Decisions were the key to Tony Stewart's title, and they almost put Carl Edwards in his shoes. Join us as we discuss those and the highs and lows from an epic NASCAR season finale.

HOT: That damn tropical rain, first reported three laps before, had returned to Homestead-Miami Speedway just in time to throw the most inopportune wrench in the makings of NASCAR's greatest season finale.

Drivers hollered over their in-car radios and track spotters increased their urgency. The track was quickly too wet for the 3,400-pound stock cars, the traction gone.

And so, on Lap 214 with just over 80 miles left in the Ford 400 and a narrow three points distancing championship contenders, the yellow lights flashed and the caution flag waved. Carl Edwards, one of the prizefighters, held the lead and stood to win the Sprint Cup championship if the rain didn't leave. Behind him, decidedly now thanks to a pit call to stretch fuel mileage while losing time, was Tony Stewart.

It was Stewart who had chased

Ice skating race cars? Judging driver reaction, that was the case on the repaved, reconfigured Phoenix over the weekend. Join us as we break down one title fight that stayed tight while another that loosened dramatically.

HOT: This week, NASCAR's championship week, is a great one for superlatives. The NASCAR title fight between Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards truly "comes down to one race" and is the closest, tightest scramble for the championship trophy that the sport has seen in 20 years.

The final race really is NASCAR's very own "Game 7 moment" — or just how NASCAR chairman Brian France wanted it when he announced the restructuring of the points system last January.

In fact, scoping 30 years back in NASCAR's history, just one fight to the finale was closer with one race left. That year was 1990 and it saw Dale Earnhardt lead Mark Martin by a mere six points heading to the season finale.

Earnhardt survived, winning his fourth of seven NASCAR Cup championships.

A mere three points

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage billed Sunday's race as a heavyweight bout between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart. And a funny thing happened: That's exactly what he got, with Stewart finishing first, Edwards second. Still, desipte four wins in the Chase, Stewart still trails Edwards. Should he?

NEUTRAL: This has been a bit of a touchy subject this week after Stewart recorded yet another win Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. Stewart, now with four wins in eight Chase races, still doesn't lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings.

The question is: should he?

Stewart, naturally, had his own opinion after the Texas win.

"I'm going to be real disappointed if people are trying to make a story out of a guy that's got four wins isn't leading the points," Stewart said. "It's about 10 weeks. You got to be good for 10 weeks."

Stewart, as it has played, has been pretty good for the first eight of those 10 weeks. His only derailments so far have been a 25th at Dover in the third race

The yellow flag waved a whole bunch at Martinsville, and the new, tighter points system is actually spreading apart the Chase more than last year. How? Jump in:

NEUTRAL: There's a lot to love about the point system NASCAR introduced for 2011. Chief among those is the simplicity, awarding one point for last place and sliding evenly to 43 for first (plus a three-point win bonus).

It's made life easier for fans looking to track how far back or ahead their driver is after races, and should prove quite interesting as the Chase runs its course over the next three races. It's already caused broadcasters to make the obvious and dubious assertion that the Chase is "closer than ever." You'll have that, of course, when the most points available at a single race are less than a third of the previous total.

But what should be noted is that NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup has more drivers facing higher hills to climb than they would have with the old point system. In other words, the cosmetic

Two-car drafts were the name of the game again for NASCAR's restrictor plate racing, but this time they had real Chase implications. How did the Chasers play it, and how well did it work? Jump in to find out:

NEUTRAL: A fundamental key of NASCAR restrictor plate racing since the device's introduction more than two decades ago has been survival. The reduced horsepower within the engine has produced racing in which drivers rarely earn separation thanks to the draft.

As a result, tactics unbecoming of true racing have become commonplace at NASCAR's two restricted tracks — Daytona and Talladega. Drivers would often opt to settle in at the back of the pack and away from the potential calamity of The Big One, or the large crash that so often defined the pack racing.

The tactic has worked, too. Several drivers have secured wins or high finishes thanks to working the back of the room for much of the race before surging to the front as the checkered flag was in sight. Jeff Gordon's 2007

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We'll make no bones about it: This was a dark, dark weekend for auto racing. But life continues on, and so must our analysis of the weekend that was for racing as a whole. But first, I'd like to pass along my most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon's tragic death after a crash in the early laps of Sunday's IndyCar season finale is still making news, as more and more mainstream media start to air their (often) misguided assertions for what IndyCar should and shouldn't do in its wake. Accusations that racing as a whole is too brash for its own good or is too cavalier in turning a blind eye to safety are patently false, however. This isn't a sport that thrives on making things dangerous, or thrives on drivers getting hurt. Those are the exact things that undermine it — a point known by everyone in and out of the garage.

Regardless, it's been a horrific set of days and hours since the incident as the racing world tries to come to grips with Wheldon

The rain didn't fall, the usual suspects won and we've eliminated a few contenders from the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Oh, and one guy without a championship hope is making strides. That and more, in this Midwest version of Hot/Not.

HOT: Kasey Kahne is proving that drivers don't need the motivation of the Chase to contend for wins, and it might just be the best way for him to make his offseason segue to Hendrick Motorsports.

Kahne finished runner-up to Jimmie Johnson Sunday for his second consecutive top-5 finish and fourth-straight quality outing. Inside the Chase, he's yet to finish outside of the top 15 — meaning if he would have qualified for the championship fight Kahne would be seventh in points, 17 points back of Edwards. That's better than his soon-to-be Hendrick teammates in Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-43 points) and Jeff Gordon (-47).

Kahne could have been even better had the fuel-mileage game at New Hamphshire worked in his favor. In Loudon, Kahne led 43 laps before pitting late.

The complainers got their wish, as finally a Sprint Cup Series event didn't finish under the uncertainty of fuel mileage at Dover. Oh, and the rain mostly held off for the second straight week. Let's celebrate, and dive in to the weekend that was.

HOT: If Carl Edwards was aiming to silently slip in to the Chase for the Sprint Cup points lead after three races, he's done a remarkable job. And if earning his first pit road speeding violation of the season was some mysterious way of throwing the rest of the field off of his scent, well, job well done.

OK, OK — that second part may be a stretch. But the first part is very real, as Edwards is now tied with Kevin Harvick for the lead of the 2011 championship fight with seven races to go. The upward swing for Edwards has come courtesy of a fourth-place finish at Chicagoland, an eighth at Loudon and a third last Sunday at Dover. In that span, Edwards has led 157 laps.

In other words, Edwards' start to his latest bid to win his first Sprint Cup