Friday, November 18, 2011

The end is near

One trophy, two drivers, three points.
That's what this NASCAR Sprint Cup season has come down to. Carl Edwards goes into Sunday's race at Homestead, Fla., with a three-point lead over challenger Tony Stewart. They are the only two drivers eligible to win the title. So while there will be 43 drivers trying to win the race, all eyes will be on where Edwards and Stewart are compared to each other.
The scenario for winning the title is pretty basic. If either driver wins the race, he wins the title. The other factors to throw in are the bonus point for leading a lap and the bonus point for leading the most laps. So, if Stewart does both of those and Edwards does not, and Stewart finishes one place ahead of Edwards, there would be a tie and Stewart would win the crown based on his four victories this year, to Edwards' one. Other than the bonus points, it's one point per place, so not too hard of math to do there.
At their press conference earlier this week, Stewart was clearly on the offensive and Edwards the defensive. Stewart even hinted that me might do a bump and run if that's what it takes to win the title.
While anything's possible, I don't really think Stewart wants to win the title that way. He was more planting a seed of doubt in Edwards' mind with that kind of statement.
Stewart didn't gain any points last week, but he's acting like he's the one with momentum and the one that's the underdog. That's a great way to relax his team and keep on the pursuit rather than defense. That's why I'm picking Stewart to win his third title this weekend.

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