OK, I know it’s not really a surprise. But for those you that were holding out for Mark Martin to get the job done (like I was) you were disappointed. And it really wasn’t that Martin couldn’t get the job done, it was more that as usual Jimmie just had a great race.

And don’t get me wrong, a huge congrats to Jimmie Johnson accomplishing this.

“I grew up on two wheels in the dirt,” the 34-year-old Californian said. “I had no clue I was going to end up here racing stock cars and doing something that had never been done before. To do something that’s never been done in the sport, and love the sport like I do and respect it like I do and the greats — Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon — to do something they have never done is so awesome.

And to win four championships in eight years, what this team has done — this is unbelievable.”

“I don’t know if we’ll win another championship,” he said. “I feel in my heart we’ll be competitive, but at some point in time, we won’t be that team.”

Johnson only needed to finish 25th or better in order to clinch NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Championship for the 4th consecutive time. He finished 5th locking up the Championship and finishing the year 141 points ahead of teammate Mark Martin and 179 points ahead of Jeff Gordon, his other teammate who finished in 3rd.

That’s right. As we suspected would be the case, Hendrick Motor Sports finished the year with the top 3 positions in points. That was not a locked in deal though. At times during the race Kurt Busch was sitting 3rd in points giving Jeff Gordon a run for his money. A late race call for Kurt Busch to only take 2 tires and Jeff Gordon getting up front sealed the deal for Gordon to land in 3rd.

Kurt Busch finished 4th and Jeff Gordon crossed the line 6th.

While this is Jimmie’s 4th consecutive Championship, this is the 5th time Mark Martin has finished 2nd in points.

“There’s no frustration, man,” said Martin, a half-hour after championship confetti again filled the air in someone else’s honor. “I know you’d love it. I know you’d love it. I know all y’all would love it. But there’s no frustration. There’s none. I’m very proud of what we accomplished.”

Personally I think and am pulling for Mark Martin to get his Championship!

Denny Hamlin was the winner last night at Homestead-Miami Speedway after having a great run in the Nationwide race the day before.

And don’t think Jimmie Johnson was just hanging back hoping for a good finish. He was 3 wide many times. Found himself in some very uncomfortable circumstances a couple times and generally ran a race that he normally would. He may have been able to win though, so he may have held back a little.

Other big excitement in the race included Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart going at it. You almost would have thought it was the “Brad And Denny Show” in the Nationwide Series. I have a attached a video for you to see it. But it looks like in the first incident Tony Slid up in front of Montoya. JPM must have thought he was cut off or something as he rammed into the back of Stewart. Stewart didn’t appreciate that, let JPM get along side of him and just like in a movie he turned the steering wheel left and banged into the side of JPM. This cut down JPM’s tire and sent him in the wall.

NASCAR warned them, or as you’ll hear the announcers say, they warned the crew chief’s that was the end of it. Apparently Juan Pablo Montoya didn’t get the word. When he returned to the track he went right for Tony Stewart and got him in about 10 laps. Ramming into the back of him and spinning him. In the process he kind of put himself back in the wall.

Stewart finished 22nd and wound up losing a spot in the standings, finishing his inaugural year as Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner in sixth.

POINT STANDINGS MOVEMENT
Only 3 of the top 12 changed their points position today. Tony Stewart lost one position to 6th and Juan Pablo Montoya lost 2 positions falling to 8th.

Positive points position goes to Denny Hamlin. His win yesterday let him gain 3 positions in the points up to 5th.

For the record. I love this stuff. I don’t necessarily like seeing the cars and drivers spinning and crashing. But the rough, take no BS attitudes the JPM, Stewart, Hamlin and Keselowski have taken this past weekend will earn me as a fan. And NASCAR needs to let it go and let it happen. I guarantee rating will start going up as well.

Joey Logano is your NASCAR Sprint Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year. Congrats to Joey and nothing against him, but I kept thinking all year that it would be nice to see a rookie step onto the scene and maybe not dominate, but really make a name for himself. I don’t think Joey did that. But I do think he deserves the NASCAR Sprint Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year award because he did make some good improvements as the year went on. And let’s face, that’s what being a rookie is all about.

“It was tough at times, believe me,” Logano said. “The media wasn’t saying the greatest things, but if anything it’s more motivating. You really want to keep pushing it and become a better race-car driver. I was getting a little self confidence out of the Nationwide car, which was helping me there and [I] just kept pushing it and trying to learn these race cars as much as I can.

“By no means I’m not there yet, but I feel like we made big steps. The second part is figure out how you want them to drive, what part of the corner you want to work on, what do you need to make these things go fast. Hopefully through the offseason here we can test a little bit and get some more seat time in these things and come better next year.”

Rick Hendrick was not able to attend yesterday’s great accomplishment due to his niece being in the hospital. A Hendrick spokesman says that Alesha Gainey is in critical condition at a North Carolina hospital awaiting an emergency liver transplant. She is the 29-year-old daughter of John Hendrick, one of the 10 people killed in a 2004 plane crash.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to her and the whole family.

FORD 400 UN-OFFICIAL RACE RESULTS

UN-OFFICIAL STANDINGS