Complete analysis: Miami

3. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske.
He wasn’t racing for the title, but Keselowski was determined not to just ride this one out. The 2012 champ managed to come back from an early-race malaise in which he fell off the lead lap, getting back on via a wave around and notching his noteworthy 17th top-five of the season.

4. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing.
Ryan Newman deserved all the RCR attention on Sunday, but Menard’s race can’t be overlooked. He started from the rear (unapproved adjustments), slapped the wall on Lap 188 and still matched his second-best finish of the season.

5. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
McMurray was one of several high-profile drivers to have trouble keeping his race car off the wall during this event, smacking it on Lap 177. It wasn’t enough to derail the veteran, however, as he picked up his seventh top-five of the season.

6. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing.
Kenseth got sideways in front of championship contender Joey Logano and nearly derailed the No. 22. Thankfully he didn’t, and Kenseth showed his veteran savvy by straightening out both his No. 20 in the moment and his race in general for a sixth-place finish.

7. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hamlin struggled on restarts all day. (“These guys are pounding me on restarts.”) And in the end they wound up being his downfall, ending his championship hopes. At least he had Michael Jordan there to support him.

8. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing.
At Homestead, everyone knows the speed is found up high by the wall. That wasn’t working for Clint Bowyer, as he explained mid-race, “I cannot (expletive) run high for some reason. Won’t turn and then it’s loose off.” Must’ve figured it out eventually, because he picked up his first top-10 since Martinsville. For more in-car audio, sign up for RaceView.

9. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports.
It was weird to see Jimmie Johnson not racing for a title at Homestead, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t still in a championship mindset, routinely running up near the front even after scraping the wall. After the race, crew chief Chad Knaus was asked to come to the NASCAR hauler because of an unapproved adjustment mid-race.

10. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports.
For awhile, it looked as if Gordon was about to win the race from the pole — which he admitted would have stung, knowing he missed the championship round by one point — but instead he finished 10th despite leading a race-high 161 laps. The four-time champ will be back in 2015, looking for title No. 5 five, but he could be running out of chances.

11. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing.
Busch had a really awful vibration early in the race, having to hold his shifter in gear while driving as a result of transmission issues. He recovered slightly to finish 11th, but it probably wasn’t the race he was looking for after starting second.

12. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports.
Somehow, Kahne’s 12th-place finish at Miami was his second best of the Chase, with his best — a 10th-place — coming at Charlotte. Bigger things are expected out of the No. 5 car.

13. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
Larson wrapped up Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors with his 13th-place finish at Miami and, in typical Larson fashion, wasn’t happy that he didn’t finish higher. Big things are coming for this young driver in 2015.

14. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports.
Earnhardt was off the pace on Lap 97, pitting with a right rear flat rire. Said crew chief Steve Letarte, in his last race before moving to the broadcast booth, “Good job getting it back to us. Right rear had a big cut in it.” He managed to get back into the top-five by the end of the race but got shuffled back in the late restarts for a 14th-place result. For more in-car audio, sign up for RaceView.

15. Justin Allgaier, No. 51 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports
Sunday’s season finale continued a strong finish to the season for the rookie, who finished inside the top 20 for half of the Chase’s 10 races.

16. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske.
Logano’s 16th-place finish — and his dashed championship hopes — fell in the hands of his pit crew, not himself. On Lap 227, the team dropped a lugnut, and on Lap 250 it dropped … wait for it … his car. It fell off the jack, costing him precious seconds on pit road and a shot at his first title.

17. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Chevrolet, Furniture Row Racing.
Truex brushed the wall early, incurring damage on the side of his Chevy and never quite recovered. It was a forgettable season for the veteran, who finished in the top 10 just five times, compared to 15 last season.

18. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing.
While an 18th-place finish isn’t revolutionary, it’s a solid enough finish for Patrick to continue to build momentum. She’s improved her average finish in each of her Sprint Cup seasons, from 28.3 in a part-time role in 2012 to 26.1 as a full-time rookie last year and 23.7 this year.

19. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports.
Almirola finished 19th on the day and 16th in his first Chase. His Florida homecoming could’ve been so much more for the driver, but his season still included one major highlight: winning the July Daytona race to have him racing in the postseason.

20. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing.
Mears finished the season with just four laps led, in 26th place in the standings. He did, however, lead the series in punches taken from the fist of Marcos Ambrose.

21. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Ford, Leavine Family Racing.
McDowell ran only 19 races this season — after running 33 last year — but Miami was one of his best. The 21st-place finish ranked high on his achievments for 2014, with his seventh place in July at Daytona coming as the high point.

22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had parts confiscated from his ride on Friday before qualifying, but it’s unlikely any enhancements they would’ve given his No. 17 would’ve proved substantial. In a down year across the board for Roush, Stenhouse was at the bottom, with only two more top-10s (five) than his rookie season a year ago.

