Johnson clinches another Nextel Cup championship
November 18th, 2007
Homestead, FL (Sports Network) - Jimmie Johnson won the 2007 Nextel Cup championship successfully defending the crown he won last year. The No.48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver finished seventh which was good enough to hold off teammate Jeff Gordon for the title by 77 points. It is the seventh title for owner Rick Hendrick.
Matt Kenseth won the season finale Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, the second win of the season for the No.17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and the 16th of his "Cup" career. It was also the final race as crew chief for Robbie Reiser.
Johnson, who won the pole of Friday, brought the 43-car field to the green flag for the final time in 2007. The No.48 Chevy led the first lap, collected a five-point bonus, making his goal just a 19th place to guarantee a title.
After the first lap, Johnson relaxed a little bit, letting both Ryan Newman and Kenseth get around him. Both the No.12 Dodge and the No.17 Ford took turns leading the race before 10 laps were completed.
On the move was Gordon, who started 11th, but knew if he was to have any chance for a fifth championship would have to lead the most laps and win the race. He cracked the top-five by lap 15. But he stalled there and was not able to get around Johnson or up to any of the leaders.
The long green-flag run saw Kenseth put 13 cars down a lap as he opened up a one-second lead on Kurt Busch after 50 laps. Then Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch got together heading towards pit lane to bring out the first caution flag of the day. On the restart, "Junior" got spun around again to bring out another caution flag.
Still more caution flags, this one for a Paul Menard spin on lap 76, sent everyone down pit lane for the second pit stop of the afternoon.
Gordon got out very quickly (changed just two tires) to grab third place on the restart while Johnson took four tires and came out 14th. He hoped to get to the lead and earn five bonus points, but the strategy backfired and he went backwards instead of forward.
Also of note was Greg Biffle cracking the top-10. He was the winner of the four previous races at Homestead.
By lap 100, Gordon had fallen to seventh, while Johnson was back up to 10th place. On lap 116 Johnson flew around the outside of Gordon to take the position away.
Meanwhile, Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Newman were still one-two-three on the track. But neither Stewart, Newman, or Martin Truex Jr. could keep up with Kenseth who opened up the margin to more than five seconds at lap 125.
Another round of pit stops began at lap 130 with leader Kenseth in first. It was a gamble to come in so early, but no caution flags interrupted the cycle of pit stops and by lap 134 Kenseth returned to the top spot.
It was still the "Kenseth Show," as he built the lead to 10 seconds by lap 145. But caution flag No.4, on lap 148 for a spin by Newman, erased the lead.
Then even worse news for Kenseth as he reported his battery was dead and he was going to have to go to the backup battery with still 120 laps to run.
Maybe it was the battery problem or maybe the other cars were just getting faster, but Denny Hamlin caught and passed Kenseth on lap 159. And Truex Jr. along with Gordon were looking pretty fast as well. Still Kenseth regrouped and charged past Hamlin on lap 177 to retake the lead.
Again Kenseth and the No.17 team asserted itself, building the lead to one and-a-half seconds with 75 laps remaining. Then Sam Hornish Jr. spun on the next laps to bring out a caution flag and send the field down pit lane for fuel and tires.
A 12.5-second stop from the No.17 Roush Fenway Racing team kept Kenseth at the top of the charts. Truex Jr. came out second and he was doing his best to run down Kenseth. They were side-by-side with 67 laps to go, but he couldn't complete the pass.
Meanwhile in the "Chase," Gordon was third and Johnson sixth.
Kurt Busch joined the lead group after a long time outside the top-10 because of a lugnut problem early in the race. By lap 225 Busch climbed to second place behind only Kenseth.
There was still one more pit stop and a short run to the checkered flag to determine the championship and the race winner.
Kenseth's lead was two seconds with 32 laps remaining. No one could keep up with him so Truex Jr. crew decided to "short-pit" in hopes that the new tires would help him make up the lost ground. The No.1 Chevy came in on lap 238 about 10 laps early. Gordon pitted with 24 laps remaining. Kenseth saw it and came in one lap later as did Johnson.
All the stops were clean and Johnson was now just 22 laps from the title.
Kenseth was in complete control of the race - a one-second lead, a full tank of fuel and four new tires. He cruised to the checkered flag and a 0.851- second win over Kurt Busch.
Johnson was sitting in seventh place and he too cruised to the win - the 2007 Nextel Cup championship.
Hamlin, Gordon and Edwards completed the top-five.
The first race of the 2008 Sprint Cup (formerly known as the Nextel Cup) is the Budweiser Shootout exhibition set for Saturday night, February 9th at the Daytona International Speedway.
RacingOne Rewind: Homestead
RacingOne.com
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - A look back at Matt Kenseth's 16th career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series win and Jimmie Johnson's second consecutive title in Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway including news, notes and observations by the RacingOne staff.
Inside Line
Matt Kenseth scored his second win of the NEXTEL Cup Series season and 16th in his career taking the checkered flag in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. While Kenseth was winning the race, Jimmie Johnson's seventh-place finish clinched his second straight NEXTEL Cup title.
