FanHouse 10from08

With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 5 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at 10 from '08 -- 10 of the NASCAR season's best moments.

As it turned out after the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, two critical problems -- one a driving mistake at Talladega and the other an electrical problem at Lowe's -- kept a momentum-filled Carl Edwards and his No. 99 from stealing the championship from Jimmie Johnson.

But that didn't mean the driver from Columbia, Mo., didn't put up an incredible fight to secure his first title.

Sure, there were two late-season wins at Texas Motor Speedway and Homestead that took an incredible strategy of stretching fuel mileage to find victory lane, but one his near-wins made what was one of the NASCAR season's best moments.

Edwards was trailing that pesky Jimmie Johnson in the final laps of the Chase for the Sprint Cup's third race at Kansas Speedway in what looked like it was going to be another easy win for the No. 48. Edwards would close marginally for some laps, but the distance he trailed appeared to be too large for an upset victory.

That assumption, though, was thrown out the window in the final turn of the final lap.

With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 5 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at 10 from '08 -- 10 of the NASCAR season's best moments.

"Look, newbie, I'm not cutting the hair," -- Stewart
"Tony, I know I'm the new kid, but come on, that mop is just hideous," -- Busch
"And that's the I like it. Keeps 'em guessin'. You'll learn soon enough," -- Stewart
"Oook, dude. Whatev. Faaa-reakk!" -- Busch

Sure, it may not exactly fit in with the some of the other 10 from '08 moments we've been profiling here on the ol' FanHouse, but come on, Tony Stewart's early season locks of love was a major story.

It was a confusing thing at Daytona to see Tony climb from his No. 20 with a pack of fur trailing under his hat, and for fans who dig the Italian crime mob look, it stayed around until sometime in late March or early April. Perhaps, it was Stewart's way of serving as a double for an unknown movie about dirt track star Scott Bloomquist.

Originally, Stewart started 2008 like a changed man after admitting his disappointment of getting passed on the last lap of the Daytona 500 and not going bonkers on Kevin Harvick after the No. 29 walled the No. 20 in the closing laps of the March Bristol race that Stewart had a chance to win.

Perhaps, we thought, the hair was the only outward sign that Stewart had calmed his ways -- a claim that was fine and dandy until he threw Goodyear under the bus for having a major case of tires that suck.

The real Tony was back, but the locks were still there.

With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 5 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at 10 from '08 -- 10 of the NASCAR season's best moments.

NASCAR Sprint Cup racing was graced with one of the most beautiful weekends Central Indiana could offer with mild temperatures and crystal clear skies during the final weekend of July.

The sanctioning body, and its tire supplier (who's problems earlier in the season caught a little bit of Smoke, if you will) Goodyear, though, managed to turn one of the most-consistently awesome Brickyard race weekends in to a total mess.

As I'm sure none of you will soon forget, the July's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard -- also known as the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- was marred by a complete failure of the tire compound brought by Goodyear for one of the season's crown jewel events.

Indy was one of three races that yours truly had the chance to cover first hand, and following the final Saturday practice while standing behind Kurt Busch's No. 2 car, I noticed something I had never seen before. Black powder, or rather granulated rubber, was sticking to the rear quarter-panels and trunk cover after less than a handful of laps turned around the 2.5-mile oval.

That powder, it turns out, was a direct foresight into what NASCAR fans were about to experience the next day.

With 43 cars on track, it's not too often that TV cameras catch a wreck live for the audience at home, but June's Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway was a little different.

FOX Sports was riding along with Elliott Sadler in his No. 19 Dodge on the in-car camera when the car suddenly broke loose and slapped the outside Turn 2 wall. What we saw next was also atypical of crashes at Dover.

Instead of following the general rule that Dover is a "self-cleaning" race track that forces crashed cars to the bottom of the race track because of the banked corners and straightaways, Sadler's car opted to slide precariously into the middle of the track and into what is best described as a blind spot for race cars traveling at speed.

And so, as the video below shows, Tony Stewart slammed into Sadler, followed by Denny Hamlin, Scott Riggs, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Bobby Labonte to leave the track virtually blocked and multiple pre-race favorites done for the day after just 19 laps of the 400-lap race.

It's a rare feat in NASCAR racing to actually cross the finish line first with the checkered flag waving and not be awarded the race winner's trophy.

A rare feat, of course, until you toss in a set of rules that don't even get the judgment-call benefit of the doubt like a foul in basketball or a strike in baseball.

But that's exactly what happened to Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s rookie driver Regan Smith in October at Talladega Superspeedway. Smith, driving the No. 01, passed Tony Stewart while driving under the painted yellow line 300 yards from the finish, but was declared to have finished 17th while Stewart celebrated his lone win of 2008.

Whaaaaa?

