The heavily publicized closing weekend of NASCAR’s 2007 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway came off great for many and upsetting for a few. Ford Championship Weekend, as it was called, offered 900 miles of racing on a mile and a half oval with the Ford 200 (NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) on Friday, the Ford 300 Busch Series race on Saturday and Sunday’s Ford 400 for Nextel Cup cars. Collectively there were 55 Chevrolets, 31 Fords, 27 Dodges and 24 Toyotas counted in the garage area. On Friday, noted designer Chip Foose, who created Ford’s newest F-150 Pace Truck, got to drive it. This weekend was not only highlighted by the final race of Ricky Rudd’s 30-year career (906 starts), but the retirement from team ownership after 40 years at the track by Robert Yates, whose Ford machinery captured the 1999 championship. The Ford presence at the track, which reported a sellout Sunday, was pronounced as F-150 pickups towed elaborate UPS-sponsored spectator trailers through the big infield of the facility and around the spacious grounds, saving ladies and many men the trials and tribulations of hiking hither and yon. Watching it all were Ford’s head man for racing Dan Davis, and his new No. 1 aide-de-camp Doug Harvey, the new manager North American Racing Operations for Ford Technology.

The departure of Busch as a series sponsor came after 26 seasons, 803 races, 19 driver champions and more than $18 million in point fund contributions. In 1982, Dale Earnhardt won the very first Busch Series race at Daytona Int’l Speedway and on Saturday Chevy-driving Jeff Burton captured the Busch finale here. Carl Edwards won this year’s Busch driver championship at the wheel of the No. 60 Scott’s Ford, but the Richard Childress-owned No. 29 Chevy took the owner title, marking only the second time in series history that a “split” championship evolved.

Like numbers? Then you should know that the Toyota Tundra made its 100th Craftsman Truck Series start Friday after winning its second series manufacturer’s title in October at Martinsville Speedway. Friday’s Tundra triumph by Johnny Benson was the nameplate’s 38th victory in its 100th start. It was the finish of Friday’s truck race that left Kyle Busch fuming over what he felt was an unwarranted yellow flag that set up the last-lap whirl in which Benson passed for the lead and victory. Ron Hornaday, Jr.’s seventh-place finish provided his third Truck Series championship after point-leader Mike Skinner, who won the very first Truck race in 1995, fell out with hub troubles.

Saturday’s Ford 300 for the Busch gentry was a thriller with 13 lead changes among 10 drivers. Sunday’s Nextel Cup finale was anticlimatic with Matt Kenseth in his Roush Fenway Ford dominating.

The Jimmie Johnson-Jeff Gordon duel for the Nextel Cup was a Sunday breeze for Johnson, despite trailing Gordon most of the race. During pre-race activities presidential aspirant Rudy Giuliani got in his electoral licks. Part of the pre-race drill was naming David Ragan the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award winner in the Busch Series.

At Greg Biffle’s October wedding, fellow Roush Fenway driver Matt Kenseth was the best man…Road-racing drivers Max Papis, Cristiano da Matta and Nelson Phillipe were interested pit-lane spectators, but none said they were seeking NASCAR rides, “just visiting friends.”…Juan Pablo Montoya will have to do some chewing next season as sponsorship of his No. 42 Ganassi-Sabates Dodge will be divided between Wrigley’s chewing gum and Texaco-Havoline, each doing 38 races. Ganassi development driver Kevin Hamlin and his wife Mandi welcomed their first child, a girl, Monday of race week…A NASCAR-themed official State of Florida license plate was available all weekend long at the Florida Licensing On Wheels mobile station on raceway grounds…Jim Aust, VP Motorsports at Toyota Motor Sales USA, said he would “give our season a letter grade of B-minus,” indicating the Camry was some 14 races behind where he expected it to be, hoping for running in the top 15 by mid-season. Team driver A.J. Allmendinger’s season report card shows six starts, no wins, no poles, no top fives, no top 10s and no laps led, but $152,555 in winnings…The massive press coverage of this final race weekend brought out reporters who were totally unfamiliar with racing. One reporter asked Clint Bowyer if he was a leg man, “Or do you like white meat?” Response: “I’m a white meat guy.”…Jim Beam bourbon whiskey said it has renewed its backing of Robby Gordon for 2008, marking four straight years of sponsorship. Press room inhabitants were hand-served M&Ms candies and bottled water by attendants while Brian France spoke of the current status of NASCAR and took questions…FoMoCo upgraded its hospitality area, serving among other niceties — espresso. It was made known Sunday’s Ford 400 marked the last race for Chevy’s Monte Carlo SS. Chevy boasts of its 26 wins during the 36-race season, split evenly between its Impala SS and the Monte Carlo SS.

It looks like the Int’l Speedway Corp., the publicly traded NASCAR-affiliated entity that owns, or has a financial interest in 12 major speedways (Daytona, Talladega etc.), will get back most of the $110.4 million it paid for the Staten Island, N.Y., property it acquired for a raceway that was never built. The 676-acre parcel is being acquired by Maryland real estate trust ProLogic for a reported $100 million. ISC’s desire for a major speedway within sight of the New York City skyline prevails, but it appears the only possible site for such a track is at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

Old-time sprint-car owner Art Peacock is in need of encouragement. He’s currently in the Morris Rehab Center. Cards will reach him at 1338 Clay St., Morris, Ill. Peacock, who is 84, attended 94 races this season, and often sleeps in the back of his Cadillac while attending races. Feel better, Art.

It’s legal now. Not long ago retired racing great Junior Johnson, now 76, arrived in Dawsonville, Ga., driving a 1940 Ford (similar to what he used to use to transport the family’s home-brewed product) for the 40th annual Mountain Moonshine Festival. He made it a business trip, introducing Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon Carolina Moonshine, a legal 80-proof version of the family booze now being produced by Piedmont Distillers in Madison, N.C. Johnson learned the ins and outs of high-speed driving on the rural dirt roads around his Carolina home delivering the family product while outrunning pursuing police. In 1956 — his second year in NASCAR — he finally got caught stoking the family still and spent 11 months in an Ohio prison. Junior received a pardon from President Ronald Reagan in December of 1986. These days Junior’s personal appearances are no longer at race tracks, but at liquor stores promoting his new “in bottles” product.

Sad news arrived of the death of long-time sprint-car owner Stanley Shoff. Shoff was 78 and owned cars driven by Jeff Gordon and Frankie Kerr, among others.