John Elway walked off the field after his final game in 1999 hoisting a Super Bowl trophy for the Broncos. Ray Bourque skated off the ice in 2001 holding the Stanley Cup for the Avalanche. On Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in south Florida, the Colorado team turned the tables and tried to ruin a retirement.
Martin Truex Jr. and Denver-based Furniture Row Racing — longshots to even qualify for NASCAR’s postseason, let alone race for a championship — were looking to upset Jeff Gordon in the final race of his career. Gordon was going for a fifth career season title.
Four drivers — Truex, Gordon, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick — bolted forward for the Sprint Cup championship. It was a race inside a race, with the top finisher among the four getting the trophy.
Despite a broken leg and foot that kept him out of the first 11 races this season, Busch made up ground over the summer months in NASCAR’s point standings and let more laps than any driver at Homestead to sprint to his first career Sprint Cup title. Busch, at 30 the youngest finalist, won the race and the season championship.
He held off Harvick, who finished second, over the final laps. Gordon heads into retirement after finishing third in the standings, sixth in the race.
PHOTOS:
Truex, in his second season piloting Denver’s No. 78 car, propelled the outsider team — the Sprint Cup’s only team based outside North Carolina — into a fourth-place finish overall, their best finish since debuting in 2005. He finished 12th in Sunday’s race.
“We just never really could get the car to react to what we wanted,” Truex said. “It wasn’t for lack of effort. The guys put a lot of work into this car in Denver.”
to win NASCAR’s top-circuit title since Dale Earnhardt did it as a lone wolf with Richard Childress Racing in 1994.
But, with 32 laps to go, frustration settled in for Truex and his rookie crew chief, Cole Pearn. To that point, they spit-balled all options to get inject some speed in their 78 car. But they were fast running out of options. And Truex asked if they could inflate his right-side tires for more grip.
“Frustrating man, we’re terrible,” Truex said.
“Just keep clean,” Pearn said. “That’s all we got.”
“I know bud, I’m trying everything I can think of,” Truex said.
Truex gambled all day but his car didn’t have enough speed. Before a nearly two-hour delay to start the race because of rain, the FRR team rejiggered the car’s set-up, unhappy with how it handled in practice sessions Saturday.
Truex, who has a history of running well at Homestead, started from the 11th spot, but quickly fell two spots and four seconds behind in the first three laps. But some aggressive decisions brought him back. On a yellow flag caution at Lap 172 of 267, Pearn hustled Truex off pit road on two fresh tires while the rest of the field took four. It worked. Truex took his first lead.
But after falling back again, Truex gambled again on Lap 215. Pearn pitted the 78 about 10 laps early, before needing fuel, in order to get fresh tires for more traction.
Before he could gain ground, Harvick and Gordon took his cue and copied the idea, pitting early and staying in front of Truex.
Truex and Furniture Row each earned their best finish in the season standings but came away disappointed. “We didn’t come here saying we’d be OK to finish fourth,” Truex said. “We came here to do everything we could to win.”
Busch, the younger brother of FRR’s former driver, Kurt Busch, topped his previous career-high fourth-place finish from 2013. He races for Joe Gibbs Racing, a team that will partner with Truex and FRR in a technical alliance starting next season.
“I’m really proud of my team,” Truex said. “We have a lot to build on for the future.”
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or @nickgroke
Coming up short
Martin Truex Jr. and Denver’s Furniture Row Racing team tried to inject some speed in the 78 car Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But in a battle among four finalists, they fell short in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup championship race. A look:
How it ended:
Kyle Busch used a favorable caution flag with 16 laps to go. His fast restart helped him take the lead from Brad Keselowski. And he held off hard-charging Kevin Harvick.
Truex overcame a dangerous fire on pit road midway through after a lug nut sparked into the gas can.
Truex gambled to pit early on Lap 168 and momentarily held the lead. But after replacing just two tires for a quicker pit stop, he lost his grip.
Standings … Race finish … Laps led … Pole
1. Kyle Busch … 1st … 41 … 3
2. Kevin Harvick … 2nd … 46 … 13
3. Jeff Gordon … 6th … 9 … 5
4. Martin Truex … 12th … 3 … 11
The rest of the top 10 finishers in the Sprint Cup Championship.
Standings … Race finish … Laps led … Pole
5. Carl Edwards … 11th … 8 … 7
6. Joey Logano … 4th … 72 … 2
7. Brad Keselowski … 3rd … 86 … 8
8. Kurt Busch … 8th … 0 … 15
9. Denny Hamlin …10th … 0 … 1
10. Jimmie Johnson … 9th … 0 .. 18
