Johnson best when it matters - again

   It really shouldn't come as a surprise that Jimmie Johnson was the best when it mattered most again this season. Over the course of the 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup races, Johnson, who won a NASCAR-record fifth consecutive championship, scored the most points of any driver - 1,572. And remember, he entered the Chase with a slight deficit to Denny Hamlin, who was the No. 1 seed based on wins at the time.

   Also no surprise is that the drivers who finished the season second and third in the series standings - Hamlin and Kevin Harvick - also did well in the Chase. Harvick scored the second-most points and Hamlin third.

   But there were some surprises. Four drivers not in the Chase - Mark Martin, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman - ranked among the Top 10 in points scored over the final 10 races, with Martin the best among that group. He scored the fifth-most points in the final 10 races.

   Most points scored over the final ten races this season

   1. Jimmie Johnson 1572 points

   2. Kevin Harvick 1551
   3. Denny Hamlin 1523
   4. Carl Edwards 1393
   5. Mark Martin 1342
   6. Joey Logano 1307
   7. Matt Kenseth 1294
   8. Jamie McMurray 1275
   9. Greg Biffle 1237
   10. Ryan Newman 1223

   Note: For those who like to play the "what if" game. Had Clint Bowyer not received a 150-point penalty from NASCAR for his car failing inspection at the R&D Center following his win at New Hampshire, he would have ranked No. 7 with 1,305 points.

Who was watching the Chase

   Charlotte was the fifth largest TV market for ESPN/ABC during this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup, according to Nielsen Media Research. Nine of the 10 races were aired on ESPN (Charlotte's race in October was on ABC). Charlotte averaged a 6.5 rating for the 10 races, well above the national average of 2.5.

 

   Top 10 markets average rating for the 10 Chase races (US ratings)

   1. Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem - 8.4

   2. Knoxville - 7.5

   3. Greenville-Spartanburg, SC -- 7.2

   4. Birmingham -- 6.6

   5. Charlotte -- 6.5

   6. Dayton, Ohio -- 6.0

   7. Indianapolis -- 5.5

   8. Orlando/Daytona Beach -- 5.2

   9. Louisville -- 5.2

   10. Norfolk -- 5.0

 

   For it's own race in October, the Charlotte market had the highest rating in the country - a 9.3. In the other nine races, Charlotte was third once, fourth twice, fifth twice, sixth once, seventh once, eighth once and the lowest was 12th for the Kansas race.

 

   Charlotte had a rating of 8.9 for the season finale from Homestead, the second-best of the 10 Chase races behind the Charlotte race.

 

Is the NASCAR banquet over yet?

   I can't be certain myself, since I stopped watching, but I assume the Sprint Cup Series awards banquet is over by now. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

   Having attended many banquets in person, I can tell you a lot of very well-meaning and smart people do all they can to try to make the evening go as smoothly as possible in hopes of providing an entertaining and enjoyable night recognizing NASCAR's best performers of the season.

   And they fail every year.

   It's not their fault, though. The banquet is just a glorified dinner party. It's just not designed to be an entertaining event.

   Think of the all the business-related dinner parties you've attended. They all have fancy menus, strange-looking desserts. They generally feature some people trying to crack jokes in hopes of lightening the mood. The speeches you are actually there to hear turn out to be generally stale, non-controversial and read word-for-word from a script.

   That's basically the Cup awards banquet. Was it boring? Yes. Was it too long? Yes. But it was what it was - a glorified dinner party.

   Those who got disappointed or angered because it was not something more were simply working with unrealistic expectations. That's not the fault of the people televising the event; it's the fault of the event itself.

   Until the banquet becomes something filled with announcements or award winners that the NASCAR world does not know ahead of time, it's never going to be what some who watch wish it were.

   A different camera angle or different commentators isn't going to change the fact there is little at the banquet worthy of true entertainment.

   It's a high-dollar dinner party. Nothing more. Nothing less.

   And it's over. I think.


 

Is TV in love with Jimmie Johnson?

   Jimmie Johnson didn't just win a fifth consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship this season, he also dominated his competition in another way - in TV exposure.

   According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Assoc. Inc. - a sports and entertainment industry leader in measurement and evaluation of sponsorships and promotional programs - Johnson was interviewed an entire half-hour longer and mentioned 1,800 more times by the announcers than series runner-up Denny Hamlin throughout the course of the season.

   The research by Joyce Julius, which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast for the last 25 years, Johnson's name was mentioned 7,875 times during the 36 live event telecasts (and replays) of the 2010 season.  Johnson also appeared in a season-high 88 interview segments, which added up to over 1 1/2 hours of television time.

   Hamlin, by contrast, drew 6,072 announcer mentions and 56 interviews that totaled just over an hour of TV time. Hamlin won the most races this season and lead the Chase for the Cup going into the season's final race.

   According to the research, Kyle Busch was the third-most mentioned driver, Kevin Harvick was fourth and Jeff Gordon fifth.

