After nine grueling weeks in the Chase, the 2011 Sprint Cup Series championship comes down to two: Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart. The interesting thing about both drivers is they took two totally different paths to get here. Both drivers scored 356 points in the nine Chase races, but Stewart has four victories to Edwards' none. Edwards and Stewart have proven there is no formula, there is no "right" way to win the championship.

Edwards, who qualified on the pole, was a model of consistency in the Chase. He may be winless, but he was up front in all nine Chase races leading up to Homestead. His worst finish was an 11th at Talladega but in the eight other events, Edwards finished outside the top five just twice -- an eighth at New Hampshire and a ninth at Martinsville. That gives Edwards six top-fives in nine races, including back-to-back runner-up finishes in the past two events at Texas and Phoenix.

Edwards' average finish is tops among all drivers in the past nine races and more importantly for Edwards, he held the lead in seven of the nine races, meaning a crucial seven bonus points. Aside from being unable to take the checkered, there is not much with which to find fault in regards to Edwards the past two months.

It's equally hard to find flaws in Stewart's 2011 Chase performance, as he has turned it up a couple notches and has been the most dominant driver the past nine weeks.

Stewart, who will start 15th, went to Victory Lane four times in the Chase (Chicagoland, New Hampshire, Martinsville and Texas) and joined Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers to win four races in a single Chase. Stewart's dominance in the Chase showed in the bonus points he accrued. Stewart earned 22 bonus points the past nine races, nine more than the next closest. Stewart led laps in seven of the races, led the most laps in three and picked up 12 bonus points thanks to his four victories.

Those bonus points made up for the two races he finished outside the top 10. A 25th at Dover and a 15th at Kansas could have ruined Stewart's title hopes, but five consecutive finishes of eighth or better, including two victories, catapulted the two-time Cup champ into the title conversation.

Those nine races have led to where Edwards and Stewart are this weekend. Edwards holds a miniscule three-point advantage on Stewart with just 400 miles at Homestead-Miami Speedway remaining. A look at the stats shows Edwards has the advantage, but ruling out Stewart after all he has done these past nine weeks would be a mistake.

Stewart has more experience at Homestead, as he has 12 starts at the 1.5-mile track compared to Edwards, who has seven. Both drivers have two victories, Stewart's coming in 1999 and 2000 with Edwards' coming more recently in 2008 and 2010. Edwards has 4-3 advantage in top-fives while both drivers have six top-10s.

The similarities end there.

Edwards hasn't finished worse than 14th at Homestead, and that came in his first start at the track in 2004. Since then, Edwards has finished eighth or better and has led 441 laps. On the contrary, Stewart has led just 385 laps at Homestead and has as many finishes of 15th or worse as Edwards does of eighth or better.

Head to head, the edge has clearly gone to Edwards.

In seven Cup events with both Edwards and Stewart on the track, Edwards has finished better than Stewart in six of them. Stewart finished fourth in the other, 2004, while Edwards came home 14th. That fourth-place finish is the last time Stewart has cracked the top five at Homestead. Interestingly, the only two times Stewart has finished in the top 10 when Edwards was on the track, Edwards won.

If there is one silver lining out there for Stewart in the stats, it's that the second-place driver has historically gained points on the first-place driver at Homestead. From 2004-2008, the driver in first still won the Chase, but his points differential shrunk compared to where it was when the race started. The 2009 season was the only time the first-place driver extended his points lead. Last season, Johnson came into the Homestead race second in points and left as the champion.