Jimmie Johnson takes the checkered flag to win Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race and the 2016 NASCAR series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo by Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
All Jimmie Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus wanted was another shot, and when Dylan Lupton hit the turn 2 wall on Lap 252 to bring out the fifth caution of Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400, Knaus clenched his fist in anticipation.
At the time, Johnson was running sixth, trailing the three Championship 4 drivers—Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards—he needed to beat to claim a record-tying seventh title. But the caution with 15 laps left in the scheduled distance breathed life into the No. 48 team.
Three restarts later, Johnson passed Kyle Larson for the victory and earned his seventh championship, tying NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the series record.
Knaus tied a record, too, winning a seventh title with the same driver. Knaus, however, has one championship to go to tie Dale Inman for the series record. Inman won seven championships with Petty and another with driver Terry Labonte.
“I’m pretty speechless right now,” Knaus said after the race. “It has been an awesome, awesome journey, but it has been a very trying season. We’ve had a lot of good things. We’ve had some difficulties along the way. But to be able to be where we are at today with Lowe’s, one team, one driver, one crew chief, one sponsor…to be able to win all seven championships is just awesome.
“I can’t thank everyone at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet enough. All of our other corporate partners. The guys and gals at HMS have buckled down and worked so hard to be able to give us the race cars we needed to have to be able to compete. It definitely showed. That we got three wins in the second half of the season is pretty phenomenal.”
One of the hallmarks of the No. 48 team has been its ability to recover from adversity, and Sunday night was no exception. Johnson started the race from the rear of the field after NASCAR discovered unapproved modifications to the “A” posts during pre-race inspection.
“It happens,” Knaus said with typical terseness. “We rectified it. We moved on. We started 40th and won the race and won the championship.”
Stewart Finishes His Long Goodbye To Sprint Cup Racing
Sunday started better for Tony Stewart than it ended.
Before the Ford EcoBoost 400, Stewart was greeted warmly by crew members from every Sprint Cup team as he drove down pit road. He was mobbed by well-wishers before he started his final laps on the track.
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That Stewart finished 22nd, two laps down, may have been anti-climactic to the uninitiated, but it marked the end of an enormously successful career for the three-time series champion, who finished his Sprint Cup tenure with 49 victories at NASCAR’s highest level.
“I raced,” Stewart said. “I did what I do every time I get in the car. I didn’t think of anything else other than just racing the race. We got behind there, and we tried something to make ground and got caught out and had to run 60 laps on a set of tires.”
Stewart derived more enjoyment from seeing Jimmie Johnson win his record-tying seventh championship.
“I’m proud,” Stewart said. “It’s been an awesome 21 years racing in NASCAR with the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series. That’s really cool to see that No. 48 (Johnson) up there making history. Now we’ve got three guys in the seven-win club. Pretty proud day. I was glad I got to race with him on the day he got his seventh.”
Kyle Larson Is Snookered On Final Restart
Kyle Larson led 132 of 168 laps in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he didn’t lead the one that counted.
And though Larson didn’t begrudge Johnson’s seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, Larson felt Johnson gained an edge by laying back on the overtime restart that decided the race.
“Congrats to Jimmie for winning the championship,” Larson said. “That’s pretty cool that Jimmie could win seven there. We had the car to win there, and I know that I did everything in my power to win the race. But rules are rules and I have to work in the box.”
“You’re supposed to be side-by-side entering the (restart) box, and he was all the way behind me. So not really anything I could do to maintain his distance behind me. But it’s whatever—I’m happy for him.”
Larson wasn’t wrong. Knowing other championship contenders would also try to lay back behind him, Johnson admitted he did the same—just not enough for NASCAR to call him on it.
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