NASCAR Cup Series

Top owners bring title experience

Published Nov. 17, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

Larry McReynolds

All three of our owners who have a shot at the title Sunday in Homestead already have experience in winning NASCAR Sprint Cup championships.

I am blown away by how close this whole thing has stayed. I don’t want to seem like I am cutting Kevin Harvick out of the picture, but with only one race to go and sitting 46 points behind, he’s going to need both Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson to have problems for him to be a player.

Still, my hope is that the championship comes down to the three guys deciding it on the last lap Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

For team owner Joe Gibbs, this would be his fourth championship. The really cool part is that it means all three of his cars — the Nos. 11, 18 and 20 — would have a championship. Naturally, the No. 20 team has won two with Tony Stewart behind the wheel. The No. 18 team won the championship in 2000 with Bobby Labonte as its driver. So for Hamlin and the No. 11 team to bring home the championship would be a big deal.

Now over at Hendrick Motorsports, let’s face it, it’s been an off year. Team owner Rick Hendrick has four teams, but only one of them has won races this year. Even though Jeff Gordon and his team are in the Chase, they still haven’t won this year. Mark Martin’s team is way off from where they were a year ago. Unfortunately, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team looks to be getting worse instead of better.

But you just have to know that everyone over there wants to put five consecutive championships together because it will be a part of history that probably never will be repeated.

I have told many people I am not sure we will ever see it in our lifetime, that feat duplicated of winning five in a row.

Now, I worked for Richard Childress at one point in my career, and the man has six Sprint Cup championships, obviously with Dale Earnhardt. It has been 16 years since Richard has enjoyed a Cup championship.

You have to think Richard believes this has to be his best shot of bringing home the title since way back in 1994 with Dale. Now, how fitting would it be for Richard Childress Racing to be celebrated as the champions all next year with it being the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt losing his life at Daytona? I am not sure Hollywood could write a script that good.

Setting my personal ties to Richard Childress aside, I still believe it would be awesome for his team to win the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. His No. 29 car will get the first garage stall all year long in 2011 if he wins. His No. 29 hauler would get the No. 1 parking spot all year long. I just think the symbolism would be very healthy for our sport as we honor the 10th anniversary of Dale’s passing. Also, from a personal side, you just have to know what the tying of the two together would mean to Richard and his wife.

Aside from that, I do not have a favorite among the three teams. All I want is for it to go down to those final laps Sunday afternoon. Any of those three drivers will represent our sport extremely well.