Top 10 stories of the 2009 NASCAR season: Jimmie Johnson's fourth title leads the year

By SceneDaily Staff

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson celebrates one of his seven NASCAR Sprint Cup wins en route to his fourth consecutive championship this season.

Mark Sluder
NASCAR Scene

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- StumbleUpon
5 Comments

The 2009 NASCAR season featured some new winners and familiar champions.

Three NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers – Brad Keselowski, David Reutimann and Joey Logano – earned their first career victories while three Hendrick Motorsports teams took over the standings.

In the end, it was a record-setting year in all three series. Jimmie Johnson won his fourth consecutive championship, a new mark in the Cup ranks. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch set records en route to his first championship in a NASCAR touring series in the Nationwide Series. And Kevin Harvick Inc.’s Ron Hornaday won five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races in a row and a record-setting fourth title.

With so many storylines, which drivers and teams captured the imagination of fans and became the top stories? SceneDaily.com looks at the top 10 stories of 2009:

1. Jimmie Johnson wins fourth consecutive title: Hendrick Motorsports' Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus silenced all critics and moved among the sport's elite in winning their fourth consecutive NASCAR Cup title.

The two showcased what has become their standard Chase For The Sprint Cup form, becoming fairly invincible in the 10-race title-determining segment of the season. Johnson did endure a rare setback in this year's Chase when he was caught up in an early crash at Texas Motor Speedway. But with two more races to go, the 38th-place finish served only to delay the inevitable. Johnson won the next week at Phoenix, his fourth victory of the 2009 Chase, and finished fifth in the season finale to clinch the title.

He's the only driver to ever win four consecutive Cup titles and the fourth - behind seven-time champions Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt and fellow four-time champion Jeff Gordon - to reach that championship tally. And Johnson did so in dominating fashion. He won a series-leading seven races, earned a series-leading 24 top-10 finishes and a series-tying 16 top-five finishes to take the title by 141 points over teammate Mark Martin.

2. Mark Martin returns to full-time racing, and top form: In his first season with Hendrick Motorsports and his return to full-time Cup competition, Martin was not only a sentimental favorite to win the championship, but turned out to be Johnson's only valid contender for it.

After two seasons in which he shared rides with younger drivers and competed in a portion of the Cup races, the 50-year-old was lured back into full-time racing by team owner Rick Hendrick. Paired with crew chief Alan Gustafson, Martin endured some early setbacks but rallied his team later in the spring and put it in contention to make the Chase. His group showed increased consistency as Martin earned seven consecutive top-10s to make the Chase, then take the points lead in it.

He earned five wins for his first multiple victory season since 1999 and best since winning seven races in 1998 en route to his fifth runner-up finish in the standings. In the end, Martin offered nothing but praise to his team and the champion, a man he deemed Superman as he worked with him this season. Martin was also a piece of another record as Hendrick earned the top-three points positions, with Gordon in third, to become the first owner to do so.

3. Tony Stewart becomes a team co-owner/driver - and makes Chase: Many wondered why Stewart would leave his two-time championship winning Joe Gibbs Racing team to become a co-owner/driver for the newly formed Stewart-Haas Racing this season.

Stewart answered the critics with his performance on the track and his calm demeanor throughout the opening 26 races, a period in which he and new teammate Ryan Newman both moved into berths in the Chase. A team owner in other series, Stewart balanced running the organization with racing for it well. He never sat less than eighth in the standings and led the points for 13 weeks and until the points were reset when the Chase field was set.

Stewart won both the all-star non-points race and then four points-paying events driving for a team that battled to remain in the top 35 last season. He credited the group surrounding him, including competition director Bobby Hutchens and crew chiefs Darian Grubb and Tony Gibson with his quick success. Clearly it didn't hurt that he had an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports either, but Stewart managed to put together a competitive campaign in what many had predicted would be a season of struggle.

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. struggles through difficult season: The fourth piece of the Hendrick Motorsports puzzle didn't fare as well this season. Earnhardt Jr., the series seven-time fan-voted most popular driver, struggled early and often over the course of the year.

Hendrick changed his crew chief, replacing cousin Tony Eury Jr. with Lance McGrew in late May, but the team didn't gain any ground. Earnhardt Jr. admitted to the emotional toll of the season at Lowe's Motor Speedway in October, saying that, "It’s like really encouraging one day, and then the next day it’s equally discouraging, and that gets really old. I’m about to the end of my rope on it.”

He endured five DNFs over the course of the season and 23 finishes of 20th or worse. Earnhardt Jr. was winless on the year, earning five top-10 finishes, two of them top-fives, to finish a career-worst 25th in the standings. His struggles were closely followed by fans and media and team owner Rick Hendrick has vowed to make improving the No. 88 team's performance his top priority in the offseason.

5. Double-file restarts tightened racing after caution periods: NASCAR is often both questioned and criticized for rule changes, but this year it impressed fans and increased competition when it added double-file restarts among the leaders to the Cup series.

The rule, which required the leaders to line up side by side with the race leader choosing the inside or outside line following all caution periods, added a new level of competition to the final segments of races. It was enacted for the June race at Pocono Raceway - and went on to create some tight racing.

