. But he missed his chance for a sixth. You know he was bound to lose eventually. Well, that's life. You can't win them all. It's nice to win as many as possible, but as long as you keep trying to win, you'll lose. And thus is the harsh reality of competition but there is something to learn from losing. Carl Edwards was a good sport about it and said it made him a mentally tougher person.
Heh, Tony SMOKED the Duck...funny joke.
Congrats to everybody (except for classless Kyle Busch, CONGRATULATIONS, YOU JUST LOST YOUR SPONSORS!)...sad there won't be any NASCAR until the new season in February. The next Daytona 500!!! Will Dale Jr. finally win a race next season??? Tune in to find out!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment