2005 will be remembered as the year that Tony Stewart won it all again but there were many great stories that defined the 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season. What were we talking about in 2005? Here are the top news stories from the 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup campaign.
2005 saw Tony Stewart win a convincing Championship. He was leading the points after the top ten were cut off for The Chase. He won the ten race Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. He would have won the Championship under the old point system too! 2005 was Tony's year and he did it without punching anyone! Congratulations to Tony on a great year both on and off the track.
How often does the defending NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Champion get suspended by his car owner for two races? After a scandal involving the local Phoenix police Jack Roush decided to end his relationship with Kurt Busch early. Kurt is the 2004 series Champ and was eighth in points when he was turned loose for the final two races of the season.
Carl Edwards scored the first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup win of his career in Atlanta in March of 2005. By the end of the year he had four wins and found himself losing a tie-breaker for second place in points. Carl is genuinely nice and his post-race backflips make him a favorite for many fans. 2005 is the year that Carl Edwards served notice that he will be a force in the sport.
Danica Patrick set the Indy Racing League (IRL) on it's head this year. As a rookie she has single-handedly put the IRL back in the spotlight. The 2005 Indianapolis 500 enjoyed a massive 40 percent spike in television ratings as a result of the incredible media spectacle surrounding this rookie. This summer media sensation sent NASCAR car owners searching for NASCAR's next great female driver.
The continuing story of 2005 was Rusty Wallace's retirement. Although he wasn't able to score a win in 2005 Rusty definitely went out on top. Rusty made The Chase and had 17 top ten finishes en route to an eighth place points finish. Rusty was constantly interviewed about how it felt to be running his last race at each track, given many awards and honors and the respect that he deserves for a great career. "Rusty's Last Call" as the season was called was a big story for 2005.
Kyle Busch won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year battle for 2005. Kyle, younger brother of 2004 Champion Kurt Busch, won two races this season for team owner Rick Hendrick and claimed the 2005 rookie honors. Kyle's September win in California made him the youngest winner in series history.
When Jamie McMurray and Kurt Busch announced their 2007 plans in the middle of 2005 it provided some unprecedented Silly Season fun. Chip Ganassi said that he wasn't going to let McMurray leave to take over Mark Martin's #6 and Roush wasn't going to let Kurt Busch leave to replace Rusty Wallace in the #2. It all worked out eventually but this story popped up repeatedly for weeks and weeks.
The last NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race before the Chase for the Cup ran at Richmond International Raceway. Entering the last race before the cutoff five drivers were battling for the two remaining Chase spots. Can you imagine a Chase for the NEXTEL Cup without anyone named Earnhardt or Gordon? Both popular drivers were victims of the 2005 Race to the Chase as neither qualified for the 2005 Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.
Robby Gordon and Michael Waltrip crashed at Loudon with Robby Gordon getting the worst of it while Michael continued on. When the cars came back around Robby attempted to hit Michael with his car. Waltrip was able to slip past without contact. Then Robby got out of his car and threw his helmet at Waltrip's car. Robby made the best of this embarrassing outburst as he auctioned the helmet on eBay for $51,100 and donated the proceeds to hurricane Katrina victims.
During the October Chase race at Lowes Motor Speedway NASCAR's stars were wrecking every 25 laps like clockwork. It seemed that the cars were going too fast and the tires were not able to dissipate the heat quickly enough. This lead to blistering which then lead to chunks of tire coming apart. Then the tire would completely fail and cause a wreck. This fiasco was a huge black eye for the sport as many were pointing fingers and looking for blame.
