The Sports Network - NASCAR Sprint Cup

2011 Finish
Finish	Driver	Start	Finish	Driver	Start
1	Tony Stewart	15	6	Clint Bowyer	17
2	Carl Edwards	1	7	Kasey Kahne	3
3	Martin Truex Jr	2	8	Kevin Harvick	21
4	Matt Kenseth	6	9	Denny Hamlin	10
5	Jeff Gordon	7	10	Jeff Burton	31

2011 Ford EcoBoost 400 Facts and Figures
AVERAGE SPEED: 114.976 m.p.h.
TIME OF RACE: 3 hours, 29 minutes
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 1.306 seconds
CAUTION FLAGS: 8 for 54 laps
LEAD CHANGES: 26 among 15 drivers
POLE WINNER: Carl Edwards (175.467 m.p.h.)

Past Ford EcoBoost 400 Winners (Starting Position) Car -- Speed

2011 -- Tony Stewart (15th) -- Chevrolet -- 114.976 m.p.h.

2010 -- Carl Edwards (2nd) -- Ford -- 126.585 m.p.h.

2009 -- Denny Hamlin (38th) -- Toyota -- 126.986 m.p.h.

2008 -- Carl Edwards (4th) -- Ford-- 129.472 m.p.h.

2007 -- Matt Kenseth (4th) -- Ford -- 131.888 m.p.h.

2006 -- Greg Biffle (22nd) -- Ford -- 125.375 m.p.h.

2005 -- Greg Biffle (7th) -- Ford -- 131.431 m.p.h.

2004 -- Greg Biffle (2nd) -- Ford -- 105.623 m.p.h.

2003 -- Bobby Labonte (2nd) -- Chevrolet -- 116.868 m.p.h.

2002 -- Kurt Busch (1st) -- Ford -- 115.462 m.p.h.

2001 -- Bill Elliott (1st) -- Dodge -- 117.449 m.p.h.

2000 -- Tony Stewart (13th) -- Pontiac -- 127.480 m.p.h.

1999 -- Tony Stewart (7th) -- Pontiac -- 140.355 m.p.h. (race record)

NOTE: Formerly called Pennzoil 400 (1999-2000), Pennzoil Freedom 400 (2001),

Ford 400 (2002-11).

Past Ford EcoBoost 400 Pole Winners (Finish)

2011 -- Carl Edwards -- 2nd

2010 -- Kasey Kahne -- 6th

2009 -- Jimmie Johnson -- 5th

2008 -- David Reutimann -- 20th

2007 -- Jimmie Johnson -- 7th

2006 -- Kasey Kahne -- 4th

2005 -- Carl Edwards -- 4th

2004 -- Kurt Busch -- 5th

2003 -- Jamie McMurray -- 9th

2002 -- Kurt Busch -- 1st

2001 -- Bill Elliott -- 1st

2000 -- Steve Park -- 8th

1999 -- David Green -- 22nd

Last Race Results
RACE: AdvoCare 500 (November 13th)
SITE: Phoenix International Raceway -- Avondale, Arizona
MILES: 319
LAPS: 319
WINNER: Kevin Harvick
RUNNER-UP: Denny Hamlin
THIRD: Kyle Busch
FOURTH: Kasey Kahne
FIFTH: Ryan Newman
POLE WINNER: Kyle Busch (Finished 3rd)
TIME OF RACE: 2 hours, 52 minutes, 9 seconds
AVERAGE SPEED: 111.182 m.p.h.
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.580 second
CAUTION FLAGS: 8 for 38 laps
LEAD CHANGES: 11 among 7 drivers
LAP LEADERS: Kyle Busch 1-53; T. Kvapil 54-57; M. Martin 58-59; Kyle Busch
	60-117; D. Hamlin 118-128; B. Keselowski 129-133; D. Hamlin
	134-168; R. Newman 169-173; Kyle Busch 174-232; B. Keselowski
	233-237; Kyle Busch 238-304; K. Harvick 305-319.

