Homestead-Miami race: A recap in GIFs

NASCAR.com's Steve Luvender recaps the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway where Joey Logano was crowned the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion.

In NASCAR, the racing season starts and ends in Florida. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series crowned its 2018 champion Sunday — but not before 400 miles of action at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Like most evenings in Florida, things kicked off with a skydiver stuck in a catchfence.

While birthday boy Denny Hamlin won the pole for the Ford EcoBoost 400, his team elected to give teammate and championship contender Kyle Busch the preferred No. 1 pit stall.

Despite Denny Hamlin leading the opening laps, championship contender Kevin Harvick took over the top spot after Stage 1 pit stops. Harvick hung on to win Stage 1 and collect those playoff poi-- wait, never mind, those don't matter in the championship. It's all about the best finish in this race.

While Kyle Busch lost positions on the stage break pit stop, Championship 4 underdog Joey Logano took over the race lead to kick off Stage 2 — then handed it over to high-line savant Kyle Larson.

Kevin Harvick showed speed in Stage 2, passing both Joey Logano and Kyle Larson to put himself on top of the heap, only for Kyle Larson to make a last-lap charge and claim the Stage 2 victory.

Championship-race-spoiler-hopeful Kyle Larson's odds at his season's first victory took a hit when a tire went down on his No. 42, bringing out the caution.

In the ensuing caution, Kyle Busch's pit woes continued, snarling the No. 18's air hose under the car, losing valuable time.

With just under 50 laps to go, defending champion Martin Truex Jr. made his way to the lead.

During the final round of green flag pit stops of the season, the four championship contenders tried varying strategies. Kevin Harvick pitted first, giving his car the freshest tires. Joey Logano passed Martin Truex Jr. after a stellar stop for the No. 22 crew. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, stayed on the track, hoping for a caution — his only saving grace for becoming the 2018 champion. His last resort, if you will.

A fortuitously-timed caution kept Kyle Busch in the picture when a four-wide battle sent Daniel Suarez spinning after chain-reaction contact between David Ragan and Brad Keselowski.

Not only did the caution keep Kyle Busch relevant in the championship conversation, but the pre-race decision by Joe Gibbs Racing to put the No. 18 in the first pit stall paid dividends -- Kyle Busch led the race off pit road after the final caution of the night.

On the final restart of the season, Martin Truex Jr. made his way to the top spot, looking to complete his quest for back-to-back titles.

Joey Logano, who moved Truex for a win at Martinsville three races prior -- and who many thought would be a target for Truex and the No. 78 team Sunday -- made his way past both Kyle Busch and race leader Martin Truex Jr. with stellar short-run speed.

It seems Truex's Martinsville prediction that Logano wouldn’t win the war wasn't quite accurate. For the final 11 laps, Joey Logano held on and took the checkered flag, making him the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Logano managed to defeat the dominant "Big 3" and unseat Martin Truex Jr. as champion -- the fifth different champion in five years of the elimination-style playoff era.

Logano's son Hudson even got in on the action, taking a seat inside the hefty Monster Energy NASCAR Cup.

It was a bittersweet ending for Furniture Row Racing's Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn, as the two came up one spot short in the team’s final race. Pearn and Truex move to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019.

One thing's for sure, though -- Joey Logano and Team Penske have three months to celebrate their 2018 title before it's time to get back to work.