Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday and won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
The race started an hour and 35 minutes late due to rain. Four drivers including Busch, defending series champion Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr. entered the race with a shot at the championship. Gordon led nine laps early in the race but fell back. Busch was running in the top three when a caution came out for debris with 11 laps remaining. He restarted in second with seven laps remaining and took the lead from Brad Keselowski. After passing Keselowski for the lead Busch pulled away and beat Harvick by 1.533 seconds to win the race and the championship, according to the Associated Press. Harvick finished second while Keselowski was third, Joey Logano was fourth and Kyle Larson was fifth. Gordon was sixth, and Truex, the other driver who was battling for the championship, finished 12th.
"A dream of a lifetime, a dream come true," Busch said after winning the championship, NASCAR.com notes. "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. Adam Stevens (crew chief) prepared such a great race car. Adam Stevens is my hero. I love that guy."
Busch missed the first 11 races of the season due breaking his right leg and having fracture in his left leg after a crash in the NASCAR Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona in February. In May his wife Samantha gave birth to their son. He went on to win four races and make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Sunday’s win was Busch’s fifth win of the season. The championship is Busch’s first Sprint Cup championship and the fourth title for Joe Gibbs Racing and JGR’s first title since 2002, according to Fox Sports. It is also the first Sprint Cup championship for Toyota, which entered the Sprint Cup series in 2007.
Sunday’s race marked the final race of Gordon’s legendary career. Gordon retires with 93 career wins and four championships and will be part of Fox’s NASCAR coverage in 2016.