Late Race Crash Drops Stewart to 30th in Nextel Cup Season Finale
Date: Nov. 18, 2007
Event: Ford 400 (Round 36 of 36)
Series: NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 14th/30th (Running, completed 264 of 267 laps)
Winner: Matt Kenseth of Roush Fenway Racing (Ford)
Champion: Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
It wasn’t supposed to end this way. A late-race crash in Sunday’s season-ending Ford 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway took what would’ve been Tony Stewart’s 24th top-10 finish of 2007 and turned his effort into a 30th-place result.
Stewart was in eighth-place with 15 laps to go when the rear end of his No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet stepped out between turns three and four of the 1.5-mile oval. The Joe Gibbs Racing-prepared machine backed hard into the SAFER Barrier on the outside retaining wall, crumpling the bumper before the car turned around and slapped the wall on the driver’s side.
Stewart was unhurt, and after re-firing the engine, drove to pit road where The Home Depot over-the-wall crew went to work. Off came the tires, and after trading their pneumatic air wrenches for sledgehammers, the crew quickly pulled the sheet metal away from the tires and reattached the decklid.
While the car was far from perfect, and certainly not pretty, Stewart was able to return to the race and ride out the remaining laps. And by resuming the race, he and the team were able to avoid being tagged with a dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish).
The finish dropped Stewart one spot in the final point standings to sixth, 51 points behind future Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch.
Stewart’s current Joe Gibbs Racing teammates – Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley – finished third and 31st, respectively. Hamlin ended the year 12th in points, while Yeley finished 21st.
Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team of Hendrick Motorsports won this year’s Nextel Cup championship. It is the second straight championship for Johnson and the seventh Nextel Cup title for Hendrick Motorsports.
Matt Kenseth dominated the Ford 400 by leading eight times for a race-high 214 laps en route to his 16th career Nextel Cup victory, his second this season and his first at Homestead. Kurt Busch finished .852 of a second behind Kenseth, while Hamlin, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five. Martin Truex Jr., Johnson, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin and David Ragan comprised the remainder of the top-10.
The point standings for the entire, 12-driver Chase for the Nextel Cup after the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway are:
1. Jimmie Johnson (6,723 points, -0) 0
2. Jeff Gordon (6,646 points, -77) 0
3. Clint Bowyer (6,377 points, -346) 0
4. Matt Kenseth (6,298 points, -425) +2
5. Kyle Busch (6,293 points, -430) -1
6. Tony Stewart (6,242 points, -481) -1
7. Kurt Busch (6,231 points, -492) +3
8. Jeff Burton (6,231 points, -492) 0
9. Carl Edwards (6,222 points, -501) 0
10. Kevin Harvick (6,199 points, -524) -3
11. Martin Truex Jr. (6,164 points, -559) 0
12. Denny Hamlin (6,143 points, -580) 0
The 2008 season of the newly named NASCAR Sprint Cup Series kicks off Feb. 8-17 with the traditional Speedweeks at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The 50th Daytona 500, the first point-paying race of the season, is scheduled for Feb. 17 and will be broadcast live and in high-definition on FOX.
