FanHouse Top25Drivers

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson.

Driver: Jimmie Johnson -- El Cajon, California
Team: No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet
Points: 1st place (+77)
2006: 2006 Champ
Key Stats: 10 wins, 4 poles, 20 Top-5s, 24 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Other than "incredible", are there words that can accurately portray Jimmie Johnson's run to the 2007 championship?

"Amazing", "Wow", and "You've got to be kidding me" might make that list.

Regardless, the effort put out by Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the No. 48 team was something for the ages in the final ten deciding races of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season in 2007. His average finish during that span? 5th.

And oh yeah, he won four-straight in the final 5 races.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 2nd-place Jeff Gordon.

Driver: Jeff Gordon -- Vallejo, California
Team: No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet
Points: 2nd (-77)
2006: 6th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 6 wins, 10 poles, 21 Top-5s, 30 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

It's not often that a driver can set the record for the most Top-10s ever in a season, win six times, have a single DNF, earn the most points in each race of any driver and not walk away from the season-ending race without a championship trophy in hand.

That's the case, unless your name is Jeff Gordon and the season is 2007 and your facing Jimmie Johnson.

Gordon had arguably one of the best seasons ever put forward in NASCAR history -- one that rivals his 13-win 1998 campaign -- but fell 77 points short of the title after Jimmie Johnson put forth one of the best 10-race stretches in NASCAR history at precisely the right time.

That surge, of course, came during the ten-race Chase playoff system that NASCAR instituted in 2004.

Gordon was no slouch in the Chase, though. Two wins at Talladega and Charlotte combined with 9 Top-10s would have won the title for Gordon in any other Chase year, but the monster from within at Hendrick Motorsports ultimately showed Gordon up in a what would have been a storybook ending.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 3rd-place Clint Bowyer.

Driver: Clint Bowyer -- Emporia, Kansas
Team: No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet
Points: 3rd (-346)
2006: 17th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 2 poles, 1 win, 5 Top-5s, 17 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Easily, Clint Bowyer takes the 2007 season's NASCAR most improved driver of the year.

Not only did the Kansas native score a 14-place better finish in the season standings, but Bowyer scored his first career Cup Series win at New Hampshire. The win was impressive enough, but for Bowyer to come up with a such a victory when it truly mattered during his first Chase was all the more incredible.

Additionally, Bowyer turned out to be the lone driver who could effectively battle the two-headed Hendrick Motorsports monster of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for a good majority of the Chase. Though the run didn't pan out, Bowyer showed some tough tenacity that bodes well for the future for the Richard Childress Driver.

Clint's two pole runs in 2007 came at Darlington in May and then he won from the pole at New Hampshire.

Bowyer's strong showing in the Chase was in direct correlation to the way the team battled through some adversity during the 10-race playoff run. Bowyer's worst finish came when he had officially been taken out of the running for the title in the season's final race at Homestead.

Otherwise, Bowyer saw a 19th-place finish at Texas ruin his chances at the Hendrick duo. The remaining eight finishes had five in the Top-5 and the rest still within the Top-15.

2008 looks like it could be a good year for Bowyer. His lone victory came in the next-generation race car being used full-time in 2008 by NASCAR. His teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton were both in the Chase.

And most importantly, everything from his sponsor to his crew chief are back and ready to take on 2008 with no interruptions -- something that's hard to come across in this day of NASCAR racing.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 4th-place Matt Kenseth.

Driver: Matt Kenseth -- Cambridge, Wisconsin
Team: No. 17 DeWalt Ford
Points: 4th (-425)
2006: 2nd in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 2 wins, 13 Top-5s, 22 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Generally, when a driver changes crew chiefs in the off-season, one would tend to believe that the previous season was a total loss. Especially so when the two people involved are Matt Kenseth and Robbie Reiser.

Kenseth and Reiser have worked together from the get-go of Matt's NASCAR career. Two former rivals on the short-tracks of Wisconsin, they teamed up and headed south for the riches of NASCAR's top series nearly a decade ago and found success quickly. They latched on with Roush Racing and together won the 2003 Winston Cup Championship.

And so, in 2007, it looks like on paper that if Reiser is leaving, something went drastically wrong.

But it didn't.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 5th-place Kyle Busch.

Driver: Kyle Busch -- Las Vegas, Nevada
Team: No. 5 Kellogg's Chevrolet
Points: 5th (-430)
2006: 10th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 win, 11 Top-5s, 20 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Moves to Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota

There's a lot of people in the NASCAR world that would have lost a lot of money if following the race at Bristol in March if they were given a bet of whether or not Kyle Busch would win again in 2007.

After all, Busch had just won the Food City 500 (with a car that "sucked", nonetheless) and looked to be heading in a very bright direction.

He didn't win again in 2007.

But you've got to believe that getting fired from your job -- effective at the end of season -- and a large dose of immaturity will do that to you.

Busch definitely did not handle the situation well after the initial problems with his agent and Rick Hendrick in the process of firing him and hiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. to his ride. Later in the summer, Busch took a "we're in this on our own" type of attitude and made some pretty disparaging remarks towards the team that was still letting him race.

After a while, Busch changed his tune -- on his own or with some stiff warnings from Hendrick -- and made the Chase. During the playoff run, Busch managed six Top-10s but four other finishes of 20th, 20th, 36th and 41st sealed his fate as an "also-ran".

For 2008, Busch moves to Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 18 car with Toyota and M&M's as the sponsor. Success in 2008 relies directly on the many unknowns of Toyota stemming from 2007.

Look for Busch to run well at Daytona, but its tough to guess what the rest of the year will hold.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 6th-place Tony Stewart.
Driver: Tony Stewart -- Columbus, Indiana
Team: No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet
Points: 6th (-481)
2006: 11th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 3 wins, 11 Top-5s, 23 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes, change from Chevy to Toyota

If you were Tony Stewart, you'd see that you didn't win the championship in 2007 and look no further.

You didn't win. End of story. Bring on 2008.

But fortunately, you're not Tony Stewart so you want to know why driver No. 20 didn't win the 2007 Nextel Cup crown despite a solid outlook for success heading in to the Chase.

Stewart has taken two career Cup titles and the last one he won came on the heels of a very, very strong run in the Chase. Tony has been known to habitually start the season slow (which he did, crashing at Daytona) and gain momentum in the summer (won at Chicago & the Brickyard in July and at Watkins Glen in August) and then finish strong as a guy to beat in the Chase.

Stewart followed that strategy to a near 'T' all the way until it really mattered. The Chase. Crunch time.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 7th-place Kurt Busch.
Driver: Kurt Busch -- Las Vegas, Nevada
Team: No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge
Points: 7th (-492)
2006: 16th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 2 wins, 1 pole, 6 Top-5s, 14 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

You could easily describe Kurt Busch's season as one of those kiddie roller coasters that just don't pack the gusto of the real thing.

Busch started the season decently, slowly built up, hit the peak in the late summer, then slowly rolled to a stop in Homestead.

Regardless, Busch's run in 2007 still had much greater success than his dismal 17th-place effort in 2006. In '07, Busch completed 97 percent of all the laps and scored two victories during the late summer stretch just ahead of the Chase at Michigan and Pocono. During those two events, Busch and the No. 2 Penske team looked like it could be untouchable in the Chase after such dominating performances.

Somehow, though, that wasn't meant to be, despite that late-summer run featuring nine straight races where Busch finished 11th or better -- including the two victories.

Like several others that we've reviewed so far, Busch's Chase would be respectable for any driver except for a few finishes and the Jeff and Jimmie show that was put on at the head of the pack. While Busch scored four Top-10s in the Chase, the four finishes that his Dodge saw in 25th or worse put the icing on the cake for a middle-of-the-pack Chase run.

It was questionable before Busch's mid-summer hot streak as to whether he'd even make the expanded 12-car Chase in '07.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 8th-place Jeff Burton.

