NSCS Recap: Edwards Wins Race, Johnson Takes Third Straight Title

Jimmie Johnson celebrates winning his third consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Johnson became the second driver in NASCAR history to accomplish the feat. (Photo credit: CIA STOCK PHOTO)
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI — Jimmie Johnson has accomplished racing’s version of the hat trick…. three championships in a row.

He did it with a 15th -place finish in southern Florida’s grand finale for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. Carl Edwards won the battle, so to speak, but Johnson won the war.

On a day when he only needed a 36th-place finish to clinch his third title in a row, Johnson brought his Lowe’s Chevrolet into the thick of the battle, steadily clicking off position after position in the 267-lap race.

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JIMMIE JOHNSON IS NOW A THREE TIME CUP SERIES CHAMPION
Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, and the entire #48 Hendrick Motorsports crew have won their 3rd consecutive championship.  Chad Knaus also becomes the first crew chief in history to win 3 in a row.

Jimmie Johnson’s stats for 2008 are simply amazing.  7 wins, 15 Top 5’s, 22 Top 10’s.  He now puts his name next to Cale Yarborough as the only two drivers in history to win three championships in a row.

This is Hendrick Motorsports 8th Championship as an organization.  Jimmie Johnson (3) Jeff Gordon (4) Terry Labonte (1)

Jimmie Johnson takes home a check of $7,092,800

Oh, by the way he finished 15th in the race.

RACE RECAP | HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
10 Martin Truex Jr.
9 Tony Stewart in his final ride in the #20 car
8 Casey Mears
7 Travis Kvapil
6 Kasey Kahne
5 Clint Bowyer
4 Jeff Gordon was winless in 2008
3 Jamie McMurray with yet another top 5
2 Kevin Harvick also winless in 2008, came up 1 short

VICTORY LANE

1 Carl Edwards led the most laps and wins his 9th of the 2008 season, the most of any other driver.  Once again he needed to slow way down for a fuel mileage win with a 13 second lead on second place.  Even still, he came up short on the championship by 69 points.

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (November 15, 2008) — Carl Edwards won the battle, but Clint Bowyer won the war.

Edwards took the checkered flag in the Ford 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, depriving runner-up Kyle Busch of a record 11th victory in a single season.

But Edwards couldn’t put enough distance between his No. 60 Ford and the No. 2 Chevrolet of Clint Bowyer, who claimed his first NASCAR Nationwide championship with a fifth-place finish. Bowyer entered the race with a 56-point lead over Edwards and won the title by 21 points.

“We’ve raced each other for a long time,” Bowyer said of Edwards, who won the NASCAR Nationwide championship last year. “He’s from the Midwest (Columbia, Mo.). He’s last year’s champion, and it feels great to be able to beat him.”

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NATIONWIDE SERIES RECAP | HOMESTEAD-MIAMI

10 Joey Logano wins the Owners Championship for Joe Gibbs Racing
9 Kelly Bires
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
7 Denny Hamlin
6 Scott Wimmer
5 Clint Bowyer becomes the 2008 Nationwide Series Champion, doing it with 1 win, 14 top 5’s, and 29 top 10’s
4 Jason Leffler
3  Brad Keselowski
2 Kyle Busch came up just short at winning a series high 11 wins and remains tied with Sam Ard

VICTORY LANE

1 Carl Edwards grabs his 7th win in 2008 in the Nationwide Series, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the consistency of Clint Bowyer and loses the Championship by 21 points