Kyle Busch Surges To Sprint Cup Title, Wins Homestead

Ten months ago, Kyle Busch was sitting in a hospital bed wondering if his season was over before it began. Sunday night, he was back sitting in victory lane as the 2015 Sprint Cup Champion.

Busch capped a remarkable comeback to what had nearly been a lost season, winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the final race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup to win his first career Sprint Cup Championship.

Busch led the final eight laps after passing Brad Keselowski on the final restart and beat out fellow Chase contender and defending series champion Kevin Harvick by 1.5 seconds to score his fifth win of the season, clinching the title as the highest finisher among the Championship 4 finalists including Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex., Jr.

Keselowski ended the race in third place, followed by Joey Logano and Kyle Larson.

Busch earned the fourth championship title for Joe Gibbs Racing and joins his brother, 2004 champ Kurt Busch, as a Sprint Cup Champion.

“This is just so unbelievable, so amazing and means so much right here, right now and probably will for a long, long time to come,” said Busch. “This is just a dream come true and my family, my wife, my son – to have him this year and to have everything we’ve gone through this year to be in this moment – I don’t know what else to say, but this is so special.

“A dream of a lifetime, a dream come true and something that only happens every so often. I just can’t believe with everything that happened this year and all the turmoil, all the things that I went through, that my wife (Samantha) went through and the people that are around me went through. This championship is all for these guys, my wife, my family, everyone who has had to sacrifice so much to get me here to this place today, whether it was on my team right now, or on my teams in the past. It’s really awesome, awesome, awesome.”

At the start of the 2015 season Busch didn’t even know if he’d get the chance to race for the title, after suffering a broken leg and a broken foot in a crash in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Busch faced several surgeries and many months of rehabilitation and sat out for the first 11 races if the season before returning to the driver’s seat for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.

NASCAR allowed an exemption for Busch to allow him to remain eligible for the Chase, provided he could win a race a climb into the top 30 in the point standings.

Busch proved more than up for the challenge, grabbing his first win just five races after returning to the track. Busch would then go on to win an incredible three straight and fought his way into the top 30 in points with room to spare, ending the Sprint Cup “regular season” 27th in points.

Busch didn’t win any races in any of the three round of the Chase, but finished out the third “Eliminator Round” with three straight top-five finishes to qualify for the Championship 4.

“When I had the crash and when I knew instantly that the right leg was broken, the left foot was broke, I was really worried,” said Busch. “I was actually like — I don’t know if it flashed before my eyes or if I just thought it, but it was like, man, I’m going to have to go back to laying decals. I was like, man, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to get back in a car again. I just didn’t know how severe it was. But fortunately for me it wasn’t that bad, and I was able to put it all back together and be here today.”

Busch has been a perennial championship contender since joining JGR in 2008 – entering the Chase as the point’s leader in 2008 and 2011 – but was never able to close the deal, as bad finishes, bad luck and at least one suspension kept him from finishing any higher than fourth in the points standings.

“In years past we’ve had stupid things happen to us in the Chase, and it’s eliminated us, but this year we still had a couple of those moments but we were still able to strive through and regain our strength and be able to make it through,” said Busch. “The huge tragedy in the beginning part of the year, I guess, maybe fulfilled everything of past years in the Chase. But we got it out of the way early enough that we were able to have a smoother season at the end, and I finally won my first Chase race, thank you very much.”

Busch led six times for 41 laps and ran a consistent race all night, never falling out of the top 10.

He did get a scare early in the race when teammate and polesitter Denny Hamlin began dropping fluid on the racetrack to bring out the first caution on lap 15, leading to speculation of a possible mechanical failure that might affect Busch as well. The problem turned out to be a loose fitting and not a team-wide parts failure.

Busch held second place for nearly the entire second half of the race with Harvick running third just waiting for a chance to run down Busch.

A final caution flag with 11 laps to go gave Harvick one last shot. After the leader came to pit road for final pit stops, Busch restarted second behind Keselowski with Harvick restarting fourth.

On the restart, Busch powered past Keselowski on the outside coming out of tur two and nothing but clear racetrack ahead of him until the checkered flag.

“I thought there at the end that the restart, we might do a little better than that,” said Harvick. “Obviously either the splitter was on the ground or the car was just tighter than it probably needed to be, and just I couldn’t hustle it and got it tight and got it up the racetrack and got behind. The 18 car (Busch), he just had the speed all night for the most part. You know, as the night went, I just couldn’t find anywhere that would make the car run better. The higher I would run, the looser it would get. I’d get on the seams and then it would push the front and slide the back. Just never could find anything.

