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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Today ends what has been one of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s most frustrating seasons. Although he comes into today's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway 24th in the points, he's not ready for the season to end.

"I want to keep racing because I think we need more racing," he said. "We're not good as a team yet. We need to race more. We don't need to say, 'All right, let's get this year over with and get ready for next year.' "

"Hopefully, when we show up at Daytona that we've made the right calls."

HEAT OF THE MOMENT: Tony Stewart said his sharp criticism of Dale Earnhardt Jr. after Earnhardt's spin last weekend at Phoenix, which collected several cars, including Stewart, was a "heat of the moment" statement.

Stewart criticized Earnhardt's driving abilities while speaking on the radio to his team after the incident.

"Everybody knows when we are in the heat of the moment, it doesn't matter who it was, I would have said the same thing,'' Stewart said Saturday. "It was being upset because we are running for all the points we can get right now and we took a hit in the points last week because of the incident."

FREE AGENT MARKET: Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick will be among the top free agents after next season.

Harvick made his unhappiness about Richard Childress Racing's performance known earlier this season, as has Kahne.

"I used to try and stay in the loop (with management) and then things don't happen that they say will," Kahne said of Richard Petty Motorsports officials.

STREAKING: Greg Biffle enters today's race with a final chance to extend his streak of at least one win a season to seven. Homestead is a good place for Biffle's final stand. He's won three races at this track.

"It makes me hurt to think about how many we've come close to — running out of gas at Michigan, and stopping on the air hose at California &ellipses; there's been about four or five; Kansas, we took four tires instead of two and (Tony Stewart) beat us," he said.

DIVIDED LOYALTIES: Juan Pablo Montoya says one of his son's favorite drivers is Kyle Busch.

"If you go look by my motorhome, I just got an M&M hood that I'm going to put in his room," Montoya said. "I have to put a Target one as well. It's incredible. When Kyle drives the Nationwide car, he knows what car it is. When he drives a truck, he knows. It's kind of freaky."

KYLE WINS NATIONWIDE TITLE: Kyle Busch only needed the green flag to drop to win his first NASCAR title. His coronation was never in doubt and neither, really, was the outcome of the Nationwide Series finale.

Busch made it a double dose of celebration for Joe Gibbs Racing, wrapping up the series championship before turning a single lap Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"It's not easy to win in any division in this sport when you're racing against some of the best," Busch said. "It's a big deal."

Busch held off a hard-charging Carl Edwards to win the 300-mile race, a fitting ending because the two NASCAR stars finished 1-2 in the final standings.

He led a record 2,698 laps, had a record 11 second-place finishes, and finished 210 points ahead of Edwards.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com