NASCAR Daily News Headlines * November 16, 2008

Johnson Clinches Third Consecutive Championship

The New York Yankees were the last Major League Baseball team to win three straight, from 1998-2000. The Los Angeles Lakers were the most recent NBA team to do it, from 2000-02. The last NFL team to win three consecutive championships was the Green Bay Packers (1965-67). -- Like other championship-winning greats, Johnson once again thrived in playoff pressure. During this season’s 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Johnson had three wins, six top fives, eight top 10s, an average finish of 5.7 and a Driver Rating of 116.2.

Car owner Rick Hendrick tried to shake off the thought of dynasty talk. "I'm not a Yankee fan. It's like a lot of other things, said Hendrick. "I'm flattered that the Yankees are compared. I guess that's winning and a team that's always supposed to be there. I think the difference in our organization than the Yankees is we've grown our guys. And Chad's a guy that worked on the 24. He told Ray one day that I want your job. And he had to leave for a bit and come back. Jimmie, just like Jeff came in kind of unknown soldier and he really proved his worth. He and Chad together, and Jeff and Ray together.

"I'm flattered that any time we're compared to any football team, baseball team, anyone that's won multiple championships. I do think when you win one and win two, it breeds a lot of competition inside the company, and everybody wants to win. But I think having everybody on the same page really helps. It motivates us. I know that Jimmie winning is going to motivate the other three. But it's also motivated Carl Edwards because I shook his hand tonight, and he said, "It's going to be different next year" or something like that. So nothing motivates you anymore going to New York and sitting in the audience. But, hopefully, we can do this a lot of times, you know, more times. Love to see us get over 10 and win over 200 races. Hopefully we can get that done. But I still don't like the Yankees that much."

Regan Smith became the first Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the 52-year history of the program without a DNF (did not finish). He was running at the finish in all 34 starts he made this season. The year-end payout for 2008 Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is $75,000, the same amount Darrell Waltrip earned from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for his 1982 Cup series championship. Smith will earn a grand total of $91,500 from Raybestos brand Brakes for his efforts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this season. This is the first Raybestos Rookie of the Year title for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Smith led or shared the lead in Raybestos Rookie standings in the 26 of the 36 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season. Smith scored a 34th-place finish in Sunday's race and captured Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the 11th time in 2008.

"You know, there were a lot of big names that I was racing against and you look at the stuff at the beginning of the year, not very many people had me chartered as one of ‘em that was going to contend for Raybestos Rookie of the Year championship," Smith said. "So definitely had a little bit of a chip on the shoulder about that and wanted to go out there and prove that there is still a good ol’ stock car path and NASCAR path to get to this series. I feel like we did that to a certain extent. Obviously there were weeks I wanted to run better and there was weeks where we ran good and didn’t get what we deserved or ran good and got what we deserved. All in all, I'm very proud to win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. You look at the names that are on there and some good names to be included with. At the end of the day you can’t change that. It’s going to be there forever.”
For Top-40 Sprint Cup Points...     (Insider Racing News)

Edwards Wins Ford 400

“I’m sure glad we won today’s race because it will make it a little bit easier to deal with the off-season and coming so close to that championship<" said Edwards "We ran really well this season and it’s something I wanted to make sure my guys understood is they did their jobs. They did a great job and there were two races where we lost points. One was my mistake and one was a complete coincidence or freak accident with the ignition system, so my guys performed well enough to win a championship this season, and considering how well Jimmie performed, I don’t think that’s a small feat. So tonight was a lot of fun. I’m glad that we won the race so that we can go into the off-season knowing we won more races than anyone else in this series. I think that’s a big accomplishment, especially considering how well Jimmie and Kyle both ran all season, so that feels good and knowing how well we ran. That gives me a lot of confidence for next season, so it was a good weekend. Second in both series is not first, but it’s definitely not something to be ashamed of. I’m proud of what we did this year.”

The last time a Ford driver won nine NSCS races in a season was when Richard Petty did it in 1969 and the most NSCS races won by a Ford driver in the modern era is 11 by Bill Elliott in 1985. Edwards is only the seventh driver in Ford Racing history to win at least 9 NSCS races in season. The others are: Ned Jarrett and David Pearson (twice each), Dick Hutcherson, Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, and Bill Elliott.