Driver: Jeff Burton -- South Boston, Virginia
Team: No. 31 Cingular/AT&T Chevrolet
Points: 8th (-491)
2006: 7th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 wins, 9 Top-5s, 18 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Jeff Burton's most newsworthy event of the year didn't even come on the race track.

Over the summer, Burton's sponsor AT&T sued NASCAR for the right to change the brand on the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet from Cingular to AT&T. The issue, which originally arose over a grandfather clause in the contract for Sprint/Nextel to become the title sponsor of the Cup Series, was eventually settled after AT&T agreed to depart the sport after 2008 with the allowance of running the AT&T brand on Burton's car until that point.

For a few races though late in the summer, though, Burton's car was painted bright orange with no sponsors -- an indication of some severe problems NASCAR is having with growing the sport by alienating potential sponsors.

On the track, though, Burton scored his lone victory at the track that he scored his first career one -- at Texas Motor Speedway in April. A thrilling duel with former teammate Matt Kenseth sealed the end of the race that interestingly enough with all of Burton's sponsor troubles saw the No. 31 enter victory lane with a special primary sponsor of Prilosec OTC.

Aside from Texas, Burton's 2007 campaign was nothing other than typical Jeff Burton -- consistent.

Burton made the Chase and likely would have fared much higher in the final standings if he would have been able to skip Talladega and Kansas. Burton finished those events 43rd and 36th, respectively.

Finishes of 18th and 12th coupled with six Top-10s -- four straight to finish the season, nonetheless -- showed Burton had a mildly successful playoff run with plenty to build on for 2008.

The sign of Burton's Childress teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick also making the Chase should be good for the whole RCR outfit in 2008.

Driver: Carl Edwards -- Columbia, Missouri
Team: No. 99 Office Depot Ford
Points: 9th (-501)
2006: 12th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 3 wins, 1 pole, 11 Top-5s, 15 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

The NASCAR world welcomed Carl Edwards back -- or at least he acted like it -- with a vengeance in 2007.

A year removed from not winning a race and finishing outside the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Edwards came back to life with his No. 99 Roush-Fenway Ford. Edwards notched three wins in '07, with the first coming at Michigan in June. From there, he would play master of concrete speedways by winning the 500-lapper at Bristol in the fall and the second race in the Chase at Dover.

On the Busch Series side of things, Edwards flat-out whipped the field early in the season, gaining a nearly 800-point lead on second place around Charlotte in May. That early domination was enough for Edwards to slide through a tough end of the season with his second career Busch Series title.

In 2007, we got to see a different side of Carl Edwards -- one that doesn't always smile and can be just a little bit scary. Each time, though, involved teammate Matt Kenseth.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 10th-place Kevin Harvick.

Driver: Kevin Harvick -- Bakersfield, California
Team: No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet
Points: 10th (-524)
2006: 4th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 win, 4 Top-5s, 15 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Kevin Harvick won just one points-paying race in 2007 but still managed to win the most money in the Nextel Cup Series for anyone not named Jimmie Johnson.

Winning the Daytona 500 and the Nextel All-Star Challenge will do that for you. Harvick's combined total was nearly $7.5 million to Johnson's $7.6 million+.

Harvick's win at the Daytona 500 -- the season's first points event -- was surprising and utterly thrilling. With cars spinning and flipping behind him, Harvick edged Mark Martin for his first victory in The Great American Race. In the following race, Harvick was in position to win before a late-race flat tire.

Nonetheless, Harvick looked poised to run for the title.

That wasn't to be, though, as Harvick didn't find victory lane after his win in the season-opener and had his next-best highlight due to a wreck and scuffle with Juan Pablo Montoya at Watkins Glen in August.

In the Chase, Harvick was hardly a threat to win the title after managing six finishes outside of the Top-15. His best finish was sixth, twice.

Harvick's team Richard Childress Racing was initially thought to be one of the top Car of Tomorrow programs, but that thought soon faded. RCR will need that program to be substantially improved in order for Harvick to not only make a lot of money in 2008, but win a few more.