HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Tony Stewart insisted he wasn’t a title contender when NASCAR’s championship race began.
When it became clear he actually was a viable threat, he kicked it into another gear and vowed to go for broke in his pursuit of Carl Edwards.
Did he ever.
Stewart used a powerful and relentless drive — some might suggest the best in NASCAR history — on Sunday in the season finale to seize his third NASCAR championship. He overcame a hole in the grill of his Chevrolet, a rain delay, used debatable fuel strategy and made 118 passes on the track to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
That shows how bad I wanted to win this thing,” Stewart said. “When you’re going for a championship, you can’t hold anything back. I couldn’t leave anything on the table.”