Edwards goes another year without a championship title

Tony Stewart's car racing around a track.
Credit to the Freewheeling Daredevil on Flickr.

In 2004, the Chase for the Championship was instituted to make the NASCAR Sprint Cup more interesting. It served its purpose as best as it could in the 2011 Sprint Cup Series. One of the most exciting Sprint Cup Series ended in a comeback from 9th place to 1st in just ten races.

To lose what could have been your first Championship win in a tiebreaker must be heartbreaking. Carl Edwards was in first place coming into the 2011 Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship. In the regular season, he had not won any races. In the Chase, he had only won one race. At the end of the Chase, he finished in second place, falling to 3-time champion Tony Stewart.

When the Chase started, Stewart was in 9th place and his chances of winning were slim. He had been repeatedly left out of the top three drivers in the 2011 predictions. It seemed like all odds were against him until he went on a two-race winning streak. After eight more races and two more first place wins, the itle came down to the last race.

Stewart won the race, followed by Edwards. “To do it [win the race] under the circumstances and pressure we had, I'm very, very proud of that. I can't even remember how many races I've won, but I would have to say under this set of circumstances I've got to believe one of the greatest races of my career,” says Stewart to ESPN. This had put them in a first place tie with 2,403 points each. The tiebreaker went to Stewart, who had five wins compared to Edwards' one win. 

Stewart and Edwards will not soon forget this race. Edwards had his first championship title stripped from him because of a tiebreaker. Stewart was able to come back from 9th place and claim his third championship title when even he didn’t think that he would win.