It was an epic battle at the Homestead-Miami Speedway as Kevin Harvick finally nabbed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

It was a straight up race as Harvick moved his way against the three other drivers who was on his way in winning his first championship.

Harvick quickly increased his pace as he drove his car from the 12th to first over the final 15 laps gave Harvick the championship over Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano.

All of the four drivers were determined to win but Harvick remained ahead of them all. He said "If you want to win the championship, you're going to have to figure out how to win races. In the end, that's what it came down to, was winning the race to win the championship. It all worked out."

Joe Gibbs Racing had made a decision not to pit Hamlin. The decision resulted in him moving to second on the restart. Team Penske had planned to give Joey Logano four tires, but there was an issue with the jack which destroyed Logano's chances and he fell from sixth to 21st, which quickly ended his championship bid.

While Richard Childress Racing gave Ryan Newman two tires, and Harvick crew chief Rodney Childers made the risky call for four tires.

Harvick had restarted 12th with 15 laps to go and not much time to pick his way through traffic. As Hamlin passed leader Jeff Gordon on the restart, Harvick shot past four cars to move to seventh.

He lamented "The seas kind of parted down the backstretch and we were able to get three or four cars or six, I guess, or five. You've got a very short time to do it. You had all the championship guys show up at the front of the pack. I was just going to hold the pedal down and hope for the best."

Hamlin had troubles with his tires knowing that they were old. He commented "I loved our chances, but they weren't there at the end. Strategy is part of winning, and the strategy for us didn't work out with the cautions."