HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Brad Keselowski clinched NASCAR’s Sprint Cup title yesterday when five-time champion Jimmie Johnson pulled out of the season finale because of a parts failure.
The championship is the first for longtime NASCAR owner Roger Penske and gives outgoing car manufacturer Dodge the sweetest of parting gifts.
All the 28-year-old Keselowski had to do was stay out of trouble over the final 60 miles, which essentially turned out to be 40 victory laps around Homestead-Miami Speedway. He did so, finishing 15th behind Jeff Gordon’s Chevrolet.
It is Dodge’s first Cup championship since Richard Petty’s title in 1975. And it surely will help Penske get over a heartbreaking second-place finish in the IndyCar championship in September.
Keselowski started the race up 20 points on Johnson, who blew a tire and crashed last week at Phoenix. But the Penske team took nothing for granted — not after Will Power crashed in the IndyCar finale to blow a 17-point lead and lose the championship.
“Always, throughout my whole life I’ve been told I’m not big enough, not fast enough, not strong enough and I don’t have what it takes,” Keselowski said from the championship stage. “I’ve used that as a chip on my shoulder to carry me through my whole career. It took until this year for me to realize that that was right, man, they were right.
“I’m not big enough, fast enough, strong enough. No person is. Only a team can do that.”
Keselowski needed 125 starts to win his first championship, the fewest starts since Gordon, a four-time champion, won his first title in 93 starts in 1995. Keselowski also won a second-tier Nationwide title in 2010, his first season with Penske and the owner’s first official NASCAR championship.
Gordon, who avoided suspension this week but was fined $100,000 by NASCAR for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer last week at Phoenix, overcame the controversy to win the race in a 20th anniversary celebration for sponsor Dupont and Hendrick Motorsports.
It was Gordon’s first victory at Homestead, which leaves Kentucky as the only active NASCAR track where he’s yet to win.
Who did Gordon beat? Bowyer, of course.
And Bowyer’s second-place finish moved him to a career-best second in the final standings. Third-place went to Ryan Newman.
This one got tight when Keselowski ran out of gas on pit road during green flag pit stops. It put him a lap down with Johnson leading.
But minutes later, Johnson went to pit road for his own stop and pulled away with a missing lug nut. NASCAR flagged the Hendrick Motorsports team and Johnson was forced back to pit road for another stop.
It got worse for Johnson from there. He broke a rear-end gear in his Chevrolet and went to the garage with 40 laps to go, essentially clinching the championship for Keselowski.
“It all unraveled pretty quick,” Johnson conceded.