Martin Truex Jr. just didn’t have enough in his quest for consecutive championships in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Truex finished second to Joey Logano, who made the decisive pass with 12 laps to go in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Truex, who is moving to Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2019 season after Furniture Row Racing closes shop, reacted to the second-place finish after emerging from the No. 78 Toyota on pit road.
“I’m gonna miss these guys,” Truex said of his Furniture Row teammates in an interview with NBC. “I wish we could have won it. We had it. We were able to get the lead, I was just slow first 15 laps. I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know what else I could have done. He passed me so fast I didn’t even have a chance to do anything.
“Not the way we wanted to go out, but hell of an effort. Been the best time of my life. I don’t know what else to say.”
The numbers say plenty.
In a five-year run with Furniture Row, Truex Jr. won 17 races — including eight in a 2017 championship effort — and logged 56 top-five finishes. The black No. 78 Toyota became one of the fastest cars in the track, and Truex Jr. evolved from a driver with two career Monster Energy Series wins to a NASCAR superstar.
He’ll drive the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing next season, with crew chief Cole Pearn coming along with him.
“Everything about it has been great,” Truex Jr. said. “Everything about it has been the best thing I’ve ever been a part of. You know, I feel good about my future and going to a great place, and I know we’ll have more success. But it’s going to be different. You know, it’s going to be a different team, a different cast of characters, and these guys were a special group, and I’m very thankful to get to work with all of them.
” … It’s just been a good ride. It’s been a good run, and I hate to see it come to an end, but everything ends somewhere.”
Joey Logano is 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion — and Ford Performance has added another driver title to its coffers for the first time since 2004.
Logano, 28, won the title with a display of gumption, perfectly executing a brilliant pass on race leader Martin Truex Jr. with 12 laps to go following a restart.
He held the No. 78 Toyota at bay for the next two laps, then powered well ahead of Truex Jr. over the final eight-lap stretch to win on Ford Championship Weekend.
The title was the first for Logano, who added a second driver championship for team owner Roger Penske.
Kurt Busch won the 2004 championship for team owner Jack Roush, the last time a Ford driver won the premier series title. Matt Kenseth won for Roush the previous season in 2003.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – On Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it was “The Big Three and Me” — with the “Me” being Joey Logano waging vehicular war against the three most prolific winners in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Now “Me” is a champion.
In a thrilling finish that featured all four Championship 4 drivers battling for the race victory and the title — and finishing 1-2-3-4 in the Ford EcoBoost 400 — Logano charged past defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. on Lap 256 of 267 and pulled away to win his first championship.
“Oh, my God, yes!” Logano screamed on his radio as his No. 22 Team Penske Ford flashed across the finish line 1.725 seconds ahead of Truex, establishing a handful of milestones in the process.
“We did it! We won the championship! I can’t believe it. I don’t know what to say. This team, (owner) Roger Penske, (crew chief) Todd Gordon, the pit crew. Oh, my God! They gave me the car I needed at the end to do my job. Put me in position to do my job. I couldn’t be more proud of them. We won the championship! Oh, my God!”
The victory was Logano’s third of the season, his first at the 1.5-mile track and the 21st of his career. With the win, he sealed the first manufacturer’s championship for Ford since 2002 and the first driver’s championship for the car maker since Kurt Busch won the first Playoffs in 2004.
It was the first title for the Ford Fusion. It was also the last title for the Ford Fusion, which will be replaced by the Mustang in the Cup Series next season. It was the second championship for Penske, who got his first in 2012 when Brad Keselowski beat Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson for the top prize in stock-car racing.
Keselowski figured prominently in Sunday’s outcome, but not as a contender. With 21 laps left, Truex passed Logano for third place and took off in pursuit of eventual third-place finisher Kevin Harvick, who was running second at the time, with Kyle Busch holding the lead on old tires, hoping for a caution.
