“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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“We are excited about this change on both fronts,” car owner Jack Roush said. “Pairing two highly successful veterans like Carl and Jimmy should be quite a matchup and it is our expectation based on what Jimmy has been able to accomplish with many high profile drivers, that it will provide the spark to get the No. 99 program and Carl back into championship form; however, we are particularly excited about teaming up Scott Graves and Ricky. Through his extensive research and development work, Scott has an excellent understanding of the new 2013 body style. In his short time as a crew chief he has demonstrated a cunning knack as a leader on the pit box and he is going to be a great match for Ricky as he makes his move upwards into the Sprint Cup ranks.”

Fennig has been a part of 36 Cup wins in his 800 starts as a crew chief in the series. He is a longtime Roush Fenway Racing employee. Fennig guided Kurt Busch to the 2004 Cup championship while Busch was with RFR. Other Roush drivers for which Fennig has served as crew chief include Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth.

In 2012, Fennig has been the crew chief on the No. 17 team with Kenseth as driver. Kenseth will leave Roush Fenway at the end of the year to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2013.

Graves is still relatively new as a crew chief at the national level, but he found success quickly. In his first race as a crew chief, he led Carl Edwards to a Nationwide win earlier this season at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. According to a press release from Roush Fenway, a major reason for the selection of Graves to be Stenhouse’s crew chief for his first season at the Sprint Cup level in 2013 was Grave’s knowledge of the 2013 car.

The Sprint Cup Series will move to new cars next season, and Graves has played a big road in the research and development of the 2013 Ford Fusion entry.

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