NASCAR Final Weekend Preview

All three of NASCAR’s national touring series championships  will be  decided this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.   And there’s none closer than the Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday.  Just three points
separate Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.

Edwards and Stewart are the only drivers still in contention for the  championship.   They’ve been battling it out the last couple of races.

Stewart's win at Texas was his fourth victory during the Chase and that moved him to within three points of Edwards.  Last week at Phoenix Edwards finished second and Stewart was third and that kept the margin at three points.

So it comes down to one race.  If Edwards wins on Sunday he’ll claim his first Sprint Cup championship.  It’s a good track for him.  He’s won there twice including last year.

Stewart also has two victories there back in 1999 and 2000.

Stewart has two championships to his credit.  If he takes the title on Sunday he’ll join David Pearson, Lee Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough each with three championships.

Interesting that if Edwards and Stewart finish in a points tie after Sunday’s race, Stewart would win the championship based on his four wins this season -- all of them coming in the Chase.  Edwards has only one win for the season, which came way back in March at Las Vegas.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is on the verge of clinching the Nationwide Series championship.  He enters tomorrow’s
Nationwide season closer with a comfortable 41-point lead over Elliott Sadler.  Stenhouse needs to  finish only 37th or better to win the title regardless of how Sadler does.

The weekend at Homestead kicks off tonight with the Camping World 200 truck race.   Austin Benner has the points lead heading into tonight’s race.  He’s up by 20 points over Johnny Sauter.