Truex triumphs as Earnhardt calls it quits
Martin Truex Jr. clinched his first NASCAR Cup championship Sunday by winning the season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway.
Truex edged fellow Toyota driver Kyle Busch in the 400-mile finale. Kevin Harvick (fourth) and Brad Keselowski (seventh) were the only other championship contenders in the field.
Truex won for the eighth time this year, continuing the most successful season of his journeyman career and giving Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing its first title.
The team excelled through adversity all season. Truex’s longtime partner, Sherry Pollex, had a recurrence of ovarian cancer. A mechanic died of a heart attack the night before Truex’s win last month at Kansas. And team owner Barney Visser is sidelined in Colorado Denver following emergency heart surgery a week ago.
The event also marked the end of the iconic career of Dale Earnhardt Jr. who chugged a few beers on pit road with his crew following his final Cup race. He was surrounded by hundreds of fans. Earnhardt passed the beers around to his guys. One by one, they huddled around the 88 and raised — and sprayed — their Budweisers in a toast to the career of NASCAR’s most popular driver.
“We’re going to miss you Junior!” a fan screamed at Earnhardt.
“Let’s go, Junior! Let’s go!” another yelled in a sing-song voice.
Earnhardt finished 25th in his final NASCAR Cup race, the result a mere footnote in a career that counts two Daytona 500s, 14 most popular driver awards and a universal respect in the garage.
One example for the love, Earnhardt left his party to seek out hunting buddy and best friend, NASCAR champion Martin Truex Jr., on the stage.
The end wasn’t so sweet for Danica Patrick, disappointed after wrecking out of her final race as a full-time NASCAR driver.
Patrick said she got a tire rub shortly before the tire blew, and she slammed into the wall.
“It’s just the story of the year,” she said.
She was evaluated and released from the infield care centre.