Ford EcoBoost 400 Entry List
Car	Driver, Hometown	Car/Name
1	Jamie McMurray (Joplin, MO)	Chevrolet/Bass Pro Shops
2	Brad Keselowski (Rochester Hills, MI)	Dodge/Miller Lite
5	Kasey Kahne (Enumclaw, WA)	Chevrolet/Farmers Insurance
6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Olive Branch, MS)	Ford/Fifth Third
9	Marcos Ambrose (Launceston, Australia)	Ford/Black & Decker
10	David Reutimann (Zephyrhills, FL)	Chevrolet/TMone
11	Denny Hamlin (Chesterfield, VA)	Toyota/FedEx Ground
13	Casey Mears (Bakersfield, CA)	Ford/Geico
14 *	Tony Stewart (Columbus, IN)	Chevrolet/Mobil 1/Office Depot
15	Clint Bowyer (Emporia, KS)	Toyota/5-Hour Energy
16	Greg Biffle (Vancouver, WA)	Ford/3M/SP Richards
17	Matt Kenseth (Cambridge, WI)	Ford/Best Buy
18	Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, NV)	Toyota/M&M's
19	Mike Bliss (Milwaukie, OR)	Toyota/Plinker Tactical
20	Joey Logano (Middletown, CT)	Toyota/The Home Depot
21	Trevor Bayne (Knoxville, TN)	Ford/Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire
22	Sam Hornish Jr. (Defiance, OH)	Dodge/Shell/Pennzoil
23	Scott Riggs (Bahama, NC)	Chevrolet/North Texas Pipe
24	Jeff Gordon (Vallejo, CA)	Chevrolet/DuPont
26	Josh Wise (Riverside, CA)	Ford/MDS Transport
27	Paul Menard (Eau Claire, WI)	Chevrolet/Menards/Duracell
29	Kevin Harvick (Bakersfield, CA)	Chevrolet/Budweiser
30	David Stremme (South Bend, IN)	Toyota/Inception Motorsports
31	Jeff Burton (South Boston, VA)	Chevrolet/Caterpillar
32	Ken Schrader (Fenton, MO)	Ford/Federated Auto Parts
33	Stephen Leicht (Asheville, NC)	Chevrolet/littlejoesauto.com
34	David Ragan (Unadilla, GA)	Ford/TBA
36	Dave Blaney (Hartford, OH)	Chevrolet/Florida Lottery
37	J.J. Yeley (Phoenix, AZ)	Chevrolet/C&C Audio Video
38	David Gilliland (Riverside, CA)	Ford/Long John Silver's
39	Ryan Newman (South Bend, IN)	Chevrolet/U.S. Army
42	Juan Pablo Montoya (Bogota, Colombia)	Chevrolet/Target
43	Aric Almirola (Tampa, FL)	Ford/Smithfield
44	To Be Announced	Ford/No Label Watcher
47	Bobby Labonte (Corpus Christi, TX)	Toyota/Clorox
48	Jimmie Johnson (El Cajon, CA)	Chevrolet/Lowe's
51	Regan Smith (Cato, NY)	Chevrolet/Phoenix Construction
55	Mark Martin (Batesville, AR)	Toyota/Aaron's Dream Machine
56	Martin Truex Jr. (Mayetta, NJ)	Toyota/NAPA Auto Parts
78	Kurt Busch (Las Vegas, NV)	Chevrolet/Furniture Row
79	Reed Sorenson (Peachtree City, GA)	Ford/United Supermarkets
83	Landon Cassill (Cedar Rapids, IA)	Toyota/Burger King
87	Joe Nemechek (Lakeland, FL)	Toyota/AM FM Energy Wood&Pellet
88	Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Kannapolis, NC)	Chevrolet/Diet Mt. Dew/Nat Guard
91	Jason Leffler (Long Beach, CA)	Chevrolet/Plinker Tactical
93	Travis Kvapil (Janesville, WI)	Toyota/Burger King
98	Michael McDowell (Glendale, AZ)	Ford/Phil Parsons Racing
99	Carl Edwards (Columbia, MO)	Ford/Fastenal

* - Defending champion

Leading Contenders (Finish the last nine years)
Driver	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Tony Stewart	7th	4th	15th	15th	30th	9th	22nd	8th	Won
Carl Edwards	---	14th	4th	8th	5th	Won	7th	Won	2nd
Martin Truex Jr	---	32nd	---	2nd	6th	10th	9th	11th	3rd
Matt Kenseth	43rd	19th	3rd	6th	Won	25th	13th	9th	4th
Jeff Gordon	5th	3rd	9th	24th	4th	4th	6th	37th	5th
Clint Bowyer	---	---	---	10th	39th	5th	11th	12th	6th
Kasey Kahne	---	38th	16th	4th	24th	6th	17th	6th	7th
Kevin Harvick	2nd	10th	8th	5th	19th	2nd	3rd	3rd	8th
Denny Hamlin	---	---	33rd	3rd	3rd	13th	Won	14th	11th
Dale Earnhardt Jr	24th	23rd	19th	19th	36th	41st	28th	27th	12th
Ryan Newman	37th	30th	7th	23rd	18th	21st	23rd	7th	13th
Brad Keselowski	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	13th	20th
Kyle Busch	---	---	41st	38th	20th	19th	8th	32nd	23rd
Mark Martin	33rd	11th	2nd	18th	9th	---	12th	16th	24th
Jimmie Johnson	3rd	2nd	40th	9th	7th	15th	5th	2nd	32nd
Greg Biffle	35th	Won	Won	Won	13th	18th	14th	10th	35th

Mover of the Week

Jeff Burton - Started in the 33rd position and finished 13th

Sports Network Selections

Pick to Win - Kasey Kahne

Darkhorse - Kevin Harvick

Last Week's Pick to Win (Clint Bowyer) - Finished 28th

Last Week's Darkhorse (Carl Edwards) - Finished 11th

NOTES:

It all comes down to the season-ending Ford 400, and once again the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship will decided this week.

