By BEN TROUT

Ya just gotta love those rare sports moments. You know… the ones that separate themselves from all others. In short, the ones you’ll remember for years to come. The ones, that in all probability, you’ll talk about to your grandkids one day.

 

The stick and ball sports easily produce a long historic line of grand games, fantastic finishes, cardiac comebacks and true drama.

In NASCAR, on track thrills are no doubt provided each week, February through November. However in this sport that we all love so well, those truly captivating moments seem to be scattered over longer periods of time.

But we sure as heck got one on Sunday when Tony Stewart battled it out with Carl Edwards to dramatically capture his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship.

No need for a play-by-play recap here. You know it. You watched it unfold. You listened to it. You lived it.

From pre-race until the victory lane celebration, this race not only held the attention of NASCAR die-hards, it snared the attention of the stick and ball fans, the casual motorsports observers and even those who do not follow NASCAR at all.

With periodic rain delays, Mother Nature made sure she extended (and intensified) the drama throughout Sunday evening and into the night. Stewart boldly made everyone’s ears perk up when, during a rain-prompted red flag proclaimed, “We’re fixin’ to wear him out.”

With Stewart being pinned as deep as 40^th at one point and repetitively working his way back toward the front, I… you… we… watched.

You can’t help but to turn back to Stewart’s late summer comments when he questioned… or perhaps challenged his team’s ability to respectively compete in The Chase.

It may have been a “Mission Impossible” for many. But it wasn’t for Tony Stewart and his Stewart-Haas Racing team.

We got an Ali-Frazier on Sunday folks. We saw a John Elway “drive”. We viewed a Jack Nicklaus ’86 Masters.

Wow, what a way to end the season.

Congrats Tony, and thanks to both Stewart and Carl Edwards for providing us with a race and a championship battle that will long be remembered.