The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford 400 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway is in a rain delay, which began at 4:45 p.m. ET on lap 109, with championship leader Carl Edwards also leading the race. Jeff Gordon stands second ahead of Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Tony Stewart.
As it stands now, Edwards leads Stewart by 12 points for the title, but that will change once the race restarts. Stewart's had an incredible first 109 laps prior to the red flag, while Edwards has dominated, with 87 laps led.
Stewart's race was compromised starting on lap 18 when he needed to pit to repair a hole in his grill, which was damaged. He fell to 40th, and 42 points behind. In less than 30 laps, Stewart had recovered to a top-20 running position, and by lap 100 he was up to sixth.
“I'd rather be where I'm at right now,” Stewart said. “We're fixing to wear him out. We have got a pretty good car. We just gotta hang in there. Were gonna make this interesting if we haven't already.
“The car is handling pretty good so far. I didn't realize we had such a big hole in the front. Our guys don't panic, don't freak out. We're fixing to keep delivering this whooping the rest of the day.”
Jimmie Johnson pulled into the pits just before the red flag, and said the team is looking to change spark plugs and perhaps the carburetor after apparent engine issues.
Two Roush Yates engines have suffered failures, one for David Ragan of Roush Fenway Racing and the other for Richard Petty Motorsports' Marcos Ambrose. Kurt Busch also had a rough start to the race with a broken transmission in the first 10 laps, and a subsequent display of the “one-finger salute” on the live telecast.