Who will take victory lap?

Nextel Cup title up for grabs as circuit enters final race

After 35 races covering 10,484 laps for 14,056.6 miles, NASCAR’s first Nextel Cup championship all comes down to Sunday’s season finale Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Hang on.

Five big-name drivers have a shot. And it could come down to the last turn on the last lap.

Will the champion be NASCAR’s villain turned choirboy Kurt Busch, who has let his driving do his talking this season?

Or Californian Jimmie Johnson with his Madison Avenue appeal and propensity to find Victory Lane?

Perhaps four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who helped drive NASCAR into the national spotlight during the past decade?

Or maybe NASCAR nation’s favorite son Dale Earnhardt Jr., who would turn Homestead upside down if he pulled out the victory?

Or sentimental favorite Mark Martin, who at 45 has finished the championship four times as runner-up and four times in third and will retire after next season?

One thing is for certain: NASCAR is the big winner.

Matt Kenseth celebrates his 2003 title with a lap around the track at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Kenseth had the title won before the year's final race.

Close finish

About the only way new CEO Brian France could have made the finish any more dramatic is if five points separated the top five instead of 82 — and if Tony Stewart was still a legitimate contender instead of just a mathematical one.

Only one other time in NASCAR’s modern history, dating to 1975, has a season finale been this close.

In 1992 six drivers were separated by 113 points. The late Alan Kulwicki made up a 30-point deficit on the late Davey Allison and won the title by only 10 points over Bill Elliott.

It was the closest finish in NASCAR history.

Sunday’s season finale has the potential to rewrite history.

“[Sunday] is one race — go for broke,” Gordon said. “We have nothing to lose but to go out there and give it all we’ve got and hope we come out on top.

“I don’t want to do it by somebody having bad luck.”

The last time the race for the championship title was this close was in 1992 when Alan Kulwicki made up a 30-point deficit to win the cup over Bill Elliott by 10 points.

More suspense

Last year, fans at the Ford Championship Weekend were treated to two thrilling championship battles with five to six drivers still in contention in the NASCAR Truck and Busch Series races. It came down to the last turn of the last lap in both races.

Travis Kvapil pulled out the truck championship and Brian Vickers, who had just turned 20, won the Busch title.

But the final Winston Cup championship already had been decided a week earlier in Rockingham, N.C., when Matt Kenseth made it official after using consistent performances to lead the standings much of the season.

There was no suspense, and the Ford 400 didn’t sell out until race day. This year it’s been sold out for nearly a month.

Last season marked the fifth time in the past six seasons that the final race was meaningless in the championship battle. Imagine knowing before kickoff at the Super Bowl which team will win the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

France, who had taken over the helm of NASCAR from his father, Bill France Jr., last September, was adamant about implementing a new points system that would create a sort of playoffs as opposed to a marathon grind.

France announced the new 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup in January. The majority of drivers, teams and fans liked the format about as much as rain on race day.

“I wasn’t that big a fan of it in the beginning,” Martin said.

“But in my opinion now, it is probably the single best thing that has happened for race fans in my era.”

No safe route

Only twice in NASCAR’s 55-year history has the points leader been overtaken in the final race. Richard Petty leapfrogged Darrell Waltrip to win the title in 1979 and Kulwicki overtook Allison in 1992.

The biggest deficit to overcome on the final day was Kulwicki’s 30 points.

Busch’s lead is 18 points on Johnson, 21 on Gordon, 72 on Earnhardt and 82 on Martin.

To put that in perspective, if Johnson won the race, Busch would have to finish second to claim the Nextel Cup. Busch also could win the crown if he finished third and led a lap or placed fourth and led the most laps.

But all the drivers in contention, even Busch, know they can’t play it safe. Busch figures he likely will have to win at Homestead to win the title because of the number and quality of contenders.

“We do have a slight advantage, but we need to finish in front of the 48 [Johnson], the 24 [Gordon], the 8 [Earnhardt], the 6 [Martin] — everybody is running competitively and this is what the Nextel Chase for the Cup was intended to do,” Busch said. “We have to go and win now.”

Gordon is the only driver among the five contenders who has won a Cup championship. But in 1998 and 2001, he clinched the title before the last race. In 1995, he only had to start his engine to win it all.

“The focus of the Chase seems to be greater,” Gordon said. “The stakes of the accomplishment and what it’s worth — not just monetarily [about $5.5 million] — but what it means to be the first Nextel Cup champion.”