Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Jeff Burton Team: No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet '08 Final Standing: 6th (-349) Best Race: Bristol & Charlotte (1st) Worst Race: Bristol (42nd-place)
Season in a box: 2008 was nothing more than the same old song and dance for Jeff Burton. So much, in fact, that I'm ready to start a lobby for a new nickname for Burton that is both bland and consistent. Ideas, anyone?
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Jeff Gordon Team: No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet '08 Final Standing: 7th (-368) Best Race: Martinsville & Texas (2nd) Worst Race: Texas (43rd-place)
Season in a box: After a NASCAR-record 30 Top-10 finishes in 2007 including an impressive performance in the Car of Tomorrow chassis, Jeff Gordon's outlook for 2008 had to be a lot higher than a 7th-place finish in the final standings in addition to his first winless season since 1993.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Denny Hamlin Team: No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota '08 Final Standing: 8th (-470) Best Race: Martinsville (1st) Worst Race: Dover (43rd-place)
Season in a box: Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing too incredible are a few words that seem to summarize Denny Hamlin's 2008 Sprint Cup season.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Tony Stewart Team: No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota '08 Final Standing: 9th (-482) Best Race: Talladega (1st) Worst Race: Las Vegas (43rd-place)
Season in a box: Had Tony Stewart's teammate Kyle Busch not set the Sprint Cup world on fire for much of the middle section of the 2008 season, the results put in by Tony Stewart (1 win, never a huge factor) would have been very expected in the first season of the Joe Gibbs Racing move to Toyota.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Kyle Busch Team: No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota '08 Final Standing: 10th (-498) Best Race: Eight Wins Worst Race: Pocono & Dover (43rd-place)
Season in a box: For much of 2008 season, an odds-on bet would have said Kyle Busch would have been receiving first-place honors at the New York City awards banquet. Instead, the eight-win Busch fell flat when it mattered and ended up taking the stage first for the season-ending festivities.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Matt Kenseth Team: No. 17 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford '08 Final Standing: 11th (-500) Best Race: Dover (2nd-place) Worst Race: Lowe's (41st-place)
Season in a box: Kenseth started his 9th full-time Sprint Cup season for the first time with a guy that wasn't named Robbie Reiser aboard the team's pit box thanks to Reiser taking on a higher role at the Roush-Fenway organization. Unfortunately, with Chip Bolin now calling shots, the season turned into one where Kenseth was hardly ever a factor.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Team: No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet '08 Final Standing: 12th (-557) Best Race: Michigan (1st-place) Worst Race: Homestead (41st-place)
Season in a box: Put the combination of NASCAR's most popular driver with one its winningest teams in the past decade and the expectations are bound to be high, and for Dale Earnhardt Jr., those expectations likely exceeded any type of success outside of winning every race and the championship in 2008.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: David Ragan Team: No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford '08 Final Standing: 13th (-2385) Best Race: New Hampshire (4th-place) Worst Race: Kansas & Phoenix (43rd-place)
Season in a box: Ragan's biggest impact on the Sprint Cup Series came after his first race at Martinsville when Tony Stewart deemed the then-rookie a "dart without feathers." After 2008, though, Ragan has gained quite a bit more respect from the entire series.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Kasey Kahne Team: No. 9 Gillette Evernham Motorsports Dodge '08 Final Standing: 14th (-2599) Best Race: Charlotte & Pocono (1st-place) Worst Race: Michigan & Bristol (40th-place)
Season in a box: 2008 started out decently for what many female NASCAR fans consider the sport's most-eligible bachelor, but by the the time the season ended, Kahne's biggest feather in the cap was being the top-performing Dodge in a dismal season for the manufacturer.
Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Martin Truex Jr. Team: No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet '08 Final Standing: 15th (-2845) Best Race: New Hampshire (4th-place) Worst Race: Kansas & Phoenix (43rd-place)
Season in a box: After picking up his first career win in 2007, most people would have guessed that Martin Truex Jr. -- DEI's new top driver after the departure of Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- would have been a solid competitor in 2008. Instead, 2008 turned into a season of turmoil, rumor and by the time the 2009 season was starting to take shape, it had left questions as to whether he'd be at DEI in 2009.