On Lap 247, Busch’s prayer was answered. Contact from Keselowski’s Ford sent the Toyota of Daniel Suarez spinning to cause the fifth caution of the race. That yellow flag changed everything. Busch got the caution he needed to get back into contention, and Logano got the chance he needed to win the championship.
Busch was first off pit road and led the field to green on Lap 253, but Truex surged past him in the first corner with Logano following into second place. Three laps later, Logano made a breathtaking charge into Turn 1 and sped around Truex to the outside. Game over.
“My car was really good on entry all day,” Logano said, in what may be the understatement of Ford Championship Weekend.
The victory was the culmination of week in which Logano had declared himself the favorite despite his total of two victories entering the race, compared with eight each for Harvick and Busch and four for Truex.
“We were the favorite, like I told you before the race started,” Logano said in Victory Lane. “I’m so proud of everybody for rising to the occasion. We executed down the stretch like nobody’s business.”
In his excitement after taking the checkered flag, Logano thought he had pulled a muscle, but the pain was well worth it.
“Man, I worked my whole life to get here,” Logano said. “To win a championship. We’ve been so close. It has been 10 seasons of fighting for this. I wasn’t sure we were going to get it, but Todd made a good adjustment at the end, and we had that no-quit attitude.”
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The Big 3 was the talk of the 2018 season. They dominated and, at times, looked untouchable. Many thought no one could beat them.
But on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Joey Logano did.
And he has the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy to prove it.
“If you look at it, it was the Big 3 and me, right,” No. 22 crew chief Todd Gordon said. “So we were the fourth wheel of the group and able to race all night long. … That’s just surreal to think about he got to race Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch for a championship and execute.
“Phenomenal group of guys, and again, we proved you’ve got to win, and Joey elevated himself to do it.”
Logano emerged from his No. 22 Ford on the frontstretch after taking the checkered flag for the title. He banged the roof of his car, as his crew members crowded around cheering and celebrating with the new champion. They hoisted him upon their shoulders.
As the celebrations continued, front tire changer Thomas Hatcher kneeled on the blue-painted surface. He wiped his face and looked upon his team members, who were now champions.
“You try so hard, you come so close and everybody does. And I just kind of got hit with it,” Hatcher told NASCAR.com of the emotional moment later. “It was tough. When I say it was tough, I mean it was emotional, it was everything came together. And honestly, the last pit stop … we weren’t able to beat (Martin Truex Jr.) out and I didn’t know if it was over with. But Joey got up on the wheel and, holy smokes.”
No. 22 front tire changer Thomas Hatcher takes a moment after Joey Logano’s Miami victory to win the 2018 championship. (Jessica Ruffin | NASCAR Digital Media)
Hatcher has been a pit crew member for 14 years and a part of Logano’s crew for five years. He was there for the 2014 heartbreak when the No. 22 Ford fell off the jack on the final pit stop, costing the team valuable seconds and ultimately the title. He was there when Logano and Carl Edwards tangled with 10 laps to go, with Jimmie Johnson going on to take the championship that night.
And he was there for the team’s brightest moment tonight on NASCAR’s biggest stage.
“I got my expectations up really high in ’14 and I did in ’16 too, especially ’16. I wasn’t going to let my emotions take over tonight,” Hatcher said. “I think everybody was pretty calm, everybody was pretty loose. Trying not to get our hopes up but Joey motivates us and I feel like we motivate him. … When he makes moves like I said on the track, we want to crush it on pit road. And man, I feel like we crush it on pit road, it motivates him to make moves like that on the track.
“It’s a team sport.”
It’s partly because of his team that Logano knew he wasn’t the underdog heading into the race, the David in a David-and-Goliath situation.
“We built a great race car that was able to be good on short runs … my race team, I wasn’t worried about them at all,” Logano said. “And I just had to do my job.”