Kevin Harvick was closing in on Edwards in the waning laps but he too was conserving fuel and had nothing for Edwards, finishing second. Jamie McMurray solidly took the third spot and a relieved Jeff Gordon, finished fourth. "I have to thank my guys on this DuPont Chevrolet team for an awesome year," said Gordon. "It wasn't from lack of effort that we didn't win any races or be more competitive in the championship. I am still proud of everything that they did and a great top-five here today. Coming from 37th, I couldn't be more proud of all my guys. We showed what we are made of and we are not going to give up. We didn't win a race this year, but I am really excited about 2009. We have got a lot of great things happening. I have to thank Clint Bowyer. I have had more fun racing him this year for whatever, fifth, sixth, seventh in points. He is just a great racer and a good guy. I am proud of him for winning that Nationwide championship. We had a lot of fun out there racing today."

Clint Bowyer finished fifth while Kasey Kahne was sixth followed by Travis Kvapil, Casey Mears (in his final run for Hendrick Motorsports) Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr. to round out the top ten. This concluded 36 races of the 36 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule for 2008 -- the next race will be at Daytona International Speedway on February 15th, 2009.
For Full Final Race Results...     (Insider Racing News)

Edwards Wins Race, Bowyer Is Champion

CIA Stock Photo Bowyer Congratulated By Crew

Edwards, who won his seventh race of the season and the 20th of his career was so close to a second consecutive title and it slipped through his fingers. "One of the neatest things about this series and about the championship is that it is different from the Cup Series in that it is all season," Edwards said. "It is not tonight that determined this championship. We will be back next year and I hope Clint comes back and races with us, that would be fun. The great thing is I think we have a lot to look forward to. We have a great team both here and on the Cup side. There is no shame in giving a hundred-percent effort and finishing second. That was the best we could do."

Kyle Busch was attempting to set a new race win record in the series, but Edwards denied him the opportunity. He is currently tied at ten wins with former driver Sam Ard. Busch settled for second this time. “This sounds a lot like our year tonight -- coming up short," said Busch. "We had a great race car there and the guys did an awesome job. We unloaded behind and we fought behind all weekend. The 60 (Carl Edwards) was real fast and real strong and we just came up a little short. There’s a piece of damage on the front end of the car and I don’t know if that was the culprit or not, but I got so tight at the end that I couldn’t even steer through the corners.”

Brad Keselowski, driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third in the race and in the points battle. Keselowski was in championship contention a few races ago but fell out. What went wrong? -- "There are multiple things, you know, California was really mean to us, really mean to us," said Keselowski. "We lost 220, 230 points at California alone. Both California (races) and both Richmond (races) kind of stunk. You just can't have bad finishes. I felt like if you look at our stats this year, you know, and our performance, we've been just as competitive, if not more than Clint has, but Clint has just done such a great job of executing at the end of the day, and so has his team, not having any failures and all that. Quite honestly, my team did a great job, too, and just caught some bad breaks. That's racing. You know, you have to do more than do everything right, you have to have a little bit of luck. But there's probably room to improve all the way around, room for me to improve, room for the team to improve and room for the luck to improve, and we're just the tiniest bit off on each bit. I'm just a tiny bit off, the team is just a tiny bit off, the luck is just a tiny bit off, and if we can put all that together next year, we can go win it."

CIA Stock Photo Edwards Wins Seventh Race In 2008

Jason Leffler was fourth and Clint Bowyer was fifth. It’s just incredible,” Bowyer said. “I’m so excited for everybody." -- Scott Wimmer, in his last ride for Richard Childress, finished sixth. Denny Hamlin finished seventh followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelly Bires and rookie Joey Logano. JR Motorsports’ Landon Cassill was crowned as the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. -- Kenny Wallace started his 418th Nationwide race, breaking a tie with Tommy Houston for second on the all-time list. Wallace finished 33rd in the Ford 300.