By Zane Miller
First round
(8) #17 Matt Kenseth v. (1) #20 Tony Stewart
(7) #19 Jeremy Mayfield v. (2) #16 Greg Biffle
(6) #97 Kurt Busch v. (3) #2 Rusty Wallace
(5) #6 Mark Martin v. (4) #48 Jimmie Johnson
The playoffs once again got underway at Dover, which turned out to be great news for Jimmie Johnson as he took his third career race win at the Monster Mile. Mark Martin also put up a solid effort in fourth, but it would not be enough to catch up to Johnson. Meanwhile, Matt Kenseth was looking good going into the final round of green flag pit stops, but, before he could make it down pit road, a tire went down forcing him to bounce hard off the wall. With Kenseth now out of contention, all Tony Stewart needed was an 18th-place finish to take the early lead. Kenseth’s teammate in Greg Biffle also appeared to be in control after leading a handful of laps early on, but faded late to end up 13th while competitor Jeremy Mayfield nabbed a solid seventh-place run. Kurt Busch had the dominant car in the field, leading nearly half of the event, but Kenseth’s crash during green flag stops also trapped teammate Busch a lap down in the process. Busch could only recover up to 23rd, while three-time champ Rusty Wallace kicked off his final playoff run before retirement with an impressive third-place finish.
At Talladega, the series between Johnson and Martin would be over before the first round of pit stops, as Martin would be caught up in a nasty multi-car wreck which saw Michael Waltrip take a tumble down the turn two banking. Johnson finished 31st after also getting involved in another major incident later on, though this proved inconsequential as Martin was unable to return to the track. In the same accident as Johnson, Wallace received significant damage which dropped him to 25th in the final running order, while Busch survived a single car spin of his own to finish eighth. Biffle was another driver who was involved in the melee affecting Johnson and Wallace, as he lost multiple laps during repairs. The Biff took the 27th spot, while Mayfield’s Dodge was one of the only playoff cars to get out of Talladega unscathed, settling for 14th to advance to the semifinal round. The most appealing battle of the day occurred between Kenseth and Stewart, as both drivers were up front all afternoon with each leading a large chunk of laps. With two laps to go, Kenseth and Stewart were running one-two with both the race win and the series win on the line. Seeing his opportunity coming to the white flag, Stewart ducked underneath Kenseth to hold the bottom lane, though the sudden move allowed Dale Jarrett to make it three-wide into turn one. Down the backstretch, Stewart had just enough momentum to get back out in front of Kenseth, when the caution came out for an accident behind the main pack. This enabled Jarrett to take the final race win of his Cup career, although Stewart gladly claimed the runner-up spot to advance to the semifinals.
The only series up for grabs at Kansas was the Busch-Wallace bout, though Wallace began at an instant disadvantage thanks to a 33rd-place starting spot. Still, after the team hit on adjustments throughout the day, Wallace started cutting his way through the field, while Busch struggled to maintain contact with the top-10. Once the checkered flag fell, Wallace was ahead in seventh as Busch could only manage a 14th-place run.
Semifinal
(7) #19 Jeremy Mayfield v. (1) #20 Tony Stewart
(4) #48 Jimmie Johnson v. (3) #2 Rusty Wallace
The opening semifinal race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway was marred by numerous blown tires as a result of a new “diamond-grinding” process performed on the racing surface in an effort to reduce bumps. This caused the tires to wear out far quicker than normal, but the turn of events did not rain on Johnson’s parade as he got by Joe Nemechek for the lead with 13 laps to go and held on for the race win at his sponsor’s track. Wallace struggled to keep up with his competitor in the closing laps and also went for a late spin, eventually finishing a disappointing 24th. Stewart would also be done in by an accident, as he blew a right-rear tire from the lead just past the race’s halfway point and slid into the outside wall. Mayfield avoided major incident and finished 11th, while the battered Chevy of Stewart wound up eight laps down in 25th.
As Martinsville, Stewart could not afford any more slip-ups, and proved early on that he was one of the cars to beat with almost 200 laps led in the first half alone. Although the orange #20 eventually finished in the runner-up spot, this would be more than enough to push the series to Atlanta with Mayfield floundering in 28th, three laps down.
Despite previously winning at Martinsville seven times, Wallace had a difficult afternoon at the Paper Clip. His third-place starting spot did not turn out to be an accurate representation of how he would run as he took 19th, while Johnson was well ahead in third to lock up his spot in the finals. The conclusion to the Mayfield-Stewart series ended up being just as anticlimactic, after Mayfield went to the garage with mechanical problems just 45 laps into the event. He would return to the track nearly 100 laps down in case of Stewart running into an issue, but such an issue never came as Stewart cruised to a ninth-place finish to face Johnson in the finals.
Final
(4) #48 Jimmie Johnson v. (1) #20 Tony Stewart
For the first time, the finals kicked off at Texas Motor Speedway, where it would be an intense battle right from the get-go between the two home improvement store-sponsored drivers. Both Johnson and Stewart took brief turns at the front while staying inside the top-10, but a final caution with 15 laps to go brought the frontrunners down pit road. Johnson went with a four-tire stop while Stewart tried to stay in front with two tires, leaving Johnson with a significant deficit to make up. However, with just three laps to go, Johnson ran down Stewart in fifth. With much older tires than his counterpart, Stewart was no match as Johnson got by for the fifth spot, forcing Smoke to trail behind in sixth.
With his back against the wall once again, Stewart and crew would need an extraordinary effort at Phoenix to keep his chance at a second title alive. Johnson captured another top-10 with a seventh-place run, but failed to close out the championship as Stewart made it home in fourth, meaning the Cup Series title would be decided at Homestead for the fourth consecutive year.
Johnson would be starting the championship race deep in the field, though Stewart did not qualify much better in 20th. While Stewart slowly but surely began making his way towards the front, Johnson was still mired in traffic with little progress being made. On lap 127, however, Johnson’s rough night got worse as he spun and backed into the turn three outside wall. Just like that, the pride of Rushville, Indiana, had scored his second career Cup championship, completing the rest of the event as a formality in 15th.
Tony Stewart’s stats for 2005 included five victories, 17 top-fives and 25 top-10s, taking the real-life championship as well.
2005 Cup Series standings in real life: https://scorum.com/en-us/nascar/@zmiller82/2005-nascar-cup-series-season-recap
Comments