Kyle Busch becomes new NASCAR champion

Rey’s Track- Reinaldo Llerena/ Staff Writer

The NASCAR Sprint Cup series raced for the final time this season on Sunday, Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The series came to Homestead to crown a new champion and to say goodbye to a racing icon.

A quartet of Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex, Jr, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch all entered Homestead with the championship in sight. Under NASCAR’s new “Chase” system, each racer entered the final race even in points. Therefore, whoever finished the best out of the four would be crowned champion. Each racer had a story to tell, with the most prominent story being that the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead was Gordon’s final race.

Busch won the race over second-place Harvick. Gordon finished in 6th place and Truex finished in 12th. Since Busch beat the other three “Chase” contenders, he is the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.

Gordon, who made his NASCAR Sprint Cup series debut in 1992, announced his retirement from racing back in January 2015. A win at Martinsville Speedway during the “Eliminator” round of the “Chase” saw the four-time champion automatically qualify for the final round of the “Chase.”

Harvick was looking to be the first defending series champion to repeat as champion since Jimmie Johnson went on his historical run of five straight championships from 2006-2010.

Busch looked to win the championship despite missing the first 11 races of the season because of a fractured leg earlier in the season. A string of wins during the summer helped propel Busch into the top 30 in points, a benchmark NASCAR set for Busch to be eligible for the “Chase.” Busch seeked Toyota’s first NASCAR title, as well.

Truex, Jr surprised NASCAR fans when he made it into the final round of the “Chase.” Truex drives for “Furniture Row Racing,” a single-car team based in Denver, Colo. Compared to the other teams he was facing, Truex was underfunded and lacked the resources that “Hendrick Motorsports,” “Stewart-Haas Racing” and “Joe Gibbs Racing” has. Truex raced into the final round because consistent top-10 finishes throughout the season.

The race was delayed an hour after a downpour soaked the track. Track officials were desperate to clean the track of water as soon as possible. To try and make the scheduled start time, officials cleared the frontstretch of the track of spectators around 2 p.m. The race promoters also disassembled the stage where driver introductions were to take place. After two hours of track cleaning, the track was ready for racing.

Gordon led a few laps early in the race, but kept fighting his car throughout the remainder of the race. He dropped back outside of the top 10 during the middle of the race and clawed his way back to sixth, where he would finish.

Like Gordon, Truex fought his car for the duration of the race. At one point, Truex got up to third place, but fell back several laps later. A respectable 12th-place finish for a single-car team that struggled to make the top 10 last season.

With 11 laps remaining, debris on the frontstretch brought out the final caution flag of the day. This grouped up the field for one final green-flag run. Busch pulled away from Harvick, who lined up second, on the restart and cruised to the finish, securing his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship and the first championship for Toyota, Busch’s manufacturer.

Instead of celebrating a new champion with cheers, several NASCAR fans let out a collective groan. Some fans pointed out that Busch missed close to a third of the season and shouldn’t be called champion because he missed so many races. In my opinion, I believe that Busch earned his championship through his dominance during the summer. To come back and win a championship after breaking your leg is an amazing feat in itself and no fan can discourage that.

A new rules package awaits NASCAR competitors in 2016. Low-downforce aerodynamic packages are a change from this year’s high-downforce package. In other words, aerodynamics will not affect drivers as much as it did this year. Therefore, closer racing should result from this change in the rules.

2016 also marks the debut of Chase Elliott, who will replace Gordon in his famous #24 car. Elliott, the son of 1988 Winston Cup Series champ Bill Elliott, has dominated the Xfinity Series, securing the 2014 Xfinity Series championship along the way. Elliott has a lot of expectations to live up to since he’s replacing Gordon.

But, the main headline of 2016 is this: What will post-Gordon NASCAR look like? Gordon had a big following throughout his career. Some fans, like myself, have grown up with Gordon and do not know NASCAR was before Gordon arrived. If NASCAR can attract as many viewers without Gordon, I believe that the season is a success on its own.

For now, the man NASCAR fans call “Rowdy” is the champion and new faces will soon shine down on Daytona International Speedway in February. Until then, several drivers need a new team to work for, including Clint Bowyer, whose former team, Michael Waltrip Racing, shut down after the final race of the 2015 season. Bowyer’s free agency, the new rules package and Elliott’s debut all headline the 2015 offseason, the first NASCAR offseason without Gordon since 1992.