Title Contenders Followed Their Own Paths To Homestead

Every NASCAR champion has a story about their amazing run to the title, but the four drivers taking center stage this weekend as the final four in the Chase for the Sprint Cup each had a unique journey that brought them all here.

Sunday’s race will be unique in that the driver who wins the championship doesn’t necessarily have to win the race, he just has to beat three other drivers and each one of them would love to add hoisting the championship trophy as the final chapter of their journey.

Defending series champion Kevin Harvick is old school at this – of the four drivers, he’s the only one who’s been one of the four finalists before.

After 12 years trying to win a championship with Richard Childress Racing, Harvick made the jump to join Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014 and it paid off with his first Sprint Cup title after winning last year’s season-finale.

Much like last year, Harvick faced several must-win situations during this season’s Chase, and – exactly like last year – he and his team pulled it off by winning the final race of the opening round to keep his championship hopes alive.

A late-race wreck at Talladega in the second round – a wreck many believed Harvick intentionally caused – kept him alive into the third round. Although he didn’t win again in the Chase, he managed to hold his ground in the point’s standings to make it to the final four.

“I feel like we’ve overcome a lot of things throughout the Chase. We’ve survived and advanced,” said Harvick. “It hasn’t been 100 percent pretty from one end to the other, but I think as you look at the Chase, it’s been championship material and that’s proven by making it to the championship race. I’m just really proud of everybody and we’re going to go down there and just do like we’ve done and race as hard as we can.

“I think having that relationship with my guys — I thought I had a good relationship with my team at RCR, but the relationship I have with these guys at SHR is just much different, and that chemistry amongst the people is something that you can’t buy.”

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon is another old hat at the championship game, but this will be his first Final Four matchup. Throughout his career, Gordon has been both cheered and booed – hated by fans who were tired of seeing him win all the time, and loved by fans for the same reason.

No less than the late Dale Earnhardt, Sr. were among those who joined in with the haters, playfully calling Gordon “Boy Wonder” in the midst of their friendly rivalry in the late 90’s.

Since his last title win in 2001, Gordon has gone onto become a car owner, a color commentator, and a dad.

Back in January, Gordon announced that this season would be his last in Sprint Cup, but said that his goal was to “truly go out on top”.

On Sunday, Gordon will strap in for his 797th start, with a real chance to do just that.

“I’m more excited because I can’t believe that all that we’ve worked for, all that we’ve done all year long to try to figure out how we’re going to close out this career and this final race, and here we get to do it in a way where we get to battle for the championship, I mean, you couldn’t ask for more,” said Gordon. “That’s all we could hope for, but it was almost too far of a lofty goal to even be realistic, and now it is.

“This (championship run) is so much different because my final year, my final race, Ingrid and the kids. Kids motivate you in a whole new way, and no matter what we’re going to go out and be happy and celebrate, but to do it as a champion, oh, my gosh, I just can’t imagine anything that would be more emotional and more exciting and more gratifying than to look at my wife in the eyes and see that reaction from her when that race is over if we win it.”

Among the Championship Four, perhaps no one has climbed a bigger hill to get here than Kyle Busch.

Busch has been a perennial championship contender since he first came to Sprint Cup in 2004. In his career he’s won an incredible 153 combined races in all three of NASCAR’s major touring series.

Although he’s won more than his share of races during NASCAR’s “regular season” throughout his career, Busch never seemed to be able to close the deal in the Chase, his best points finish being a fourth-place effort in 2013.
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Busch was looking for a better result in 2015, but while running in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona, Busch was involved in a crash that left him with broken bones in both legs, putting him on the sidelines for nearly three months.

Once he returned to the track, NASCAR granted Busch an exemption to the Chase rules. Officials ruled he was still eligible to compete in the Chase if he won a race and finished in the top 20 in points.

Busch rose to the challenge with a fury, winning four races including a streak of three straight to qualify for the Chase with room to spare, climbing to 27th in points.

Along the way, he and his wife Samantha welcomed their first child, Brexton, in May.

After climbing back from impossible odds, Busch is now closer than he’s ever been to his first career title, but sitting in a hospital bed the day after Daytona, even he admits it’s hard to imagine he’s here running for the championship.

“My life has sort of been that way,” said Busch. “It’s been quite a whirlwind. But nothing like this year I guess I’d say. It’s certainly been a lot going on in a short period of time from February to May, for sure. But it’s been great. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

“She (wife Samantha Busch) been a huge influence and a huge help and just everything, not just professionally but also personally, you know. So it’s been so much fun to have the relationship that I have with her, and now we have a son, and it’s been pretty cool. I’ve got a great family. I’m blessed with a great wife and a really cool son. You know, I’ve looked forward to this opportunity here as my professional life to go out here and perform and do what we need to do to try to win a championship and have that be the first of hopefully many.”

For Martin Truex, Jr., finally making getting a shot at a title is proof positive that his career is finally on the right track after it seemed like everything was coming apart around him.

Just two years ago, Truex, Jr. looked like he had finally made his mark. In his third year driving for Michael Waltrip Racing, Truex, Jr. was back in the hunt for the title after qualifying for the Chase along with teammate Clint Bowyer. But just days after the final regular-season race at Richmond, Truex and the entire Michael Waltrip organization were penalized for manipulating the outcome of the race. As a result, Truex was bumped from the Chase.

Things only got worse as the season drew to a close, as longtime Waltrip sponsor NAPA pulled out, leaving Truex to seek his fortunes elsewhere.

Truex found salvation with Barney Visser’s single-car Furniture Row Racing team, taking over for Kurt Busch for the 2014 season. The team struggled throughout the season, only leading a single lap in 36 races and missing the Chase.

To made matters worse, Truex’s long-time girlfriend Sherry Pollex was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in August of that year.

By 2015, Truex was back to his old form, racking up top 10 finished in 14 of the first 15 races of the season, whole his girlfriend successfully underwent chemotherapy treatments.

In September, Truex gave Furniture Row Racing their second Sprint Cup victory with a win at Darlington to lock up his spot in the Chase.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs throughout my career, I’ve never really been in a position like this before,” said Truex. “For a lot of reasons, and I’ve said it since the Chase started, for a lot of reasons, we are the underdog. One-car team from Denver, rookie crew chief, I’ve never raced for a championship in this series, so for a lot of reasons, we are the underdog.

“Based on the season we had last year, if you would have told me at the end of last year that this would have happened, I would have told you you were crazy. There were just so many things that had to come together for this to happen.

“We want this more than anything right now. It’s all or nothing. I mean, this is the only thing that matters. You know, I don’t know if, based on past history, just the things that I’ve been through, you never know when you’re going to get on opportunity like this again.”