The season-ending Ford 400 will once again decide the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship, as Carl Edwards leads Tony Stewart by a mere three points. That's it, no season-ending heroics by Jimmie Johnson, just Edwards versus Stewart. Johnson's Sprint Cup reign came to an end last week, as he finished 14th, thus ending his bid for a sixth straight series championship. After race four of the Chase, Johnson was just four points back, but back-to-back 34th and 26th-place finishes did him in. With just a three-point separation between them, Edwards and Stewart are the only drivers who remain in championship contention. Edwards has held the points lead in each Chase race since Kansas, but Stewart has turned the title fight into a thriller after winning at Martinsville and Texas and then finishing third at Phoenix. Edwards should have the upper hand heading into the finale. Not only is he the defending race winner, but he owns series-best numbers in top fives (18) and top 10s (25). At Homestead, Edwards has been dominating as well, with two wins, four top fives and six top 10s in seven starts. In fact, he owns the top average finish (5.7). Stewart has had wonderful success also in South Florida with two wins of his own, three top fives and six top 10s in 12 starts. His two wins came in the first two race at Homestead, in 1999 and 2000. Although he didn't win the race last year, Johnson did capture the Sprint Cup championship for the fifth straight season. Johnson entered the 400-mile race at Homestead 15 points behind Denny Hamlin. He became the first driver in the seven-year history of the championship Chase to overcome a points deficit going into the season-finale. Just two drivers had overcome a points deficit in the last race of the season to win the championship since NASCAR revised its points system in 1975. Richard Petty accomplished the feat in 1979, and Alan Kulwicki turned the trick in 1992. Johnson has yet to win at Homestead, but has scored seven top-10 finishes in 10 races there, including a second last year, a fifth-place finish in 2009, a seventh-place finish in 2007 and a ninth-place run in the 2006 event. In 2005, Johnson came to Homestead second in the Chase standings, 52 points behind Tony Stewart, but he crashed midway through the race and finished 40th. He ended the '05 season 127 points behind champion Stewart in fifth-place. In 2009, Denny Hamlin raced to victory, defeating Jeff Burton by 2.632 seconds for his eighth career Sprint Cup victory and fourth of that season. Starting from the 38th position, Hamlin moved his way up and finally claimed the lead with just 45 laps remaining and held on to finish fifth on the final points list. With his fifth-place finish, Jimmie Johnson clinched his fourth consecutive championship. Carl Edwards dominated the race in 2008, leading five times for a race-high 157 laps, as he defeated Kevin Harvick by 7.548 seconds for his 16th career Sprint title. Despite his ninth win of 2008, Edwards placed second behind Johnson in the "Chase." In 2007, Matt Kenseth snapped Greg Biffle's three-year stranglehold on this race, as he led a whopping 214 laps en route to his 16th career Sprint Cup title. Kurt Busch finished second, just 0.852 of a second behind, while pole sitter Johnson placed seventh. Greg Biffle captured his third consecutive Ford 400 in 2006, as he crossed the finish line just under one second ahead of Martin Truex Jr. The victory was the second of the 2006 season and the 11th of 16 career titles. Groundbreaking for Homestead-Miami Dade Motorsports Complex, as the track was originally named, began August 24, 1993. The first race was a Nationwide Series race on Nov. 5, 1995. The original configuration was a four-turn, rectangular oval based on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's layout. The first Truck Series race at Homestead was in 1996. In the summer of 1997, a reconfiguration project changed the turns from a quad-oval to a traditional, continuous-turn oval. The first Sprint Cup race at Homestead was held on Nov. 14, 1999. The track was reconfigured prior to the 2003 race. The banking in the turns was changed to a graduated tri-level culminating in a 20-degree banking on the outer level. Lights were also added for night racing. There have been nine different pole winners, led by Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne with two each. The race has been won from the pole twice: Bill Elliott (2001) and Kurt Busch (2002). In addition, the race has been won from a top-10 starting position nine of 12 times. Hamlin's win in 2009 from the 38th starting position, is the furthest back a race winner has started at Homestead. There have been eight different race winners, led by Greg Biffle with three. The 2012 Sprint Cup Series begins February 26 at Daytona International Speedway with the 54th running of the Daytona 500. Trevor Bayne won the series season-opener this year.