This weekend’s Sprint Cup season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway marks the end of the road for NASCAR’s current race car and it could be the end of several drivers’ personal streaks too.
Beginning next season, redesigned models from Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota will make their debut. Despite going into Homestead with one of it drivers, Brad Keselowski, atop the standings, Dodge will make its last Cup start — for now anyway — as the manufacturer is not planning to compete next season.
Sunday’s race also offers Kurt Busch one final chance to keep alive his streak of winning at least one Cup race for 10 straight years, dating back to March of 2002, when he got his first Cup win at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch, who established that streak driving for powerhouse teams at Roush Fenway Racing and Penske Racing, now drives for Furniture Row Racing and is not considered a contender to win on Sunday.
Still he sees positives about his current ride.
“It would be nice to finish strong, but it’s not the end of the world,” Busch said in a team release. “I’ve seen enough so far to know that our Furniture Row Racing team will be going into the offseason with plenty of confidence.”
His younger brother Kyle Busch needs a victory in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race to extend his eight-year streak of winning at least one race each season.
Ryan Newman, historically one of the Cup circuit’s best qualifiers, needs to take a pole at Homestead to continue his 11-year run of at least one pole per season.
He got his first pole in 2001 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in his third career Cup start. Not working in his favor is the fact that Homestead is one of the few tracks where he’s never been the top qualifier. For the season, his best efforts have been a pair of outside poles at Daytona and Talladega, ironically two of the tracks where he’s never won a pole.
Two other drivers get one last chance to win with their current teams before moving to new rides.
Matt Kenseth, who been with Roush Fenway Racing for all of his 471 Cup starts (other than one as a fill-in for Bill Elliott at Dover in 1998), will run the No. 17 Ford for the final time before moving to Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota. And Joey Logano, who has been with Gibbs for all but two races of his Cup career, gets one last shot in the No. 20 before moving to Penske Racing and the No. 22 Ford.
Ragan, Front Row in talks: Unadilla's David Ragan appears set to return to Front Row Motorsports next season. Ragan, 26, moved to the No. 34 Ford at Front Row this season after losing his ride in the No. 6 Ford at Roush Fenway Racing.
Despite his team’s limited resources, Ragan has one top-five and two top-10 finishes this season with a best finish of fourth at Talladega Superspeedway. In his final season at Roush, he got his first and only Cup victory, coming in the July race at Daytona International Speedway.
“I think everyone worked really hard this year,” Ragan said in a team release. “We expected a little bit more, but now we can concentrate on working on what’s next. I’d like the opportunity to come back with Front Row Motorsports in 2013. We have had some discussions about that, but don’t have anything locked up just yet. I think those are the talks we have over the offseason, but I feel we’re all in this together.”
He said he sees plenty of room for improvement and believes great strides have been made already.
Labonte keeps JTG Daugherty ride: Veteran driver Bobby Labonte is set to stay put in the No. 47 Toyota at with JTG Daugherty Racing.
The 2000 Sprint Cup champion and 21-time winner heads to the season finale 23rd in the points standings with two top-10 finishes this year. His best finish is a ninth at Martinsville Speedway.
“We’ve come a long way,” he said. “We have some momentum on our side going into Homestead and the offseason.”