But that “job” is often a tough task; with more than 35 competitors on the track every week, race wins — much less, championships — are challenging to earn. A winning stretch is even tougher to maintain throughout the long racing season. And while Logano pinpointed himself as the favorite ahead of Championship 4 Media Day, he wasn’t as sure of his chances before the 10-race stretch of the NASCAR Playoffs.
“Twenty weeks ago, I thought man, if we get to run to the Round of 8, that’s pretty good this year from where we were at the time,” he said. “We were consistent, that’s what kept us up in the points all year long. We didn’t have many bad races throughout the season.
“But I guess just as the Playoffs went, everyone rose to the occasion. Everyone picked it up. We talked about it at Playoffs Media Day … and I was talking about how you have to find another little bit inside of you to just maintain when the playoffs start because everyone’s able to get a little bit better. As we do that, we just started running better … I don’t think anyone scored more points than us throughout the playoffs. …
“It goes to show that we executed under pressure, not just today or the last five races, but the last 10 is when I felt like, ‘We got a shot at this thing.’ “
The 28-year-old driver certainly didn’t look like an underdog under the lights in Florida; he paced the field for a race-high 80 laps, restarting third behind Championship 4 contenders Busch and Truex Jr. with 15 laps remaining. Truex grabbed the lead, but with 12 laps remaining, Logano charged forward to take it back.
In the waning laps, he pulled farther ahead to take the most important checkered flag of his young career. Beating reigning champion Truex across the start-finish line, with 2014 champion Harvick and 2015 title winner Busch behind him.
When everything was on the line, he executed. And beat the best.
Maybe, he was never really the underdog after all.
“We proved why we’re not (the underdog),” Logano said. “This is the favorite, and I told you that before the race started. I’m so proud of everybody. Everyone rose to the occasion, executed under pressure like nobody’s business. …
“Man, you just — I’ve worked my whole life to get here, to get to the championship. I’ve been so close. I spent 10 seasons fighting for this. I wasn’t sure we were going to get it, but, man, Todd made a good adjustment at the end, and it was a ‘no-quit’ attitude.
Kyle Larson swiped the Stage 2 win at Homestead-Miami Speedway, using his speed on the high line to pass Kevin Harvick on the final corner of the last lap of the stage Sunday.
It marked Larson’s fifth stage win of the season when he led at the conclusion of Lap 160 in the Monster Energy Series championship race. In all, Larson led 41 laps in the second stage.
Harvick finished second, but does not officially receive points toward his season total for the stage win because Championship 4 drivers do not receive stage points for this season finale race.
Among Championship 4 drivers, Joey Logano finished third in the stage, Martin Truex Jr. finished fourth and Kyle Busch finished sixth.
Aric Almirola broke up the Championship 4-plus-Larson domination of the leaderboard, finishing fifth.
The first caution of the weekend — in all three series at Homestead-Miami — for something other than a stage break came on Lap 138 for debris.
Kevin Harvick took the lead from Busch Pole winner Denny Hamlin on Lap 43, and the Championship 4 driver held on to cruise to the Stage 1 win on Lap 80 at the Ford EcoBoost 400 on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Harvick recorded a series-leading 19th stage win, but does not officially receive points for the season tally because Championship 4 drivers do not receive stage points for this race.
Kyle Larson was second in the stage in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet after a late surge buoyed by his ability to drive the high line close to the outside wall in Miami.
The remaining Championship 4 drivers followed Larson in the stage: Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Toyota, Joey Logano in the No. 22 Ford and Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 78 Toyota.
Harvick started the race in 12th in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford after struggling through qualifying and practices throughout the weekend, but by the time cars made their first pit stops around Lap 37, he had worked his way up to second — thanks, in part, to a speedy pit stop that had him exiting ahead of fellow championship contender Busch.
Larson, who started the race in 11th, claimed second from Busch by Lap 69.
Ever wonder what goes on in a driver meeting? We’re here to help.
