Kenseth wins at Homestead, Johnson wins the title
Quote selected text Published November 18th, 2007 in NASCAR News
Jimmie Johnson won the 2007 Nextel Cup championship successfully defending the crown he won last year. The No.48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver finished seventh which was good enough to hold off teammate Jeff Gordon for the title by 77 points. It is the seventh title for owner Rick Hendrick.
Matt Kenseth won the season finale Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, the second win of the season for the No.17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and the 16th of his “Cup” career. It was also the final race as crew chief for Robbie Reiser.
Johnson, who won the pole of Friday, brought the 43-car field to the green flag for the final time in 2007. The No.48 Chevy led the first lap, collected a five-point bonus, making his goal just a 19th place to guarantee a title.
After the first lap, Johnson relaxed a little bit, letting both Ryan Newman and Kenseth get around him. Both the No.12 Dodge and the No.17 Ford took turns leading the race before 10 laps were completed.
On the move was Gordon, who started 11th, but knew if he was to have any chance for a fifth championship would have to lead the most laps and win the race. He cracked the top-five by lap 15. But he stalled there and was not able to get around Johnson or up to any of the leaders.
The long green-flag run saw Kenseth put 13 cars down a lap as he opened up a one-second lead on Kurt Busch after 50 laps. Then Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch got together heading towards pit lane to bring out the first caution flag of the day. On the restart, “Junior” got spun around again to bring out another caution flag.
Still more caution flags, this one for a Paul Menard spin on lap 76, sent everyone down pit lane for the second pit stop of the afternoon.
Gordon got out very quickly (changed just two tires) to grab third place on the restart while Johnson took four tires and came out 14th. He hoped to get to the lead and earn five bonus points, but the strategy backfired and he went backwards instead of forward.
Also of note was Greg Biffle cracking the top-10. He was the winner of the four previous races at Homestead.
More at kentucky.com/The Sports Network
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
FIN, ST, CAR, DRIVER, MAKE, SPONSOR, PTS/BNS, LAPS, STATUS
1 4 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT NANO Technology 195/10 267 Running
2 5 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 175/5 267 Running
3 32 11 Denny Hamlin Chevrolet FedEx Express 170/5 267 Running
4 11 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 160/0 267 Running
5 10 99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot 155/0 267 Running
6 15 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 155/5 267 Running
7 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 151/5 267 Running
8 9 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 142/0 267 Running
9 6 01 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 138/0 267 Running
10 7 6 David Ragan * Ford AAA “Show Your Card and Save” 139/5 267 Running
11 30 40 David Stremme Dodge Target 130/0 267 Running
12 23 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 132/5 267 Running
13 37 16 Greg Biffle Ford Dish Network 124/0 267 Running
14 25 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal 126/5 267 Running
15 33 42 Juan Montoya * Dodge Texaco / Havoline 118/0 267 Running
16 21 25 Casey Mears Chevrolet National Guard / GMAC 120/5 267 Running
17 26 44 Dale Jarrett Toyota UPS 112/0 266 Running
18 2 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 114/5 266 Running
19 8 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 106/0 266 Running
20 18 5 Kyle Busch Chevrolet Kellogg’s / CARQUEST 108/5 266 Running
21 38 88 Ricky Rudd Ford Snickers 100/0 266 Running
22 27 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 97/0 266 Running
23 36 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 94/0 266 Running
24 3 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Dodge Dealers Lifetime Powertrain Warranty / UAW 91/0 265 Running
25 35 00 David Reutimann * Toyota Burger King 88/0 265 Running
26 34 66 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Best Buy 85/0 265 Running
27 41 7 Robby Gordon Ford Camping World / RVs.com 82/0 264 Running
28 43 21 Bill Elliott Ford Motorcraft 79/0 264 Running
29 42 96 Tony Raines Chevrolet DLP HDTV 76/0 264 Running
30 14 20 Tony Stewart Chevrolet The Home Depot 73/0 264 Running
31 24 18 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet Interstate Batteries 70/0 263 Running
32 12 38 David Gilliland Ford M&M’s 67/0 263 Running
33 16 109 Sterling Marlin Chevrolet Miccosukee Resort & Gaming 64/0 263 Running
34 40 45 Kyle Petty Dodge Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil 61/0 263 Running
35 39 15 Paul Menard * Chevrolet Johns Manville / Menards 58/0 262 Running
36 13 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Budweiser 55/0 261 Running
37 29 06 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge Mobil 1 52/0 254 Running
38 31 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Dodge Dealers Lifetime Powertrain Warranty / UAW 49/0 250 Running
39 19 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 46/0 242 Running
40 28 10 Patrick Carpentier Dodge Valvoline / Stanley Tools 43/0 225 Running
41 22 70 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Yellow Trans. 40/0 157 Out of Race
42 17 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 37/0 154 Out of Race
43 20 36 Johnny Benson Toyota 360 OTC 34/0 73 Out of Race
Bookmark to:
- Nextel Cup Championship scenarios heading into Homestead
- Nextel Cup Championship Scenarios Heading to Homestead
- Top-12 - Chase for the Cup heading into Homestead
- Johnson shows no signs of letting up: Pole at Homestead
- Jimmie Johnson finishes season with top Driver Rating
TOLD YOU SO!!!!
WOOOOO JIMMIE!!!!!!!!!
CONGRADULATIONS 48 TEAM! SWEEEET!
Just as long as Gordo (24) did not win the race or the championship it was a great year.
Let the party start… And I told you all Gordon was a looser !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO 88 Dale Jr. in 2008
just got home from the track…SOOOO TIRED! didn’t bother to stay to see the last 20 laps…knew it was going to be boring.
anybody notice kyle not coming over to congradulate his teammate well now former. i still thought that
was rather stuck up. wi wish jr didnt have the bad luck he did and maybe he could have contended for the win. i didnt like it either when jimmy and jeff didnt even put a forcast onnext season about having 3 of the best in one stable nothing wasnt mentioned about jr. nothing was said about him. i did however give props to kurt for mentioning him about finally getting
a good team and starting putting the pieces together as he said. that was cool.
I knew Jimmie would be the Champ again this year… he is the best and deserves it!!!
BACK TO BACK yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2nd place is looser?
Not!
I’m glad Bowyer didn’t freefall back a spot or two due to his rotten luck, Kyle Busch didn’t finish so well, that helped Bowyer, 3rd place isn’t anything to be ashamed of. I hope he wins the title next season, he’s good enough and he certainly turned alot of heads this year. I’ve liked him since he first came to the Busch (soon to be Nationwide) Series. The race would have been better if Kurt Busch would have won, Kenseth is a punk, he laid back until he realized that Kurt was much, much faster, maybe Kurt needed a longer run though. Truex could’ve been a big threat if he would’ve taken four tires instead of two and it would have been more interesting if the final caution would have came out before Kenseth passed Truex after all the pitstops.
Congrats to the greatest nascar driver in 25 years on his 2nd championship. I know you’ll get many more of em buddy.
Congrats jimmie on ur 2nd championship and to jeff on his “supposably 6th title under old format” great season and im already looking forward for dale jrs great season with hendricks
Matt wins with Reiser as his crew chief for the last time. A fitting tribute for what’s been a long, successful relationship. Matt was the last driver to win a Winston Cup championship. That’s cool.
that is a sweet way to go out!