HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Tony Stewart nearly wrote off his season during a summer slump, then dismissed his chances at the beginning of NASCAR’s championship chase.

Then something suddenly changed – with his cars, with his attitude, with his driving – and old Smoke was back.

With a vengeance.

Stewart thrust himself early into title contention, then never let up as he drove all over the competition and chased down Carl Edwards. He seized his third championship Sunday night with a powerful and relentless drive that will go down with the greatest in NASCAR history.

He won at Homestead-Miami Speedway, holding off Edwards for a tie in the final Sprint Cup Series standings – good enough to win the title based on his five victories. All of Stewart’s wins came in the Chase, and Edwards’ lone victory this season was in March. It was the first tie in the points standings in NASCAR history.

How good was Stewart, who drove from the back – twice! – and passed 118 cars during the race?

“I think Tony drove the best race of his life,” said A.J. Foyt, Stewart’s childhood idol.

The compliment nearly brought Stewart to tears.

“Not many people can hear your lifelong hero say that. Just really, really flattering,” Stewart said.

“I feel like I passed half the state of Florida; 118 cars is a lot of cars to pass in one race. To do it under the circumstances and pressure we had, I’m very, very proud of that. I can’t even remember how many races I’ve won, but I would have to say under this set of circumstances I’ve got to believe one of the greatest races of my career.”

Stewart became the first owner-driver to win the championship since the late Alan Kulwicki in 1992, and the driver to end Jimmie Johnson’s record five-year title run. His last title was in 2005, the year before Johnson’s began his reign.

Stewart overcame a hole in the grille of his Chevrolet, a rain delay, used debatable fuel strategy and made aggressive passes that stunned racing veterans to win Sunday. He’s been driving that way for at least a month, buoyed in part by a race-winning pass of Johnson on the outside at Martinsville that gave him his third Chase victory.

“He’s been the one to go three- and four-wide when everyone else is scared and lifts,” said crew chief Darian Grubb, who was told in the middle of the Chase he was being let go at the end of the season because the Stewart-Haas Racing team wasn’t performing. His status is now uncertain.

Edwards, who started the race with a three-point lead, did everything he could from the minute he arrived in Florida. His Roush-Fenway Racing team put his Ford on the pole, he led a race-high 119 of the 267 laps and still finished a helpless second.

Edwards had a 4.9 average finish over the 10 Chase races.

Stewart was moving through the field from his 15th starting spot when caution came out 14 laps into the race. His Stewart-Haas Racing crew discovered a hole in his grille, and the repairs dropped him to 40th in the field.

Stewart then blew by car after car and was up to 23rd in a matter of minutes. Another caution sent him into the pits for more repairs, and he restarted in 32nd.

After more rain forced NASCAR to stop the field for 75 minutes, Stewart used several three- and four-wide passes to close in on Edwards. Then Grubb made an unusual call to keep Stewart out on the track until he was just about out of gas. It was risky , but it worked perfectly when the rain came moments after Stewart stopped for gas.

It gave Stewart breathing room as he was able to save gas under yellow. He was fourth on the final restart, Edwards was sixth, and Stewart used a three-wide pass over Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and AJ Allmendinger to reclaim the lead.