This year, we’ll publish the actual rules video your favorite Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will watch before climbing into their stock cars. Above is the video for the Ford EcoBoost 400 (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Cole Custer qualified on the pole, led 95 laps and swept the opening stages of Saturday’s Xfinity Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His team, Stewart-Haas Racing, took home the owners championship.
But it wasn’t enough for the No. 00 driver to clinch the championship title he wanted most of all: the Xfinity Series driver championship.
“We were really close, it just sucks to be second,” Custer said on pit road after his runner-up result, as race-winner Tyler Reddick celebrated his Xfinity Series championship on the frontstretch.
“We’ve come a long ways and everybody has worked really hard. It means a lot, but it’s still bittersweet when you finish second.”
His No. 00 Ford carrying plenty of speed, Custer remained ahead of the field for the opening 93 laps. John Hunter Nemechek passed him for the lead at Lap 94, but Custer remained ahead of Championship 4 drivers Reddick, Christopher Bell and Daniel Hemric. The other three title contenders and leader Nemechek pitted under green with less than 100 laps remaining, leaving Custer to inherit the lead again until he also pitted under green two laps later.
At that point, Custer was running behind the rest of the Championship 4 drivers in the field and became frustrated on the radio, as he tried to race back to the front.
“We might have made a mistake on the strategy, on pitting too late,” co-owner Tony Stewart said. “But like Cole said, he got to his bumper there, and I thought we were going to be in good shape there, and then just the balance shifted on him.”
Reddick passed Bell for the lead at Lap 164, and Custer soon followed into second. He attempted to chase down Reddick’s No. 9 Chevrolet in the waning laps, but couldn’t follow Reddick’s high-line run as well to catch him.
“I felt like we had to kind of make up that time, which we obviously had newer tires, so it was somewhat easy to make up the time, but you kind of get to a point on tires where everything starts to equal out, and I felt like that kind of happened, and also I mean, Tyler just ran the top better than I could,” Custer said. “I couldn’t get up there and do it like he could. He kind of practiced that all weekend, and I just wasn’t good enough at it …
“I guess that’s something to practice for next year, but we … I feel like we almost … pretty much (did) everything right this race.”
Several people approached Custer as he stood on pit road after the race, including team owners Stewart and Gene Haas, his father and Stewart-Haas Racing President Joe Custer, and his crew chief Jeff Meendering.
Having served as crew chief during his rookie season last year, Meendering – who has also guided Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte atop the pit box in his career – has seen the 20-year-old driver mature in their short time together.
“He gets more and more solid every week,” Meendering told NASCAR.com in the garage. “He doesn’t do anything that surprises you anymore. It’s kind of the sign of a veteran driver. Just solid every week. I feel like every track we’ve gone to this year, we’ve had really good speed and we’ve had a good shot of winning. Little tough to swallow, this one. …
“We’ll just take the positive out of this. We still won the owners championship, so that’s pretty good, big achievement. We’ll go back, we’ll regroup … We’ve got a lot to look forward to.”
Stewart also noted his driver’s increasing confidence, as he spoke to Custer’s progress as a driver. Custer “definitely” will be back with Stewart-Haas Racing next year, he said.
“I mean, you can see it in his driving. You especially can see it when he gets in traffic, how much confidence he has this year in traffic versus last year. It’s just part of the building process.
“You know, I think we’ll get through this winter and get started next year, I think you’ll see him at another level that’s a stop above this.”
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — What Elliott Sadler lacked on the results sheet Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he and his JR Motorsports No. 1 team made up for with a heck of a retirement party.
Sadler raised an ice-cold can to his 24 years in NASCAR’s highest divisions, sharing a toast and warm embrace with his crew on pit road after Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series finale. The scene was reminiscent of last year’s Homestead send-off for his team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who transitioned to NBC Sports after his full-time career ended.
“I’ve got a great race team,” Sadler said. “JR Motorsports has been so good to me and I just wanted to have a toast with my guys and tell them how much I love ’em, how much they’ve meant to me and how much really they’ve changed my life these last couple of years. … I wanted to make sure they knew my appreciation.”
