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Joey Meier’s tenure as Brad Keselowski’s spotter ends

By Daniel McFadinNov 19, 2018, 1:54 PM EST

Joey Meier announced on Twitter Monday that his time as spotter on Brad Keselowski‘s No. 2 Ford has come to an end after Sunday’s season finale.

Meier has spotted for Keselowski since 2006.

“Ive (sic) been told my time as the 2 Car spotter has come to the checkered flag,” Meier said in the Twitter post. “I will miss spotting but there will be more Chapters in my life as I continue to be a pilot.”

After he won at Talladega in 2016, Keselowski called Meier an “all-star” for his work as a spotter.

“His communication, his way of kind of verbalizing what he sees, is the key for me to be able to make the right moves on the racetrack,” Keselowski said. “It’s a good 1‑2 punch … He’s been part of three of the four Talladega wins, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

Keselowski would win at Talladega again in 2017.

Keselowski won three times in 2018 and finished the season eighth in the standings.

Thank you!! pic.twitter.com/GLQ4nEYUoa

— Joey Meier (@2Spotter) November 19, 2018

Brad Keselowski: Late-race incident with Daniel Suarez ‘a racing deal’

NBCSN

By Daniel McFadinNov 19, 2018, 12:28 PM EST

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Brad Keselowski took to Twitter late Sunday to dismiss the notion that a late-race incident with Daniel Suarez in the Cup season finale was an intentional act to help teammate Joey Logano win the championship.

The incident occurred with 20 laps to go when Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, David Ragan and Suarez were four-wide entering Turn 1.

Ragan was beneath Keselowski when he got loose and washed up into him, who then made contact with Suarez.

That sent Suarez into a slide, which cut a tire and put enough debris on the track to create a caution.

A chain reaction sends Daniel Suarez spinning, completely changing this championship race.

Less than 20 to go on NBC. Stream here: https://t.co/3p5NjkleVX pic.twitter.com/4udiP8kAmE

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 18, 2018

After the field pitted, Logano was third on the final restart with 15 laps to go. Three laps later he took the lead from Martin Truex Jr.

“Just a racing deal,” Keselowski said on Twitter. “@ClintBowyer and I were racing hard for position with 5th place points battle on the line.

“We Came up on 2 lap cars and neither of us 4 gave an inch. Hate that it caused a yellow but the racing was legit.”

The Team Penske driver added that he thought he had “screwed the 22 team” as a result of the incident and benefitted Kyle Busch, who led the race after not making a green flag pit stop.

Keselowski went on to finish fifth.

Truex finished second in a failed attempt to defend his 2017 title. His No. 78 Toyota lacked the short-run speed needed over the final run.

His fortunes were the opposite from 2017 when he capitalized on a late caution that involved Suarez and won the title.

“(Suarez) brought the caution out last year which won us the championship,” Truex’s crew chief Cole Pearn said after the race. “This year it cost us the championship. You’ve got to be good, but you’ve got to have a bit of luck. At the end of the day, it just didn’t quite shake out.”

Honestly- at the time I thought it screwed the 22 team. Knew the 18 hadn’t pitted and this would put them in the lead…

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) November 19, 2018

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2018 Cup season by the numbers

By Daniel McFadinNov 19, 2018, 8:00 AM EST

Results, stats for the Cup race at Miami

By Dan BeaverNov 18, 2018, 7:22 PM EST

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Joey Logano won the Ford 400 and 2018 championship by a margin of 1.725 seconds over Martin Truex Jr.

Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch finished third and fourth respectively, giving the Championship 4 a sweep of the top spots.

Logano’s Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.

Matt Kenseth finished sixth to earn his second consecutive top 10 after finishing seventh last week at Phoenix (his first top 10 of the season).

The next four spots were taken by former playoff contenders. Chase Elliott finished seventh, Clint Bowyer finished eighth, Aric Almirola finished ninth and Kurt Busch.

Click here for complete results

Dominant season doesn’t end in title for Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick

By Dustin LongNov 18, 2018, 7:10 PM EST

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — In a season where Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick combined to win nearly half the races, they weren’t good enough to beat Joey Logano for the Cup championship Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“It’s all for naught,” Busch said of a season where he tied his career-high with eight wins and had career highs in top fives (22) and top 10s (28). “We won eight races, that’s great, but forget about it now.”

Busch struggled with an ill-handling car and spotty pit work at times that forced crew chief Adam Stevens to make a gamble on staying out late, hoping for a caution.

When the team got it, Busch kept the lead off pit road but had nothing on the restart and fell back, finishing fourth.

“I don’t know what happened to it,” Busch said of his car’s handling. “I thought we were way better than that. We wouldn’t have unloaded today if we thought we were that far off.

“Adam gave a great call for strategy there. I didn’t think it was going to work. I thought we were going to finish about 12th of 13th and the pit stop fell in our lap. I didn’t get the best of restarts, but it didn’t matter, they were gone.”

Harvick won a career-high eight races, tied his career best with 23 top-five finishes and had a career-high 29 top 10s.

“It’s been a great year and we just got beat tonight,” said Harvick, who ran without suspended crew chief Rodney Childers on the pit box for the second consecutive week.

He struggled with his car at times during the 267-lap race before finishing third.

“Good in the day and not good enough at night” is how Harvick described his race.

Harvick led 58 laps – most of those before the sun set.

“As soon as it got dark we never could get our car tightened up there at the end,” Harvick said. “Then they made a great call to put us in position to win the race, and then the caution came out when (Brad Keselowski) spun (Daniel Suarez) out and came off pit road fourth, and just our strong point was not the restarts tonight, and wound up on the wrong side of it.”