“It’s been a great couple years, and I know we’re disappointed about finishing second tonight, but it’s kind of the theme of the year, finishing second. Unfortunately it’s just one short, but all in all, it’s been a great couple years, and couldn’t be prouder of our bunch of guys.”

In his final race in his Sprint Cup career, Jeff Gordon got a standing ovation from the crowd during driver introductions and pre-race visits for legendary great Mario Andretti and Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton.

The four-time champion had hoped to end his career with a walk-off championship, but it was not to be as he wound up third among the four finalists with a sixth-place finish.

“Unfortunately I’m a little disappointed that we weren’t more of a threat for the championship,” said Gordon. “Beyond that it’s absolutely been a dream come true. To get an opportunity to race at this level, to have the success that I’ve had, to have the sponsors that we’ve had and to have the fans that we have.

“The first one to the car was the team and Rick Hendrick and then my family. That is all that really matters to me. Those people are so important to me and make this all worthwhile. I told everybody before the race that no matter what we are going to be happy and celebrate. That is exactly what we are going to go do.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead, FL
Ford EcoBoost 400 – November 22, 2015
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1. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267, $351906.
2. (13) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 267, $290375.
3. (8) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267, $232541.
4. (2) Joey Logano, Ford, 267, $184058.
5. (23) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 267, $162383.
6. (5) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 267, $153801.
7. (19) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 267, $139051.
8. (15) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 267, $111890.
9. (12) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 267, $129101.
10. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267, $109090.
11. (7) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 267, $82040.
12. (11) Martin Truex, Jr., Chevrolet, 267, $107860.
13. (22) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 267, $111206.
14. (10) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267, $117801.
15. (21) Greg Biffle, Ford, 267, $112573.
16. (4) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 267, $112315.
17. (6) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 267, $76040.
18. (26) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 267, $120415.
19. (18) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 267, $93615.
20. (20) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 266, $112048.
21. (17) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 266, $86940.
22. (16) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 266, $86590.
23. (25) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 266, $94448.
24. (35) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 266, $85990.
25. (28) Sam Hornish, Jr., Ford, 266, $104010.
26. (33) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 265, $96498.
27. (38) David Ragan, Toyota, 265, $104254.
28. (40) Cole Whitt, Ford, 265, $88398.
29. (36) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 265, $103654.
30. (39) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 264, $77690.
31. (42) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 264, $76990.
32. (41) David Gilliland, Ford, 264, $90312.
33. (29) Michael McDowell, Ford, 264, $72565.
34. (31) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 264, $72365.
35. (34) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 263, $72165.
36. (30) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 263, $79940.
37. (37) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, 263, $71711.
38. (43) Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, 262, $66730.
39. (32) Josh Wise, Ford, 247, $62730.
40. (9) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 241, $78130.
41. (14) Aric Almirola, Ford, 209, $91666.
42. (27) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, Accident, 104, $58730.
43. (24) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, Accident, 45, $81388.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 131.755 mph.

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 2 Mins, 23 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.552 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 7 for 30 laps.

Lead Changes: 18 among 8 drivers.

Lap Leaders: 0; J. Logano 1-19; Kyle Busch 20-35; J. Gordon 36-44; K. Harvick 45-90; K. Larson 91-92; J. Logano 93-138; Kyle Busch 139; C. Edwards 140-144; J. Logano 145-151; C. Edwards 152-154; Kyle Busch 155-168; M. Truex Jr. 169-171; B. Keselowski 172-214; Kyle Busch 215-216; B. Keselowski 217-257; Kyle Busch 258; B. Keselowski 259-260; Kyle Busch 261-267.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): B. Keselowski 3 times for 86 laps; J. Logano 3 times for 72 laps; K. Harvick 1 time for 46 laps; Kyle Busch 6 times for 41 laps; J. Gordon 1 time for 9 laps; C. Edwards 2 times for 8 laps; M. Truex Jr. 1 time for 3 laps; K. Larson 1 time for 2 laps.

Top 16 in Points: Kyle Busch – 5,043; K. Harvick – 5,042; J. Gordon – 5,038; M. Truex Jr. – 5,032; C. Edwards – 2,368; J. Logano – 2,360; B. Keselowski – 2,347; Kurt Busch – 2,333; D. Hamlin – 2,327; J. Johnson – 2,315; R. Newman – 2,314; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 2,310; J. Mcmurray – 2,295; P. Menard – 2,262; M. Kenseth – 2,234; C. Bowyer – 2,175.