The race rundown will show a 14th-place finish in Sadler’s final event as a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He lost a lap with a late-race pit stop for a vibration, opting to play it safe rather than risk an incident that might cost Tyler Reddick, his JRM teammate, in the final run to his first series championship.
Sadler’s transition to retirement is complete, and his to-do list is now filled with recreational sports with his children and potentially some recreational racing for himself. Immediately next on his schedule: Taking his kids hunting Sunday, with plans to be in a tree stand before dawn.
“It’s tough. It is. It didn’t really end the way we wanted to for our team,” Sadler said. “I’m sure it’ll hit me tomorrow, but it’s cool to see the laughter and we’ve got such a good group of guys. I didn’t know how my emotions would be, but actually I’m OK, which makes me feel good about my decision. I feel good right now. It feels right. I gave it my all.
“We came up short, but I don’t have any regrets in my career and the opportunities I had, I’ve tried to make the most of them. I’ve had long enough to pursue my dreams and what I want to do and now it’s time for me to help my kids pursue theirs.”
NASCAR will crown a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC/NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) when the best field in Championship 4 history battles it out for the prestigious Monster Energy NASCAR Cup.
Who’s your pick: Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick or Martin Truex Jr.?
Members of the NASCAR.com staff make their own predictions.
Zack Albert
Kevin Harvick. Sure, the No. 4 team hasn’t quite shown the speed this weekend in practice or qualifying, but it’s difficult to sway a prediction from the team that’s been a cut above for the bulk of the season. There are no weak links in this Championship 4. Expect Harvick & Co. to find their way to a second crown after 400 miles.
Pat DeCola
Martin Truex Jr. I think MTJ and Furniture Row Racing repeat on Sunday and ride off into the sunset with another championship. And based on how the No. 78 has looked leading into Sunday’s race, Truex might just have the car under him to do it.
RJ Kraft Joey Logano. The non-Big 3 driver is playing with house money. He has the best pit crew, and I believe this is going to come down to a late pit stop under caution and who gets off pit road the fastest. Three of the four Championship 4 races so far have seen cautions come with 15 laps (or less) to go, and Logano and his team are in a prime spot to atone for their 2014 mistake on pit road.
Jonathan Merryman Martin Truex Jr. Adversity is the name of MTJ’s game, and driver, crew chief and team alike will be on their respective games for the final race of the year. He also has the best crew chief in the sport in Cole Pearn when it comes to starting the race during the day and ending during the night.
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Brad Norman Kyle Busch. Let’s not miss the forest for the trees. Here’s the big-picture view: Kyle Busch is, arguably, the most talented driver in the garage. His No. 18 Toyota has been a bullet on 1.5-mile tracks this year, and the overall combination of crew chief Adam Stevens and the guys who go over the wall is best among the other Championship 4 drivers on Sunday. “Rowdy” wins his second Monster Energy Series title.
Jessica Ruffin
Martin Truex Jr. The reigning Monster Energy Series champion came into Championship 4 weekend with a fast car, pacing opening practice and qualifying third Friday. Truex is one of the best at prevailing under pressure — he said that Kyle Busch was better than him on long runs in last year’s season finale, yet the No. 78 held off the No. 18 in the closing laps for the title — and the emotion of running a final race for Furniture Row Racing will be motivation, too.
Chase Wilhelm Martin Truex Jr. Although the dominance on 1.5-mile tracks hasn’t been there this season for Truex and the No. 78 team, you can throw all the stats out the window for this Championship 4 finale. In what will be Furniture Row Racing’s swan song, Truex Jr. and the gang will dig deep and defend their title.
George Winkler Kevin Harvick. He’s been the most dominant car all season and he has the best stats of the Championship 4 contenders at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Plus, he’s motivated to prove he can do this even without crew chief Rodney Childers and in spite of the recent penalty post-Texas.
