Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.
Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The following suggestions are Ken‘s picks to watch before this Sunday‘s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Out with the old and in with the new.
The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series season saw a playoff system implemented, pushing away the long-tenured season-long points format to decide a champion.
The new format saw drivers chase a playoff berth through the first 26 races of the season before the points reset for the playoff drivers. The drivers were separated by new five-point increments, which set up the season finale at Homestead to be one to remember.
Homestead saw five drivers eligible to potentially capture the Cup Series title, highlighted by points leader Kurt Busch.
Busch held an 18-point advantage over Jimmie Johnson, who was three points ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin were both within reach of their first championship as well.
The weekend couldn‘t have got off to a better start for Busch, as he put his No. 97 car on the pole for the race. Most of the other contenders were not as lucky.
Gordon and Martin both qualified inside the first six rows, while Earnhardt Jr. started 16th. Johnson had the toughest time, if he wanted to capture his first title, he‘d have to do it from the 39th starting position.
As much as it seemed Busch had full control of the driver’s seat, it all looked like it disappeared just as fast. He lost the right-front wheel of his car early on and barely missed destroying his car in the process.
He managed to stay on the lead lap and eventually made his way back up front before coming home with a fifth-place finish.
The rest of the field needed to rely on the others in front of them having trouble but a strong run from Johnson set up a late-race battle for the title between Busch and himself.
Busch‘s fifth-place finish allowed him to keep an eight-point gap on Johnson and secure him the championship.
Gordon came home third, Martin was 11th and Earnhardt Jr. was 23rd, making them third, fourth and fifth in the final standings respectively.
As for the race itself, second-year driver Greg Biffle, a former Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series champion, broke through for the third win of his career. This capped off a memorable day for Jack Roush, as Biffle was a teammate to the newly crowned champion.
Lightning struck at the start of the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and sparked a magical run for Tony Stewart.
Stewart, in his third season driving for his own Cup Series organization, struggled mightily throughout the first half of the season.
He sat 12th in the season standings with zero wins following the 17th race of the season.
The next few weeks saw Stewart slightly turn a corner, despite still not contending for wins like his usual self. He racked up a second-place finish at New Hampshire, a sixth at Indianapolis and ended the regular season with back-to-back top-10 finishes.
Where there is smoke, there usually are flames and that was just the case when it came to Stewart in the playoffs.
He won the playoff opener at Chicago and backed that up with a victory at New Hampshire. Stewart went on to win at Martinsville and Texas while finishing third at Phoenix. This set Stewart up to battle for the title in the season finale at Homestead.
While Stewart turned on the dominance, Carl Edwards was Mr. Consistent. He led the points for 21 races throughout the season but only picked up one victory, which came in the third race of the season at Las Vegas.
Edwards put together a streak of 11 top-10 finishes over the final 12 races before Homestead. His only finish outside of the top-10 was an 11th at Talladega.
This left Edwards with a three-point advantage over Stewart heading into the finale.
The race went down as an instant classic, slightly resembling the iconic championship battle at Atlanta in 1992 that saw Alan Kulwicki capture the title over Bill Elliott.
Edwards did just about everything he could to win himself his first title. The points leader won the pole, led the most laps and finished second.
Unfortunately for Edwards, the two drivers seemed to be magnets throughout the event. They each took turns leading the field throughout the night, while the other driver lay closely behind.
When the checkered flag waved, it was Stewart taking the checkered flag and Edwards coming in second. This left both drivers with 2403 points but Stewart‘s five victories served as a tiebreaker handing the title to Stewart yet again.
The 2016 championship-deciding race at Homestead looked like it was shaping up to be one to remember and that is exactly what it was.
Four drivers chased a dream of hoisting the NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy. Defending series champion Kyle Busch, six-time champion Jimmie Johnson and a pair of drivers Joey Logano and Carl Edwards, who were looking for their first.
The other underlying storyline of the race was the final start of a three-time champion, Tony Stewart, who was hanging up his helmet following the race.
Kevin Harvick, who was not a part of the Championship 4 since its inception in 2014, put his No. 4 car on the pole for the race. The title contenders found themselves deeper in the field. Busch and Edwards started alongside of each other in ninth and tenth, while Logano and Johnson started next to each other two rows back.
As day turned to night, the action on the track picked up. The fourth caution flag of the day came out with more than 60 laps remaining, resetting the field. It came out again with 15 laps left, as all of the drivers eyed the title.
It didn‘t take long for the caution to come out again, which set up a restart that would change the course of the record books forever.
Logano got a run on the restart but Edwards dipped low to attempt to hold the advantage but the two made heavy contact, kicking off a multi-car incident, relegating Edwards to a 34th-place finish.
Johnson passed Kyle Larson on the final restart to capture his record-tying seventh Cup Series championship, joining the ranks of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty as seven-time champions.
Logano managed to finish fourth despite the contact with Edwards, while Busch finished sixth.
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