Jimmie Johnson Wins Seventh Sprint Cup Series Championship, Ford EcoBoost 400

  The winner in Homestead did not lead a single lap in the race, until overtime.

  Jimmie Johnson won the Ford EcoBoost 400 and secured his seventh Sprit Cup Series Championship in his first victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

  Jimmie Johnson is now tied with Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Richard Petty for the most titles ever.

  "I'm just beyond words, I didn't think the race was unfolding for us like we needed it to give us a chance.” Johnson said after climbing out of his car to NBCSN. “[Crew chief] Chad Knaus called a great strategy and made some great adjustments for this short run. Some luck came our way, and we were able to win the race and the championship.”

  The race was there for Edwards to win after leading the Championship 4 for most of the race. On a restart off a caution with 10 laps to go, he tried blocking Logano to maintain his lead on the contenders. Logano, who had a better restart, made contact with Edwards and wrecked him into the inner wall in the front stretch.

  As for the overall race, Kyle Larson was the most dominant driver on the track on Sunday. Leading the most laps of the night, his highline run could not pull through when he needed it most.

  After the dramatic crash from Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. crashed in the backstretch to bring out a caution on 264 out 267. The race went into the new overtime rules, giving the drivers two laps to win the race.

  Larson finished in second place on the night.

Although Martin Truex Jr.’s car went up in flames, clearly Edwards wrecking his car was the biggest drawback from the wreck. Edwards admitted his fault to Logano’s team by going over to their pit stall and apologizing.

  “I think it was shared, I think it was just racing.” Edwards told NBCSN after getting cleared from Homestead-Miami Speedway’s Medical Center. “The way I had it figured is, first of all I was racing my life up to that point and it was a lot of fun. Joey was so good on the short run, I don’t know how he got that restart it was a really good restart.

  “I thought everything was going to work out. Jason told me he was looking low, he told me, basically, he was there.” Edwards said. “I knew Jason was saying and I pushed the issue as far as I could because I figured that was the race there.”

  Logano suffered some damage after the wreck, but is unsure of its impact on his car’s performance after being dominant on most restarts.

  “It’s hard for me to say. I can’t see my car, so I don’t know how bad it was.” Logano said. “I was thinking we couldn’t pit. That’s kind of where my head was, but my crew chief is a lot smarter than me and that’s a good thing. We came down pit road and put tires on it and didn’t lose any spots, fixed our damage. My pit crew that was amazing.”

  Chase Elliot finished in eleventh on Sunday but he won the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award in the process.

  But I'm proud of our season for sure. I'm definitely proud to earn the Rookie of the Year honors.” Elliot said. “It's been a long season, a lot of ups and downs, but we're happy to be here and definitely enjoyed racing against those guys for the Rookie of the Year this season. Felt like it was a fun group, and we're excited to get on to season two.

  The line of the night came from Tony Stewart summarizing the last race (he finished 22^nd) of NASCAR his career as a driver to NBCSN.

  “I’m ready to finish this ice cold coke, and open an ice cold Busch beer.”