Truex wins Cup Series championship

HOMESTEAD (AP) — Martin Truex Jr. clinched his first NASCAR Cup championship Sunday by winning the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
  
Truex edged fellow Toyota driver Kyle Busch in the 400-mile finale. Kevin Harvick (fourth) and Brad Keselowski (seventh) were the only other championship contenders in the field.
  
Truex won for the eighth time this year, continuing the most successful season of his journeyman career and giving Colorado-based Furniture Row Racing its first title.
  
The team excelled through adversity all season. Truex's longtime partner, Sherry Pollex, had a recurrence of ovarian cancer. A mechanic died of a heart attack the night before Truex's win last month at Kansas. And team owner Barney Visser is sidelined in Colorado Denver following emergency heart surgery a week ago.

Associated Press