Motorsports media from around the world have voted Tony Stewart’s victory in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard as NASCAR’s top story of the 2005 season, via several weeks of on-line voting on NASCAR’s media site. Stewart also produced the season’s third-best story, according to the vote – his capturing the NEXTEL Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway, in the season’s final race. In between those Stewart stories, at No. 2, was Carl Edwards’ March weekend sweep of both the Busch Series race and the NEXTEL Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1-2 punch that propelled Edwards into championship contention in both series. Media members were given a list of 10 stories and asked to rank that list. Ten points were awarded for a first-place vote, nine for a second-place vote, etc. The Stewart win at Indy accumulated a total of 873 points, 560 coming from 56 first-place votes. Edwards’ sweep added up to 679. (A total of 99 media members participated.) Following are the rest of the top 10 stories, according to the final vote tally.
No. 4 – Greg Biffle finishing second in NEXTEL Cup points, and having the most series wins. No. 5 – Jeff Gordon winning the Daytona 500 for the third time. No. 6 – The Busch Series hosting its historic first race in Mexico City. No. 7 – Ted Musgrave winning his first Craftsman Truck Series championship and becoming the oldest national series champion in NASCAR history. No. 8 – Martin Truex Jr. repeating as Busch Serie champion. No. 9 – Raybestos Rookie of the Year Kyle Busch winning two NEXTEL Cup events. No. 10 – Kasey Kahne finally getting his elusive first NEXTEL Cup victory at Richmond in May. (NASCAR)(12-31-2005)
