Celebration now, uncertainty in future for Stewart's team

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/21/2011 - Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Stewart has won a lot of championships during his illustrious racing career, but winning his third Sprint Cup Series title in 2011 was unlike any other one that he has experienced.

It's celebration time for Stewart and his No.14 team...and a well deserved one for them after battling back from adversity earlier in the season. But what's forthcoming for the team is ambiguous, particularly with crew chief Darian Grubb.

What a race for Stewart on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and what a way to conclude his championship season.

Starting 15th and trailing leader Carl Edwards by just three points when the green flag waved for the 400-mile season-finale at Homestead, Stewart overcame numerous obstacles, especially in the early going when he ran over debris that damaged his front grille. He had to make two lengthy pit stops under caution for repairs and fell back to 40th.

But Stewart made an amazing comeback, passing a total of 118 cars throughout the race. He did a lot of his passing by going three and sometimes four wide after many restarts. Stewart last pitted with 56 laps remaining in a fuel and tire strategy. He held the third position during the eighth and final caution, but after the last restart with 37 laps to go, he quickly moved around Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch to take the lead for good.

"Man, I feel like I passed half the State of Florida; 118 cars is a lot of cars to pass in one race," Stewart said. "I don't care what series you're in or where you're at. To do it under the circumstances and the pressure that we had [Sunday], I'm very proud of that. I've been racing 31 years, and I can't even remember some of the races I've won. But I would have to say that under the circumstances, I've got to believe that this is definitely one of the greatest races of my life."

Stewart's win coupled with a second-place finish for Edwards at Homestead gave each driver a season-ending 2,403 points. In a tiebreaker, Stewart captured the title by virtue of his five wins this season -- all of them coming in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup -- compared to only one victory for Edwards, which came in March at Las Vegas.

When the Chase began on September 18 at Chicagoland Speedway, Stewart doubted whether or not he should have been in the playoffs after his team struggled during the summer months. Thanks to a third-place finish at Atlanta and then a seventh-place run in the season-ending race at Richmond, Stewart squeaked his way into the Chase, earning the tenth seed.

Stewart set a season-record of five Chase wins. His other victories came at Chicago, New Hampshire, Martinsville and Texas. Stewart had lost momentum in the Chase by finishing 25th at Dover and then 15th at Kansas, but he recovered nicely from there.

"When I said at Chicago that we didn't belong in this Chase and taking a space that somebody else that was doing a better job could have done, there were two things that could have happened with our group of guys," Stewart said. "They could have hung their heads and said that our guy doesn't believe in us, or they could do it, which is exactly what they did, and that's never give up, and they dug their heels in. They fought like the Bad News Bears.

"We were the team that nobody really thought had a shot at the beginning, and the longer this went, we battled adversity at Dover and Texas. and we just kept fighting."

Stewart's two other Sprint Cup championships came in 2002 and '05. He became the ninth different driver in 63-year history of NASCAR's premier series to win three or more titles. Stewart also became the first driver and owner to win the series championship since Alan Kulwicki did it in 1992.

Before he competed in NASCAR full-time, Stewart won the 1997 IndyCar championship. He also has several USAC titles to his credit.

When rain fell on the 1.5-mile South Florida track during his post-race championship celebration, Stewart received a surprise phone call from racing legend A.J. Foyt. Stewart's Chevrolet has the number 14 in honor of his childhood hero Foyt.

"To hear him say that was the best race he's ever seen me run, brings a tear to your eye," Stewart said. "Not many people can have their lifelong hero say that and hear you say that."

While Stewart will be honored as the Sprint Cup champion on December 2 in Las Vegas, Grubb's future with Stewart-Haas Racing is in doubt. Grubb was informed midway through the Chase that he would not be back with the team next season.

"I'm not sure what's going to happen," said Grubb, who became a first-time championship-winning crew chief in the series. "But I was told early in the Chase before Charlotte that next year I was not going to be here. We just kept fighting and doing everything we had to do every week. It did not change anything, what the outcome was going to be. We fought as if we were going to fight to win this championship and we did it, and now we'll just see in this coming week how things change."

Grubb worked for Hendrick Motorsports from 2001-08 prior to his arrival at Stewart's team. He has guided Stewart to 11 wins in the first three years of SHR's existence. Grubb is now exploring his options.

"I had a lot of conversations with a lot of people, telling them please give me the courtesy of waiting until [Sunday night] to see what we could accomplish," he said. "Now that we have done that, I guess we'll start talking, but we'll do a little celebrating first."

In June, Stewart made a key personnel change in his racing organization with competition director Bobby Hutchens being released from the team. Matt Borland took over the role in the interim.

So what's in store for the team in the near future?

"There's a lot of things in the off-season and decisions that have to be made," Stewart said. "Obviously, we wanted to get through this championship battle first, and we'll sit down as a group this week and figure out the direction of our program."

What ends up happening at Stewart's team will be interesting to follow during the off-season.

For the meantime, they're just enjoying the party.

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Elite 8 NCAA Tournament Betting at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com

In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.

Memphis vs. Ohio State

Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.

UCLA vs. Kansas

In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, UCLA will play in a role which they are very unfamiliar with that of the underdog. Only twice this season have they been getting points from the handicappers and both times they covered. Over the last three seasons UCLA is a reliable 23-7 ATS in this unfamiliar role. UCLA has not fared well against Big 12 opponents recently going 1-7 ATS since 1997. Giving up only 59.6 PPG, UCLA will definitely look to do what they do best: keep this game as low scoring as possible. Their defense has been especially tough during the tournament. UCLA opponents have been able to muster up only 48.7 PPG while shooting a combined 34.5% from the field. UCLA definitely has a challenge at hand with a Kansas team that is capable of putting points on the board in bunches. As a team, they average 79 PPG and shoot an impressive 49.6% from the field and 39.4% from beyond the arc. During the tournament Kansas has been “lights out” from the field having shot 56.2%.

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