NASCAR sputters toward checkered flag on troubled season

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR's season of doom and gloom sputters toward the checkered flag with a stout championship field but the inability to distance itself from everything that's gone wrong in this trying year.

Martin Truex Jr.'s team is closing after the race because his primary sponsor is leaving the sport. Kevin Harvick's team was caught cheating then justified using an illegal spoiler because other teams were doing it first.

Fans hope the four championship-contending cars are legal but won't know for sure until the cars have been inspected, long after the champagne celebration is over, because the culture of cheating in NASCAR lingers.