HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) – Jimmie Johnson tied Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with a record seven NASCAR championships when the hard-luck breaks of racing turned Sunday’s title-deciding finale into his crowning moment.
Johnson probably had the worst car of the four championship contenders at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but a strange sequence of events opened the track for him to take the title over Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and defending champion Kyle Busch.
“There was no way on earth,” Johnson said. “I didn’t think that the race was unfolding for us like we needed it to to be the champs. But we kept our heads in the game.”
Edwards was in position to win until a caution with 10 laps remaining set up a wild sequence that ruined his title hopes. Edwards tried to block Logano on the restart, wound up wrecked, and it was Johnson who drove through the wreckage to take the championship lead.
Johnson had to withstand two more restarts, including one in overtime, to score his first career victory at Homestead in the most monumental race of his career.