   Year-End Top-20 Interview Results:

:

	Driver	Pnts	Intervws	Intervwew	Announcer
				Time	Mentions
1)	Johnson, J.	1	88	1:31:35	7,875
2)	Hamlin, D.	2	56	1:01:50	6,072
3)	Busch, Ky.	8	47	1:07:13	5,500
3)	Harvick, K.	3	47	0:55:00	5,346
5)	Gordon, J.	9	46	0:59:03	5,039
6)	Stewart, T.	7	40	0:39:29	3,957
7)	Busch, Ku.	11	38	0:35:32	3,114
8)	Bowyer, C.	10	36	0:36:08	3,482
8)	Edwards, C.	4	36	0:51:20	3,133
10)	Burton, J.	12	33	0:32:51	3,483
10)	McMurray, J.	14	33	0:49:44	2,899
12)	Kahne, K.	20	31	0:28:37	2,269
13)	Biffle, G.	6	30	0:30:06	3,357
14)	Logano, J.	16	27	0:26:59	1,982
15)	Earnhardt, Jr., D.	21	21	0:18:45	2,155
16)	Ambrose, M.	26	16	0:15:22	1,641
16)	Montoya, J.	17	16	0:08:57	3,343
18)	Newman, R.	15	15	0:14:24	1,966
19)	Kenseth, M.	5	14	0:10:43	2,601
19)	Keselowski, B.	25	14	0:12:44	1,143

　　

Ragan heads to Snowball fight in Fla.

  
   David Ragan, driver of Roush Fenway Racing's No. 6 Ford, begins his off-season from NASCAR racing by competing in the Snowball Derby, a 300-lap Super Late Model stock car race held annually at the 1/2-mile Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida the first weekend of December.

   Fellow Cup driver Kyle Busch won the event last season and many NASCAR veterans from Rusty Wallace to Darrell Waltrip have won the race in the past.

   "I have never been down there, and I have built a late model car over the last off-season just to go race around the Southeast and I thought, ‘Heck, let’s go down here and run it,’ ” Ragan said.

   Ragan said he has no illusions of going down to the Derby and winning just because he's a Cup driver, but he does enjoy another opportunity for competition.

   "The first Cup off weekend in December there is usually no racing going on, so this is the perfect time of year to go race. It is the best of the best of short track racers down there. It is going to be a challenge," he said.

   "If it was going to be a cake walk I don’t think anybody would want to go down there. It is a tough race. For me, it is all about learning something else, being competitive and seeing what I’ve got."

   Besides more racing, is there anything else Ragan likes to do in the brief NASCAR offseason?

   “The biggest thing is to spend time with my family. So much over the racing season they are always second or third," he said. "Anytime I can spend some time with my girlfriend or go back home to Georgia and spend a few weeks seeing my grandparents really means a lot.

   "Once Daytona rolls around we are testing and I just don’t get a chance to see them."

Keselowski gets new Cup crew chief

   Fresh off helping driver Brad Keselowski win a NASCAR Nationwide Series championship, crew chief Paul Wolfe has received a promotion and tougher assignment. Wolfe was named Tuesday as Keselowski's crew chief for the No. 2 Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series for the 2011 season.

   In their first season working together, Keselowski and Wolfe produced six wins and five poles on their way to winning the Nationwide title. The No. 22 Dodge team also established a new series single-season record with 26 top-five finishes.

   "It’s been a fantastic 2010 season with Brad and the team and I’m excited about the challenge of moving up to the Cup Series next season and the opportunity to continue build on the legacy of the No. 2 car team with Brad behind the wheel," Wolfe said.

   A former driver who accumulated six top-20 finishes in 16 career Nationwide starts, Wolfe first became a crew chief in 2006 with Fitz Racing. He moved on to CJM Racing in 2009 before he joined Penske Racing as Keselowski's crew chief in November 2009.

    “We just seemed to click right from the beginning and we look to bring that same magic to the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team in 2011," Keselowski said.

Kurt Busch comes up short at the Rock

   The NASCAR season may over, but not Kurt Busch's racing.

   Busch was edged by Will Kimmel in Saturday's Polar Bear 150 Street Stock Nationals race at Rockingham Speedway. Kimmel led 148 of 150 laps en route to his first victory at the track.

   "It was a little intimidating to look back and see the No. 22 (Busch) in the mirror,” Kimmel said. “I was pretty confident in my car but at the same time it was pretty hard to keep it on the bottom where it ran the best."

   Busch had to battle back after contact with Kimmel forced him to make a pit stop to pull the fender off the left-front tire. After restarting 12th, Busch capitalized on a caution to get on Kimmel’s rear bumper over the last 40 laps.

   “It was just as much fun as I thought it would be. It was old school racing – toss it in sideways and drive the hell out of it," Busch said. "We got every ounce out it. There at the end I think we lost a cylinder. I could definitely feel the power loss.”

   J.D. Frey finished third, Chad Hall fourth and Cliff Gaumond fifth.

   The race was slowed by nine cautions for 42 laps. Ten of the 50 cars that started finished on the lead lap.

   “It was as much fun as it always was,” said Busch. “There were all the lanes to choose from. We worked the low groove and the high groove. This place is so fun with the bumps and quirks.

   "This racetrack, for sure, gets a gold star. Guys in our series (Sprint Cup) that are car guys – that are racers – should definitely be down here racing.”