Praise given to those who deserve it in 2009
These are just one man’s opinions, but here are kudos offered to drivers and teams that accomplished much or performed beyond expectations in 2009:
Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team – I’m not sure enough can be said about what Johnson accomplished in 2009. He won a record-setting fourth consecutive Cup championship built largely on a brilliant performance in The Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Chad Knaus is the only crew chief in NASCAR history to win four straight titles. While championships are won by the efforts of everyone on a team, Knaus’ skill, savvy and leadership have become pillars for the No. 48 team. His relationship with Johnson certainly helps, too.
Hendrick is the first team in NASCAR to put three teams among the top three in the final point standings. It is easily the team of the year and, in Johnson, it has the driver of the year.
Mark Martin and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team – No more need be said about Hendrick other than to say it helped Martin have one of the best seasons of his long career. He won five times in 2009.
Only toward the tail end of the season did Martin lose his chance to win his first career title. He wound up second to Johnson and it was the fifth time Martin had been a runnerup to the champion.
To come so close to a title so many times could be frustrating for many drivers, but not Martin. He said all season long he was having fun, enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, and constantly expressed his gratitude to his team.
And, at 50, he proved that age doesn’t always mean an athlete’s best years are behind him. Fact is, Martin is looking forward to much more. Where he once mulled retirement he’ll be back with Hendrick in 2010.
No matter what happens he’s very likely to remain his classy self.
Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Stewart Haas Racing – Now, we all know that where it once was in vogue, being a driver-owner has long since been declared destined to fail.
Stewart, Newman and Stewart Haas certainly did not fail in 2009. While Newman did not win, first-year owner Stewart was victorious four times. Both of them quickly settled among the top 12 in points and stayed there. Stewart wound up sixth and Newman ninth.
Stewart must be given due credit for beating the odds, but recognition should also be given to Hendrick – again – which served as his technical partner and Competition
Director Bobby Hutchens. He came over from Richard Childress Racing and helped build a championship caliber team.
After a solid 2009 season it will be interesting to see what Stewart and his guys do in 2010.
Juan Pablo Montoya and the No. 42 EGR team – When Dale Earnhardt Inc., merged with Chip Ganassi Racing to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, I daresay no one expected the results Montoya achieved.
DEI had fallen on hard times, at least competitively, and it was much the same for Ganassi. Mergers are a new phenomenon created mostly by the sour economy and, at least for the most part, positive results have been rare.
But not with Montoya at EGR. In his third full year in NASCAR he accomplished what he set out to do, which was to make the Chase, and he did so comfortably.
Montoya started out as one of the Chase’s most competitive drivers but fell off at the end to wind up eighth in points. He has yet to win on an oval track. His lone career victory came on the road course at Infineon two years ago.
He had the field covered in the Brickyard 400 at Indy but it got away from him after he was nabbed for speeding on pit road.
Virtually no one could have predicted Montoya would do what he did in 2009. He’ll be talking championship in 2010.
Marcos Ambrose and the JTG-Daugherty Racing team – Ambrose, the two-time Australian V-8 Supercar champion competing in his first full Cup season with a start-up team, was written off. No one, and I mean no one, expected anything out of either.
But Ambrose did surprisingly well, with four finishes among the top five, seven among the top 10 and a final 18th-place standing in points.
Doesn’t sound great, but given the circumstances, it was fairly remarkable. Ambrose finished ahead of Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and David Ragan among several others with far more notable teams.
Ambrose has a delightful personality. He’s humorous and self-deprecating. He’s a media and sponsor dream.
More than that he showed he belongs in NASCAR. He still has some ground to cover but, at the least, to be in the Chase next year is a possibility.
Kyle Busch - He didn’t make the Chase. But he won four races. He won the Nationwide Series championship with nine victories.
He won seven times on the Craftsman Truck Series.
That’s 20 wins in a single season on NASCAR’s top three series.
It doesn’t get a lot better than that.
If Johnson had not accomplished what he had Busch gets the nod as the driver of the year.