It's quite simple. Brad Keselowski needs a finish of 15th or better; or 16th and at least one lap led; or 17th and the most laps led, even if Jimmie Johnson wins and leads the most laps.

Might be easier said than done, as Keslowski in four trips around Homestead, has just one top-15 finish and three finishes of 20th or worse. Keselowski bids to become the series' first new champion since 2006, going from dark horse contender to championship controller over NASCAR's nine-race post season.

Johnson, a five-time winner this season, is 20 points behind, but after winning two straight races, he placed 32nd last week to fall back in the Chase.

Keselowski will make his 125th NSCS start this weekend, while Tony Stewart, who stands ninth, will be behind the wheel for the 500th time.

Last season, the battle between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart for the 2011 Sprint Cup Series championship couldn't have concluded any better than the way it did at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Stewart's victory in the season-ending Ford 400 compared to a second-place finish for Edwards allowed Stewart to win his third championship in NASCAR's premier series.

Even though Stewart and Edwards finished the season tied in points (2,403 each), Stewart earned the title by virtue of his five wins -- all of them coming in the Chase for the Sprint Cup -- compared to only one victory for Edwards, which came in March at Las Vegas. It was the first time the series championship was decided in a tiebreaker.

Although he didn't win the race in 2010, Johnson did capture the Sprint Cup championship for the fifth straight season. Johnson entered the 400-mile race at Homestead 15 points behind Denny Hamlin. He became the first driver in the seven-year history of the championship Chase to overcome a points deficit going into the season-finale. Just two drivers had overcome a points deficit in the last race of the season to win the championship since NASCAR revised its points system in 1975. Richard Petty accomplished the feat in 1979, and Alan Kulwicki turned the trick in 1992.

In 2009, Denny Hamlin raced to victory, defeating Jeff Burton by 2.632 seconds for his eighth career Sprint Cup victory and fourth of that season. Starting from the 38th position, Hamlin moved his way up and finally claimed the lead with just 45 laps remaining and held on to finish fifth on the final points list. With his fifth-place finish, Jimmie Johnson clinched his fourth consecutive championship.

Carl Edwards dominated the race in 2008, leading five times for a race-high 157 laps, as he defeated Kevin Harvick by 7.548 seconds for his 16th career Sprint title. Despite his ninth win of 2008, Edwards placed second behind Johnson in the "Chase."

In 2007, Matt Kenseth snapped Greg Biffle's three-year stranglehold on this race, as he led a whopping 214 laps en route to his 16th career Sprint Cup title. Kurt Busch finished second, just 0.852 of a second behind, while pole sitter Johnson placed seventh.

Greg Biffle captured his third consecutive Ford 400 in 2006, as he crossed the finish line just under one second ahead of Martin Truex Jr. The victory was the second of the 2006 season and the 11th of 18 career titles.

Groundbreaking for Homestead-Miami Dade Motorsports Complex, as the track was originally named, began August 24, 1993. The first race was a Nationwide Series race on Nov. 5, 1995. The original configuration was a four-turn, rectangular oval based on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's layout. The first Truck Series race at Homestead was in 1996. In the summer of 1997, a reconfiguration project changed the turns from a quad-oval to a traditional, continuous-turn oval. The first Sprint Cup race at Homestead was held on Nov. 14, 1999. The track was reconfigured prior to the 2003 race. The banking in the turns was changed to a graduated tri-level culminating in a 20-degree banking on the outer level. Lights were also added for night racing.

There have been nine different pole winners, led by Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards with two each. The race has been won from the pole twice: Bill Elliott (2001) and Kurt Busch (2002). In addition, the race has been won from a top-10 starting position nine of 13 times. Hamlin's win in 2009 from the 38th starting position, is the furthest back a race winner has started at Homestead. There have been eight different race winners, led by Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart with three.

The 2013 Sprint Cup Series begins February 24 at Daytona International Speedway with the 55th running of the Daytona 500. Matt Kenseth won the series season-opener this year.

11/13 18:06:37 ET

As of November 13, 2012, at 06:06 PM ET

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