NASCAR has somewhat enforced a rule for many years to curb dangerous passes out of the groove at its two restrictor plate tracks -- Daytona and Talladega -- by saying a car must yield a gained position or it will be forced to make a pit stop if a driver advances position while below the "out of bounds," or yellow, line.

With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 5 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at 10 from '08 -- 10 of the NASCAR season's best moments.

Looking back at the race stats of June's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma County, Calif. tells you that Kyle Busch walked away with a race victory after a dominating performance that saw the No. 18 out front for 78 of 112 laps.

What the stats don't show was how Yates Racing's David Gilliland finished second or how Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon -- the longtime road course king -- didn't lead a lap but finished third. They also don't show how both drivers moved up some four spots in the final six laps without actually making a green flag pass.

The reason for that? Mr. Kevin Harvick.

Harvick, running fifth at the time, entered Turn No. 7 at Infineon (a 90-degree right hand turn) just a little too hot while looking under Gilliland for a pass. Harvick's No. 29 spun sideways (video below) to collect third-place Jamie McMurray, who, in turn, collected second-place Tony Stewart.

The result was a synchronized spin that many synchronized swimmers would have been proud of, and one that drastically changed the race's Top-5 finishing order.

With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 5 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at 10 from '08 -- ten of the NASCAR season's best moments.

Thanks to rain, it took the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series well over 24 hours to finish the Auto Club 500 at the newly-named Auto Club Speedway (enough Auto Club for one sitting? I think so) back in February.

And of course, like only NASCAR could, the way it handled the rain situation got some fans more than fired up.

NASCAR attempted to get the race going for its Sunday start as planned, but only 21 laps went by before a wreck that somehow saw Casey Mears get flipped over thanks to the nose of a slowing Sam Hornish Jr. It was an interesting wreck (see the photo to the right and the video later in the post) after flames shot from Hornish's No. 77 while Mears was basically trapped in his No. 5.

Mears and Hornish were able to get out without injury.

The wreck included Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Reed Sorenson, and a previous wreck saw Denny Hamlin smack the wall. After the lap 21 incident, the red flag came out for water seeping from the track and later more rain, leaving Dale Earnhardt Jr. slightly ticked at NASCAR's attempt to get the race underway.

With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 5 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at 10 from '08 -- ten of the NASCAR season's best moments.

"Oooohhh he turned 'em! Oooohh he turned 'em! No! No! No! No!" was the call Darrell Waltrip made in the FOX Sports booth as he watched young Kyle Busch -- who already wasn't the most well-liked driver in NASCAR fan circles -- spin fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. back in May at Richmond International Raceway.

The wreck, with three laps to go in 400-lap race, sent Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 Chevrolet spinning sideways and into the turn 3 wall after Kyle Busch bumped the left side of the No. 88. Unfortunately for Busch, he wasn't able to keep the lead he temporarily gained with the incident after Clint Bowyer snuck past on the low side.



The memories of that incident wouldn't be forgotten, however, by Mr. Earnhardt Jr.

With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 5 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at 10 from '08 -- ten of the NASCAR season's best moments.

Tony Stewart may have lost the 2008 Daytona 500 on the last lap, got wrecked by Kevin Harvick in the waning laps at Bristol and lost his barber's number nearly all spring but none of that -- not even that pesky Kurt Busch character -- could rile up the two-time champion like NASCAR's tire supplier.

The setting was Atlanta Motor Speedway in March during the Sprint Cup's first visit to the 1.5-mile track and what we got was a lackluster performance by nearly every race team thanks to the lack of grip drivers suffered through because of Goodyear's hard tire compound.

Passing was hardly an option, the final lead change happened because of a blown engine and racing anywhere near another car was a perilous move for even the most talented drivers. And when it was all said and done, Tony Stewart let his voice be heard.

Nine months after the 2008 NASCAR season began, we're back to the offseason. With NASCAR's awards banquet on Friday, Dec. 6 (stop by for the live blog!), here's a look at ten of the season's best moments.

The Sprint Cup season hadn't even officially started for 2008, but hot shoe Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s Martin Truex Jr. were already spittin' mad after the first race run under the Nationwide Series banner at Daytona International Speedway.

Here's a glance back:

Truex was heated after finishing 11th in the Camping World 300 despite challenging for the lead late in the race. A block by Busch as Truex tried to take second place killed his momentum and opportunity to challenge Tony Stewart for the win.

Busch wound up 2nd.

From the NASCAR Scene: "Kyle drives like a girl," Truex said. "I mean, come on. We're out here racing for fun. We had a hell of a battle. I had a lot of fun racing today with him, and then I had a huge run and he just blocked me.

(for the original entire post, click here)

I would imagine Danica Patrick, statisticians who know men are actually the less talented drivers and females everywhere cringed at the comment, but dang, that was pretty funny.