FORT WORTH, Texas — The championship math had already done most of its talking before the green flag ever waved at Texas Motor Speedway. Trevor McManus arrived at the season finale carrying a 65-point advantage, leaving everyone else to fight over pride, position, and one last chance to put their name on a trophy. Roy Schwalbach took that invitation personally.

Schwalbach started third, led a race-high 79 of 167 laps, won Stage 1, and took the lead for good from McManus on lap 152. From there, the number 5 Toyota Supra stayed out front through the finish, giving Schwalbach his first victory of the season and a 47-point night. It was not a runaway, but it was the kind of patient, late-race execution that Texas tends to reward.

Morgan Anadell supplied plenty of opposition early and through the middle of the race. Starting second, Anadell led 44 laps, won Stage 2, and posted the fastest lap of the night at 29.962 seconds on lap 102. He eventually finished sixth after collecting 10 incident points, but for much of the evening he looked like the driver most capable of keeping Schwalbach from owning the finale.

Benjamin Dyer put together the biggest charge of the race. He started ninth, finished second, led eight laps, and picked up 35 points. The climb from ninth to second was the biggest move in the field, and Dyer even spent time out front on two separate occasions. It was not especially tidy — his 15 incident points were the highest total of the night — but nobody gives style points for coming from the back.

Stephen Carroll quietly delivered one of his best finishes of the season, advancing from seventh to third with just five incident points. McManus followed in fourth after starting from the pole and leading 31 laps. The champion’s night was considerably rougher than the finishing position suggests, with 14 incident points tied for second-most in the field, but he still brought the car home inside the top five.

“The #59 Chevrolet Camaro had enough speed to race for it,” McManus said. “We just spent too much of the night cleaning up our own messes. At least the championship trophy was already packed.” The result capped a season in which McManus won five races and finished every start inside the top 10.

Sam Luebbers finished fifth after starting fourth, collecting 10 incident points in the process. He never led a lap but scored in Stage 1 and ended the season second in the final standings snapshot. Benjamin Myrick finished seventh after leading five laps, while Brian Schwalbach came home eighth, one lap down, with 10 incidents.

The field did not wait long to start leaning on each other. Dyer picked up contact on lap 8, then again on lap 26 with Aiden Coleman involved. The lap-40 sequence brought contact for Dyer, Myrick, and Luebbers, while another round of trouble around laps 93 through 100 collected Selby, Coleman, Brian Schwalbach, McManus, and Dyer. Texas gave everybody plenty of room, and several drivers still managed to use the same piece of it.

Coleman’s first start ended in 11th after 105 laps, with 14 incident points matching McManus for second-most in the field. “The #72 Chevrolet Camaro wasn’t bad,” Coleman said. “But every time we got settled in, somebody found us or we found somebody else. I think we introduced ourselves to half the field before halfway.”

The official count showed five cautions for 15 laps and 11 lead changes. McManus, Schwalbach, Anadell, Dyer, and Myrick all led at various points. The decisive sequence came late: Anadell gave way to Schwalbach on lap 126, McManus took over on lap 133, and Schwalbach returned the favor on lap 152. That final pass settled the race.

Schwalbach’s victory also moved him two positions in the final standings snapshot, from eighth to sixth. Dyer climbed to fifth, Carroll moved to ninth, and Luebbers ended up second behind McManus. The final standings snapshot leaves McManus atop the table with 378 points, 62 ahead of Luebbers, with Dylan Vose third and Anadell fourth.

And with that, Season 4 is done. Texas gave the league one final bit of drama even after the championship question had mostly been answered. McManus leaves with the title, Schwalbach leaves with the last trophy, and everybody else leaves with a winter’s worth of excuses, setup notes, and stories about the one race that got away. That seems about right for a season of serious racing and not-too-serious people.