“I knew we had a great race car to begin the weekend,” Gordon said in victory lane. “At times, I didn’t think we had a winning car, but we played the strategy perfectly.”

Brad Keselowski, meanwhile, celebrated a 15th-place race finish — a 15th-place finish that garnered himself and his No. 2 Penske Racing team the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title. The championship is the first for Keselowsk, crew chief Paul Wolfe and car owner Roger Penske.

“We were not as fast as we wanted to be. I’ll be the first to admit that,” Keselowski said. “But this team never gave up.”

Keselowski headed into the race with a 20-point cushion on second-place Jimmie Johnson. A 15th or better finish would guarantee the championship for the No. 2 team, even if Johnson led the most laps and won the race. Johnson led a few laps here and there, but his day began to go south during a green flag pit cycle that began with about 70 laps to go in the 267-lap race. A lug nut was left off on Johnson’s stop, so he had to make an extra trip down pit road.

Things did look like they were going to work themselves out for Johnson and his No. 48 team when it was determined that Johnson waited long enough in the cycle to pit that he’d be able to go the remaining distance with just one stop. Many others, including Keselowski, were going to have to make two.

But Johnson’s race went from bad to worse when he fell off the pace with 41 laps remaining. He headed down pit road and then to the garage to fix a rear end issue.

“Pretty heartbreaking, you know,” Johnson said. “We were doing what we needed to do. That’s racing; it happens.”

Johnson not only missed out on a sixth championship, he also gave up the second spot in points to Clint Bowyer, who finished the race in second.

Kyle Busch dominated much of the event, and in the late going, Martin Truex looked to be his strongest competition for the win, but both drivers had to make a late-race stop for fuel in the final laps, handing the top-two spots over to Gordon and Bowyer.

Ryan Newman finished third, Busch was fourth, and Greg Biffle finished fifth. Truex wound up sixth, Aric Almirola was seventh, Kevin Harvick eighth, Kurt Busch ninth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-10.

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“That was a strong race car there,” Smith said in victory lane. “I’m excited about driving them next year. Hopefully, that’s a statement.”

While Smith was celebrating a race win, several other drivers/teams had other things to celebrate. After finishing sixth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. claimed his second-straight series driver’s championship, making him only the sixth driver in Nationwide Series history to win back-to-back titles.

“It’s really neat,” Stenhouse said. “These guys behind me are what do it all the time.”

Joey Logano’s 16th-place race finish was good enough to give Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 team the owner’s championship, on the strength of nine wins from Logano throughout the year.

Austin Dillon finished third in points in his first full year of the season, en route to rookie of the year honors. Dillon finished Saturday’s race in the fifth spot.

“It was a great year,” Dillon said. “I can’t say enough about my team. We’re basically a rookie team.”

Dillon just missed finishing out the year second in points by one point to Richard Childress teammate Elliott Sadler, who finished the race ninth.

Finishing the race in second was Kyle Busch, Brendan Gaughan was third, and Sam Hornish finished fourth. The top-five race finish secured the fourth spot in the season-ending points standings for Hornish behind Stenhouse, Sadler and Dillon.

With a 12th-place race finish, Michael Annett beat out Justin Allgaier in a tight battle for the fifth and final points position to be recognized at the series awards banquet on Monday night.

Finishing the race seventh through 10th were Brian Scott, Ryan Blaney, Sadler and Cole Whitt.

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