23. Brian Vickers, No. 55 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing.
Sunday’s race capped a somewhat disappointing season for Vickers, who had just one more top-five and three more top-10 finishes than he finished with a year ago — in more than double the races.

24. Reed Sorenson, No. 36 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing
Sorenson finished his first full-time season since 2009 with no top-10s and only seven laps led. But hey, he finished the most laps in his career since 2008. So that’s plenty of track time, at least.

25. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing.
He may have finished behind Kyle Larson in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings, but there were plenty of positives in Dillon’s first Cup campaign. The season-opening pole win at Daytona was a landmark event for the No. 3, and his pair of top-10s at the track should carry over as he builds himself into a legitimate restrictor-plate racer.

26. Cole Whitt, No. 26 Toyota, BK Racing.
Whitt matched his car number with his 26th-place finish, but his racing down the stretch will focus on a pair of top-20 finishes at Talladega and Martinsville in back-to-back weeks at two extremely different tracks.

27. Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports.
Ambrose’s final Cup start didn’t go as planned, as he started from the rear with unapproved adjustments and it culminated with a flat tire on Lap 194 that brought out the caution after he hit the wall.

28. Brian Scott, No. 33 Chevrolet, Circle Sport Racing.
Scott also started from the rear after an engine change, which certainly didn’t help his cause any, but neither did the flat left rear he succumbed to late in the race when he needed to pit for four tires.

29. Landon Cassill, No. 40 Chevrolet, Hillman Racing.
While 29th is certainly no way to finish out a year, Cassill still managed his first career top-five — in a Chase race, no less — which resulted in a fan getting a tattoo to commemorate the occasion. All in all, a good season.

30. David Ragan, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports.
A 30th-place run wrapped up what was actually a pretty good end-of-season run for this group, which included his lone top-10 this year at Martinsville.

31. David Gilliland, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports.
For the third time in the past four seasons, Gilliland ends the year ranked exactly 30th in the final driver standings.

32. Josh Wise, No. 98 Chevrolet, Phil Parsons Racing.
Wise finished on the lead lap for just the second time in the 10-race Chase. It was also his best finish on a 1.5-mile track since June 28 at Kentucky Speedway, where he finished 29th.

33. Alex Bowman, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing.
Bowman scraped the wall on Lap 116, giving the young driver a flat tire. Sunday wasn’t a great race for the 21-year-old, but he has a bright future ahead.

34. Carl Edwards, No. 99 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing.
Edwards crunched his bumper and had right side damage after smacking the wall on Lap 116, sending the long-time RFR driver on his way to Joe Gibbs Racing with a whimper. Jeff Burton summed it up best, tweeting “Hard to watch the 99 ending on a bad race. Will be strange with no 99 next year.”

35. Michael Annett, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing.
Annett had a tough race, spending most of the race laps down, even dead last at one point. He did recover, though, for a 35th-place finish.

36. Brett Moffitt, No. 66 Toyota, Jay Robinson Racing.
Sunday was not the way the young driver wanted to finish his season. He incurred engine issues on Lap 58, bringing out the caution, then bringing it out again shortly after he came back out on the track when he got into the wall on Lap 86.

37. J.J. Yeley, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing.
Yeley competed in exactly half of the 36 Sprint Cup races held in 2014. He and Blake Koch wrecked on Lap 254, leading to Yeley’s finish, which was right around his average for the season — 36.2.

38. Blake Koch, No. 32 Ford, Go FAS Racing.
Koch’s biggest moment in the race unfortunately (for him) came when he was essentially dismissed from the track. He played a role in two late incidents and was parked for “disobeying a directive from the (race control) tower.”

39. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing.
Busch was in fifth place when he broke a left axel coming out of his pit stall. He came back out from the garage on Lap 143, but it was far too late to contend, ending a tough season for the JGR driver.

40. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Cheverolet, JTG Daugherty Racing.
Sunday was a really rough race for the one-time Chaser, blowing a tire on Lap 156 that sent him into the wall and crashing again on Lap 236 after picking up the wave around to get him on the lead lap.

41. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing.
Like his teammate Edwards, Biffle limped to the finish of the 2014 season. A former Miami winner, Biffle hit the wall after a right front tire went down on Lap 162.

42. Trevor Bayne, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing
Bayne’s tenure with Wood Brothers ends with a whimper, as a piece of debris cut a brakeline on Lap 207. Hey, they’ll always have the 2011 Daytona 500. Now it’s on to Roush Fenway.

43. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing.
Sunday wasn’t the finale Stewart was hoping for after perhaps the roughest season of his career. He told his team on Lap 104: “It turns better and we got it better back to the gas, but we still need more.” They didn’t get more, with the No. 14 retiring before the end of the race with myriad issues, ending his streak of seasons with a win at 15. For more in-car audio, sign up for RaceView.

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