The double-file restarts made the road-course races some of the best of the season and ended the days when a late caution might tighten the field, but the leader could block the others behind lapped traffic. Now, multi-second leads evaporated and drivers found themselves once more battling for the lead and attempting to pull away following late restarts. For drivers, this sometimes offered frustration, but for fans it brought close racing back to the series and drew rave reviews from those watching the events.

6. NASCAR suspends Jeremy Mayfield; legal action ensues: NASCAR suspended driver/owner Mayfield for violation of the sport's substance-abuse policy in May, sparking a series of court filings and injunctions.

Mayfield was suspended for what NASCAR said was a May 1 positive test for methamphetamines. Mayfield, who has denied using methamphetamines, says that the test findings resulted from a combination of the prescription drug Adderall, which is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and over-the-counter Claritin-D allergy medicine. Mayfield was granted an injunction that would allow him to race at one point, but did not attempt to compete at the next event.

Since the original filings, both NASCAR and Mayfield have filed a series of documents, with NASCAR filing a counterclaim and then trying to have the case dismissed and Mayfield asking that the injunction allowing him to race be dropped and changing to high-profile attorney Mark Geragos. A trial, if there are no delays, is scheduled for September 2010.

7. Ron Hornaday makes history with his Kevin Harvick Inc. Truck team: Hornaday made history this season - and more than once.

Hornaday first reeled off five consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wins with crew chief Rick Ren, then went on to win a record-setting fourth title in the series. Hornaday joined Richard Petty and Bobby Allison, who both won five events in a row in 1971 in the NASCAR Cup series, in a tie for second on the all-time consecutive win list. Petty holds the all-time record with 10 straight in 1967 in the Cup series.

Hornaday then secured his fourth Truck title - and did so a week before the season ended in an unusually dominating run for the series. Hornaday, 51, earned six wins this season, posting 20 top-10 finishes, 15 of them top-fives, in 25 races. He won the title by 187 points over Matt Crafton. He is the series all-time race winner with 45 career victories. Ren left the team following the season to pursue management opportunities, according to KHI.

8. NASCAR's new-model car draws criticism, and praise: NASCAR's new-model car continued to be a topic of discussion, both in terms of the good and the bad.

On the positive side, the model was lauded for its safety advancements after a series of horrific crashes at Talladega Superspeedway. The Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Carl Edwards slammed into the catchfence after bouncing off Ryan Newman's car, showering debris into the stands in Talladega’s spring race. Edwards jumped out and raced across the finish line on foot. In the second race at the track, Newman's car went airborne, landed on Kevin Harvick's hood, slid across the track on its roof, flipped again and landed on the roof in the grass. It took some time to get Newman out, but he also avoided significant injury. Mark Martin also flipped in that race and the incidents drew renewed attention to the safety aspects of the car.

Beyond that, though, the performance of the car has been widely questioned and criticized, from teams to drivers to fans. Drivers find it difficult to pass in the car, something that has created single-file racing and allowed leaders to pull away to lengthy leads during long green-flag runs. Competitors want to see a more competitive car when trying to come through the field and seem to continually lobby for changes to the car. NASCAR officials held a series of town-hall style meetings with teams and the sanctioning body is considering possible changes to the car in the offseason.

9. The economy impacts race teams: The economy was obviously a national story, but the downturn impacted NASCAR as well. From the manufacturers to individual team sponsorships, organizations found themselves battling for a smaller pool of corporations.

General Motors went through a restructuring period this year and several sponsors, including Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam and DeWalt, announced plans to leave the sport at season's end. Several teams attempted to run the entire schedule without full sponsorship, some opting to park their cars before race's end in order to make enough money to keep competing and others running the full slate despite a lack of full funding. The economy will continue to have an impact in 2010 as Richard Childress Racing continues to seek funding for its fourth team and Robby Gordon Motorsports seeks sponsorship beyond the opening segment of the season for his veteran organization. Others are also looking to find sponsorship for coming races.

The economic downturn's harshest impact, though, was on the fans. As hundreds of thousands of people lost jobs this year, the sports landscape was impacted in terms of crowds. NASCAR was no different, with grandstands looking more empty than usual at a majority of the venues. Drivers tried to help by stepping up their involvement with fans, including Denny Hamlin, who gave away tickets to races. Several competitors also increased NASCAR’s presence in the social media sphere.

10. Kyle Busch dominates the NASCAR Nationwide Series: Joe Gibbs Racing's Busch won nine races and finished second 11 times in a stellar Nationwide performance. Although he missed the championship-determining field in the Cup series, he more than made up for that with his success in the Nationwide ranks.

Busch, 24, earned 30 top-10 finishes in 35 starts. While that figure was matched by runnerup Carl Edwards, no one could match the pace of Busch when it came to the top-two positions. Busch won the title, his first in a NASCAR national touring series, by 210 points. He earned a series-record 5,682 points and led 2,698 laps. His 11 second-place finishes were also a series record, though one that didn't necessarily please the fiery driver.

Still, Busch and his JGR team raised the standard for the series and showcased just how dominating both he and his organization can be when they are on top of their game. Busch is not expected to compete full time in the series next season, though he has indicated he would be willing to do so if he gets off to a strong start in the 2010 races he is scheduled to run.