Key to Victory Lane
Kenseth overcame a battery problem early in the race a possible flat tire in the closing laps to outrun Kurt Busch to the win in the season finale.
Zero to Hero
Denny Hamlin started 32nd and drove the FedEx Chevrolet home to a third place finish.
Hero to Zero
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s final start behind the wheel of the famous DEI Budweiser No. 8 ended in disaster as he was involved in two separate accidents and wound up finishing 36th.
Rookie of the Race
David Ragan capped off a solid freshman season with a 10th-place finish in the AAA Ford Fusion.
Notables
Mark Martin's final start in the DEI No. 01 before moving to the 8 car next year ended in a ninth-place finish. David Stremme ended his career at Chip Ganassi Racing with an 11th-place run. And Greg Biffle came up short in his bid for four straight Homestead wins, but started 37th and finished 13th.
Fight for the Top 35
The No. 70, 22 and 45 cars secured spots within the top 35 and the No. 21 and 10 were the first cars to miss the cutoff.
Ford 400 Loop Data Leaders
# Average Running Position: Matt Kenseth - 1.9
# Fastest Early In a Run: Matt Kenseth - 166.723 mph
# Fastest Late In a Run: Jeff Burton - 162.162 mph
# Fastest in Turn 1: Matt Kenseth - 160.815 mph
# Fastest in Turn 2: Martin Truex Jr. - 156.109 mph
# Fastest in Turn 3: Matt Kenseth - 158.909 mph
# Fastest in Turn 4: Denny Hamlin - 151.599 mph
# Fastest Laps Run: Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth - 43
# Fastest on Restarts: Matt Kenseth - 166.062 mph
# Most Passes During Green Flag Conditions: Martin Truex Jr. - 97
Pit Stops
# Matt Kenseth captured his 16th career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series win - first at Homestead - in his 292nd start. The win was also his third top 10 at the 1.5-mile speedway. Detailed Active Driver Wins
# This was Kenseth's second victory and 22nd top-10 finish in 2007.
# Kenseth became the first driver to win at Homestead from the fourth position. He also became the 182nd driver overall to win a race from that starting place. Starting Position Facts
# Kenseth led eight times for 214 laps, including the last 18. Lap Summary
# Kenseth won the seventh race of the season for Ford. It was also the 583rd overall win for the manufacturer. All-Time Manufacturer Wins
# Johnson became the 15th driver to win multiple NEXTEL Cup titles. All-Time Champions
# Johnson finished the season with 10 victories and 24 top-10 finishes.
# Johnson has now finished in the top 10 in the final standings in each of his six full-time seasons in NASCAR.
# Johnson won the seventh title for car owner Rick Hendrick, which is second to Petty Enterprises nine.
# Kurt Busch scored his sixth top five of the season.
# Denny Hamlin's third-place finish was his best finish since Watkins Glen.
# Jeff Gordon finished the season with 30 top 10s.
# Carl Edwards ended the year with two top-five finishes in his last four starts.
# Martin Truex Jr. posted top 10 finishes in the season's last three races.
# Jimmie Johnson posted 24 top 10 finishes in 2007.
# Jeff Burton ended the year with four top 10s in the last five starts.
# Mark Martin had 11 top 10s in only 24 starts.
# David Stremme's 10th-place finish was his best since Charlotte in October.
# The 267-lap race saw 25 lead changes among 11 drivers.
# Seven caution flags were thrown for 32 laps.
# The Ford 400 lasted 3 hours, 02 minutes, 12 seconds.
Lug Nuts
# The No. 5 and No. 8 got together in an incident Sunday as a final ironic twist to the history those two drivers shared all season.
# Hopefully Johnny Sauter's wedding will come off better than his final start in the No. 70 Chevrolet.
# Tony Stewart has to be looking forward to taking on the unknown quantity of Toyota next year after ending his GM era in the wall.
# Just like the RYR crew members shirts said, we couldn't say it any better, "Thanks Robert Yates for all the great years."
# Thank you Ricky Rudd for being one of the classiest acts in NASCAR history.
# You would think South Florida would be a place to embrace Juan Pablo Montoya, but those boos we heard in driver introductions sure doesn't convince us.
Garage Talk
# "Maybe you can fix it now." - Tony Stewart over his radio after crashing into the Turn 3 wall.
# "We're going to tear it up tonight!" - Jimmie Johnson over his radio as he crossed the finish line.
# "It's been hard, man. This whole year's been hard." - Dale Earnhardt Jr.
# “It just wasn’t meant to be this year.” - Jeff Gordon
RacingOne Rating
On a scale of one to 10 Ford Mustang Cobras, which were on display as we drooled over them all during Ford Championship Weekend, we'll give Sunday's Ford 400 a seven. It didn't go down to the wire in terms of the championship, but the race itself was pretty good with side-by-side racing on display during several stretches. Kenseth dodged some drama near the end with the possible tire issues to ramp things up some and thankfully we weren't plagued by a multitude of cautions like we saw in the Busch race on Saturday. The checkered flag has flown on another long season and with a much-deserved break coming up, we bet by Christmas most of us will be counting the days until the start of the 2008 season.
I miss NASCAR already 🙁