Media Selects Jimmie Johnson
Members of the media ranked the top highlights of the 2008 NASCAR season on NASCARMedia.com. More than 180 votes were cast online between Dec. 1 and Dec. 8. Each highlight received 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, eight points for a third-place vote, etc. down to one point for 10th.
Johnson’s championship run garnered 75 first-place votes and finished with 1,727 points. Johnson joined Cale Yarborough as the only other driver to win three straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles. Kyle Busch winning a combined 21 races in all three national series – NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – earned 13 first-place votes and finished second with 1,574 points.
Tony Stewart’s announcement that he would be leaving Joe Gibbs Racing to become owner/driver of Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009 was voted the third top highlight of the year. Stewart concluded a 10-year stint at JGR, where he won two series championships and picked up 33 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
Carl Edwards winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series high nine races and finishing runner-up in both that series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series was named the fourth top moment. Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon’s streak of 14 consecutive seasons of winning a race coming to a close was voted the fifth top story.
The rest of the top 10 highlights of 2008, according to the media, are: Ryan Newman winning his – and car owner Roger Penske’s – first Daytona 500 in the 50th running of the “Great American Race;" Johnny Benson edging Ron Hornaday Jr. to win the second-closest truck series championship; Dale Earnhardt Jr., in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports, snapping a 76-race winless streak by winning on Father’s Day at Michigan International Speedway; Clint Bowyer winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series title; and 18-year-old Joey Logano, competing in 19 NASCAR Nationwide events and winning the race at Kentucky Speedway.