NASCAR Championship Weekend

Ford Championship Weekend is the name given to the three races NASCAR runs during its last weekend of the season.

The weekend came to be after NASCAR decided to move all of its series' final races to Homestead-Miami Speedway after the 2002 season. Prior to that, only the NASCAR Busch Series ended its season at the racetrack, having run a 300-mile event there to end the season since 1995. The NASCAR Winston Cup Series had run its final race at Atlanta Motor Speedway since 1987 (save for 2001), and the Craftsman Truck Series had finished its season on the West Coast (alternating between Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Fontana) since its inception in 1995.

Ford Motor Company became the title sponsor for all three races, as well as the title sponsor for the race weekend.

The weekend starts on Friday, with the Ford 200 Truck race, then continues with the Ford 300 for the Busch cars on Saturday and concludes with the Ford 400, the last race in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup, on Sunday. After each race, a ceremony is conducted where the points leader in each series is given the trophy for winning the series (officially- if a driver has clinched their series championship prior to the weekend, like Kevin Harvick's 2006 Busch Series title or Matt Kenseth's 2003 Winston Cup Series title, an informal ceremony presenting the trophy is conducted during the post-race festivities).

Every race except one has resulted in the points leader going into the race retaining his points lead and winning the championship. The only time that failed to happen was in the 2003 Ford 200, where Truck Series points leader Brendan Gaughancrashed out of the race late and dropped three spots in the championship. Travis Kvapil won the championship.