Stewart's winning pass...one week early

            Tony Stewart’s championship-winning drive at Homestead-Miami over the weekend was one for the ages. One of the best one-race performances I’ve seen.

            Stewart’s talent and experience were on display for the world to see Sunday. He had to cut through the field twice to get to the front and he did that. He had to out-run championship leader Carl Edwards over the final 37 laps and he did that.

            But, as every racing reporter writes this week about the stunning performance Smoke turned in to win the title in the last race of the season, there is one pass Stewart made that nobody will write about that was actually the key to the championship.

            And it didn’t happen in Florida. Heck, the move wasn’t even Stewart’s.

            Stewart was running fourth with a few laps remaining in the season’s penultimate race two weeks ago in Phoenix, Arizona. He was not in contention to win that late in the going, but he had a solid finish going.

            Driving a Chevrolet, Stewart drew close to another Chevy driver, Jeff Burton. Now, Stewart and Burton do not drive for the same team. Their respective teams do not have a technical alliance. Stewart’s team buys chassis and engines from the Rick Hendricks team and Burton drives for Richard Childress.

            But Stewart and Burton both drive Chevrolets. Edwards drives a Ford.

            Burton, who is among the most respected drivers of the era, did not have a chance to win the Sprint Cup championship this season. But in the closing laps at Phoenix, Burton gave Stewart plenty of room to pass Burton and gain one final position before the end of the race.

            That one position was the difference between Stewart winning the title and Edwards winning the title. The championship ended in a tie and Stewart won it because he won more races during NASCAR’s season-ending Chase than Edwards did.

            Had Burton stubbornly kept Stewart behind him at Phoenix and had the race at Homestead-Miami gone exactly as it did Sunday, Carl Edwards would be celebrating his first championship and Stewart’s drive of a lifetime would have been noted as a great effort, albeit a losing one, by pundits.

            Thanks for reading.