HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The familiar orange and white racecar came to a stop in the garage area, and for the longest time, Tony Stewart sat inside, helmet on, not moving. Was he savoring his final ride in the No. 20 machine with which he had become synonymous? Was he struggling to control his emotions following his last start with Joe Gibbs Racing?

“

I'm leaving a group of guys I'm used to working with 38 weeks a year for 10 years. It's always hard to do that.

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TONY STEWART

"I was frustrated and still frustrated, and there were some media people here I wouldn't trust with a penny, much less a quote of mine," said Stewart, feisty to the end. "I was just trying to take care of myself and make for an easier offseason."

The end of Stewart's 10-year run with the Gibbs team, a span that saw driver and organization win 33 races and two series championships together, appropriately featured plenty of thunder and noise. Stewart stormed to the front of the field at Homestead-Miami Speedway, looked like the driver to beat in the late stages of the Ford 400, and then was forced to surrender the lead and take fuel with 11 laps to go. Carl Edwards won, Jimmie Johnson captured his third consecutive Cup Series title, and Stewart came home in ninth.

It was enough to move him up two spots to ninth in points, securing a trip to the season-ending awards banquet in New York.. But in his last race with a team that's meant so much to him, he wanted more. Next season, he'll be driving a No. 14 car for a Stewart-Haas Racing team of which he owns half.

"The biggest thing to me was that we went out on a night where we were competitive," Stewart said. "Everybody knew we were here. They knew we were one of the fastest teams out here. We did what we needed to do."

It was the end of a relationship that began when team owner Joe Gibbs brought Stewart to NASCAR from the Indy Racing League in 1996. The crowd at Homestead-Miami flipped colored cards in the grandstand to commemorate Stewart's tenure with the Gibbs team, and his car featured an array of banners on the hood -- one for each of his 33 career wins. When he finally emerged from his No. 20 Camry after the race, he traded emotional hugs with crewmen who over time had become close friends. (Continued)