Champion

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SHANNON SPAKE: Now the fun begins. Congratulations for being the two who made it to this point and supplying one of the best championship Chases yet.
Tony, you won the title twice. Only eight drivers have won it three or more times. What would it mean to be in elite company? I would imagine this year would be special knowing you’re the one writing the checks.

TONY STEWART: It’s definitely an awesome opportunity for us. Still very appreciative that Gene Haas for even giving us this opportunity to not only drive for him but be a co-owner with him. At the same time it’s a pretty cool opportunity this weekend to be the other side of the bookend of Jimmie’s dynasty, to be the only guy that could win a NEXTEL Cup championship, a Sprint Cup championship, and a Winston Cup championship, being the first time since Allen Kulwicki as an owner/driver. That would be probably be the best part of it.

THE FINAL LAP PODCAST #183 – EDWARDS VS. STEWART

SHANNON SPAKE: You said at one point, We don’t deserve to be in the Chase. If you could have imagined being in this chair with one race to go, what would you have said?

Continue reading “Transcript: Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart at Homestead-Miami Speedway”

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Guest Column By Cathy Elliott

Thirty-five weeks a year, one of the most fun and challenging things about this column is the fact that it can often be quite speculative in nature.

Based on what happened the previous week or month in NASCAR, we have the luxury of utilizing what has gone before in order to predict what might happen next. Each week is an important link in a chain that begins when the season is tossed overboard in February, and ends in November when a champion lands to anchor it for the next 12 months.

But this is Week 36. As of this writing, mere hours separate us from the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and NASCAR’s championship anchor is dangling so close to the ocean floor that the sand is already swirling. After the closest and most exciting year in recent memory, all that stands between this moment and the end of the 2012 season is the simplest of toddler math, countable on a single hand: one race, two drivers and three points.

Continue reading “Giving Thanks For NASCAR Now And Next Year”

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Ron Hornaday Jr. Scores 50th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Victory
Four-Time Series Champion Extends All-Time Series Wins Lead

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 1, 2011) — Ron Hornaday Jr., the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series only four-time champion, posted his record-extending 50th victory in the Kentucky 225 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night.

Hornaday, from Palmdale, Calif., is the only active, full-time competitor whose career dates to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ inaugural event at Phoenix International Raceway on Feb. 5, 1995. He won the Keystone Light Pole for that race and collected his first victory two months later at Tucson (Ariz.) Raceway Park.

The 53-year-old Hornaday has won races on 30 different tracks. He is the series’ all-time short track winner with 22 victories and also won three times on road courses. Eleven of his 50 victories came from a pole position start.

Beginning in 1995, when Hornaday drove for Dale Earnhardt Inc., he has won at least once in each of 12 seasons in which he was a full-time competitor and 13 years overall. His most prolific season was 1997 when he won seven times. He has won six or more times in five different seasons. Saturday’s victory was his third of the 2011 season.

Continue reading “Ron Hornaday Jr. Scores 50th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Victory”

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Johnson Vulnerable Heading Into 2011 Chase?

It’s not so much that Jimmie Johnson has lost his mojo. Certainly not.

It’s more that the competition has grown in ferocity. That’s the reason why 2011 seems more like the year that someone steals Johnson’s crown.

Then there’s this statistic that might provide some blood-in-the-water: Johnson is entering this Chase with one win, the fewest of any of his previous seven Chases.

There’s also the possibility of a slow start. Chicagloand is one of five active tracks at which Johnson has not won. The others: Watkins Glen, Michigan, Homestead and Kentucky. Though, that might not matter. Johnson has had slow Chase starts before, finishing 39th in the 2006 opener and 25th last year. Both those races were held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

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In anticipation of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson visits Wrigley Field in Chicago on Thursday to throw out the first pitch for the Chicago Cubs-Atlanta Braves game. Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson throws out the first pitch on Thursday at Wrigley Field in Chicago as the Windy City prepares to host the first Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 18.

PHOTO CREDIT: NASCARMEDIA / CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY