Second-place not good enough for Edwards

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) -- Carl Edwards and second-place are not a good fit.

"The only thing about second is it's better than third. That's really all you can say," the runner-up in both the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series championships said, reflecting on torrid finishes that came up short in the point standings on each circuit.

"We all go out here to win, and the feeling of victory and achievement is so huge that second is not (pleasurable)," Edwards said on Friday during Champions' Week media day at Disney World. "It's satisfying that we performed so well, but getting second really doesn't mean a lot."

Clint Bowyer held off Edwards for the Nationwide driver championship by 21 points, and Jimmie Johnson prevailed in the Sprint Cup Series, even though Edwards won a series-best nine races and three of the final four.

Most years, the 2007 Nationwide Series champion would have repeated with the kind of comeback he staged after trailing by 204 points with eight races to go. But Bowyer's season-long consistency was too much to overcome.

Bowyer, who was working in a body shop in Kansas before receiving a career-changing call from Richard Childress a few years ago, won just one of 35 races. But 14 top-five finishes and a series-best 29 top-10s were enough to give the native of Emporia, Kan., his first driver championship.

Bowyer was recognized Saturday during an awards banquet in Orlando. Joe Gibbs Racing won the owner championship, winning a series-record 19 races and amassing a staggering 32 top-five and 44 top-10 finishes.

"How can you not appreciate it. It's unbelievable to be able to think what we accomplished this year," Bowyer said on Friday. "Whether you were a filthy rich kid and bought your ride and owned the team and owned the car, what we were able to accomplish means a lot and is a lot of fun to be a part of."

The crown also is special because of who he beat for the title. He and Edwards, of Columbia, Mo., were raised in the Midwest and are good friends off the track.

"We grew up with kind of the same backgrounds, him being from Missouri and me being from Kansas. We're both very proud to able to get paid to do what we're doing. I know how hard he worked and how much it means to him to be able to race," Bowyer said.

Edwards won three of the last four Nationwide Series events and seven overall to make it interesting down the stretch.

Still, Edwards and crew chiefs Drew Bickensderfer and Bob Osborne were left with an empty feeling last weekend after winning both the season-ending Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup races at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In addition to not catching Bowyer, Edwards fell 69 points short of stopping Johnson from taking his record-tying third consecutive Cup championship.

"I know we won those last two races, but I've never seen two guys -- not dejected, but more focused than that," Edwards said.

"Standing there in Victory Lane at Homestead, you look across the racetrack and see those guys celebrating and you say: 'Oh man, that could have been us if we had just done a couple of things differently.' That's motivating."

Edwards is looking forward to 2009, too.

He plans to travel to London for the Race of Champions next month and is getting married in January. Later comes his first trip to Thailand for a week or two of sightseeing, rest and relaxation.

"I know nothing about Thailand. I know nothing about Bangkok. That's going to be fun," Edwards said. "We tried to think of a place that was farthest, literally and figuratively, from Columbia, Mo. I'm thinking, Bangkok, Thailand could not be any farther."

Then, it's on to next season and resuming the quest to catch Johnson. Despite his disappointment in falling short this year, Edwards said he has nothing but respect for the champion.

"Jimmie, what he's done, I think not only is good for him. It's good for the sport to have a guy who can do that and have those kinds of results. As much as I can be, I'm happy for him. He's a good guy, he deserves it," Edwards said.

"We didn't mess up. Jimmie just was perfect. ... By most measures (our year) was great, but we set out this season to win two championships and we came up a little bit short. ... At least we can rest well knowing that we had these guys nervous a little bit at the end."


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Joe Gibbs Racing ready to build on success

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) -- Climbing to the NASCAR Nationwide Series summit is one thing. Staying there in an even more imposing challenge for Joe Gibbs Racing.

The team's unparalleled success in 2008 included 19 victories in 35 races, with four different drivers -- Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Joe Logano -- behind the wheel of two cars setting the record for most wins by a car owner.

"What's ironic is you look back over the years and you say, we've always worked this hard, and we've always tried to put the best pieces and the best product on the racetrack and why, all of a sudden this year does everything happen," Steve deSouza, vice president of JGR's Nationwide Series operations and driver development program said.

"There's difficulty getting to the top, but it's most difficult to stay at the top. How do you continue to motivate people who have had a phenomenal year that has set all sorts of records?"

JGR began stressing the importance of not growing complacent long before last week's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, helping everyone involved with the team's No. 20 Toyota and Busch's No. 18 entry remain focused.

Busch tied Sam Ard for most series victories in a season, with nine of his 10 wins coming for JGR. Stewart won five races, Hamlin captured four and Logano one, helping the No. 20 car take the owner points championship.

The message during the quest was simple.

"Nobody can grow lax, we have to stay humble about this because it could be taken away from us in a second," deSouza said during Champions' Week media day at Disney World. "We have to continue on the path that we started, which is making sure everybody does their job 100 perfect correctly."

Gibbs' unmatched success also raised the question of whether one team winning so often is good for the developmental series, especially with JGR's three Sprint Cup Series drivers dominating the competition.

"In any sport, you're going to have teams that have runs of success. It goes in cycles," said David Reutimann, who was seventh in the point standings, one spot behind Busch. "You can't penalize someone for being the best."

Brad Keselowski, third behind Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards for the driver point championship, won two races and was the highest-finishing series-only regular in his first full year of competition.

He likes the idea of competing against more-experienced Sprint Cup drivers and has no problem with one team dominating the series.

"I think what's not good for the sport is to try to regulate someone who dominates," Keselowski said.

"What's good for the sport is fair play. I think there was fair play in the series and they just outperformed us. We're going to work hard to try not to let that happen next year. ... It's really not their fault. It's our job to go make a run for them next year. And legitimately, I think we have a shot at that."

That the type of attitude that's bound to keep deSouza and others at JGR on their toes.

"In every sport there's a dynasty that goes on for a while. But every one of them, including ours, is cyclical. Prior to this year, there have been other teams ... that have won everything. The challenge, and the reason you stay in the hunt, is you want to be that No. 1 guy," deSouza said.

"By the same token, success is fleeting. As fast as you get there, and as hard as you work and have worked, it starts to get away from you and you can't put your finger on the reason for that, either."


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Slow finish has Kyle Busch thinking ahead

Slow finish has Kyle Busch thinking ahead

A season that started off with so much promise ended a little too quietly for 23-year-old Kyle Busch.

On the final weekend of the 2008 NASCAR season, Busch went 0-for-3 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, dominating at times in both the Craftsman Truck and Nationwide races before fading at the finish of each, then losing a top-five finish in the Sprint Cup finale when he had to pit for gas with two laps remaining.

For a guy who won a record 21 races in 2008 -- eight in Cup, 10 in Nationwide and three in trucks -- the final three days of racing were definitely anticlimactic.

And the last 10 weeks of the Cup season were particularly frustrating for Busch, who started the Chase for the championship leading the points after a sensational 26-race "regular season."

He was out of contention just three weeks into the Chase, the victim of a broken swaybar at New Hampshire (34th), an engine failure at Dover (43rd) and another engine problem at Kansas (28th).

"I guess we just used up all of our good luck earlier in the season," Busch said. "The team never gave up. We had some good races. We just got too far behind and couldn't make it up."

His late-season problems probably made many of his detractors happy. But the sometime "Bad Boy" of Cup, a driver many fans love to hate, wasn't discouraged.

He wound up salvaging a 10th-place finish in the season standings with top-10s in four of the last six races. That was enough to earn Busch a trip to New York next week for the NASCAR awards dinner -- not that he was all that thrilled about having to spend time in the big city.

"It's an honor, I guess, but it's just a lot of work," Busch said. "It does show we had a pretty good year, though.

"I'm happy for my team and the organization. At this point, we're all thinking about next year and how good we can be. It'll be good to get a fresh start."

After moving from Hendrick Motorsports, where he won a total of four races in the three previous years, Busch was an almost instant success at Joe Gibbs Racing, outshining veteran teammates Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, each of whom won just once in Cup in 2008. And Busch was unquestionably the best driver for Toyota, in its second year of Cup racing.

His first win of the season -- and Toyota's first in Cup -- came at Atlanta in only the fourth race of the season. The wins came in bunches after that.

Toyota Racing Development president Lee White says Busch is the driver who made this a special year for the company.

"Frankly, if you take Kyle Busch out of the equation, our success ratio is just about where everybody would have thought it should have been: win a couple of races, have a shot in more and, hopefully, two or three guys in the Chase," White said several week ago. "Not to take anything away from any of our drivers or any of our teams -- certainly not taking anything away from Tony or Denny, they're great drivers and everybody has great futures -- but Kyle has had an extraordinary year."

Steve Addington, crew chief on Busch's No. 18 entry, said the whole team learned some important lessons in 2008 that they can carry into next season.

"One thing we learned is not to show your hand too early in the season and let these (other) guys go to work and get better than you," Addington said. "We know we've got a good package, so let's try some different things and not show our hand. We've got a good enough race team to be in the Chase.

"We had a great season," he added. "I can't complain about it."

Busch agreed.

"There are plenty of highlights: Sweeping the road course races (at Sonoma and Watkins Glen), winning the first race at Atlanta for myself with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota and Steve Addington," Busch said. "It's been fun to win 21 races. ... Just being as fast in every series that I've been in has made the year a lot of fun."

Maybe next year Busch can add to the fun with a big finish.


Busch gets 10th Nationwide victory
A glance at the 12 drivers in the Chase
I Did Not Just Come Here To Win - Emery
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Johnson makes history but NASCAR ends on down note

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards opened the 2008 season intent on knocking Jimmie Johnson from the top of NASCAR.

They chased him all year, but never quite caught him.

Despite a combined 17 Sprint Cup Series victories, the challengers came up short in the end when Johnson won his record-tying third consecutive championship. He never bothered to contemplate what tying Cale Yarborough's 30-year-old mark would mean, but in the whirlwind media blitz since Sunday's season finale, little things have happened to help Johnson appreciate his accomplishment.

Encounters with Mike Ditka and Cris Carter at the ESPN Studios this week humbled Johnson, as both NFL greats took time to praise his effort.

"When people like that notice what we have done and compare us to other teams in sports history, that's special," Johnson said. "I'm so proud to be a part of this and so happy for the team and myself."

It's a celebratory conclusion to another long season, one that started with the usual hope and anticipation only to end shrouded in the uneasiness of the economic crisis.

The season ended just days ago, but NASCAR teams are in the midst of mass layoffs because the crisis has forced car owners to tighten their belts. The staff reductions have creeped toward the top teams and crippled the smaller organizations.

Bill Davis Racing is down to just a handful of employees as it seeks 2009 sponsorship, and Michael Waltrip Racing joined Petty Enterprises and The Wood Brothers as organizations that have let go from 18 to 30 employees in the past few days. Hall of Fame Racing, a single-car team owned by two Arizona Diamondbacks executives, promised its own round of staff cuts at the end of the month.

And Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing have not been immune: All three NASCAR super teams have reduced their staffs to trim their hefty budgets.

"Obviously, it's very difficult ... on our whole industry," said NASCAR chairman Brian France. "But we will come out of this. We will do our part with the rest of the sports and entertainment (business) to weather the storm. We've been here before and it's never fun. It's never easy. But we will get through it."

It won't be easy. Sponsorships are hard to come by, at-track attendance is down and the Big Three automakers are in dire trouble. NASCAR will do what it can to help -- and so far has suspended all 2009 testing -- but is not considering shortening the schedule, races, or three-day race weekends.

Despite the depressing end to the season, there were plenty of highlights:

--The emergence of new stars Busch and Edwards. Both drivers came storming out of the gate and never looked back, as Busch won 21 races across NASCAR's top three series, and Edwards won three of the final four Cup races as part of his series-best nine victories.

But what initially looked to be a three-man battle for the title never materialized. Mechanical failures at the start of the Chase relegated Busch to a 10th-place finish, and Edwards struggled in two races to fall so far beyond Johnson that his frantic final push hardly helped. He finished second in both the Cup and Nationwide standings -- despite sweeping the season finales in both series.

--Toyota rebounded from its dismal first season in NASCAR, largely behind the addition of Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin combined to give the manufacturer 10 Cup wins, and JGR won the owner's championship in the Nationwide Series.

There was also improvement at Red Bull Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing, where David Reutimann won the pole for the finale. And Toyota was still successful even after NASCAR throttled the manufacturer's edge over the competition through a late-summer change to engine specifications.

With Chrysler, Ford and General Motors struggling financially, Toyota showed it could become unbeatable before long.

--Stewart, after two championships and 33 victories, decided to leave JGR following a successful 10-year run. After contemplating a contract extension for several months, he explored the market and found other compelling offers.

He took the one that handed him 50 percent ownership in Haas-CNC Racing, and the Haas part is one of the few things that will remain the same next season. Stewart Haas Racing has new drivers in Stewart and Ryan Newman, new sponsors and new personnel. The move also returns Stewart to Chevrolet, which has been a longtime supporter of his racing programs.

The owner-driver role might be one Stewart is slow to adapt to, especially if he struggles on the track next year. But he's eagerly anticipating the new venture, and it took some of the sting off of his final disappointing days at JGR.

--Not every open-wheel driver is as good as Juan Pablo Montoya, which was proven this year when a handful trying to make the switch to NASCAR flamed out.

Jacques Villeneuve didn't qualify for the season-opening Daytona 500, and the former Formula One champion hasn't been seen since. Dario Franchitti was back in IndyCars by the end of the summer when Chip Ganassi folded that slumping team because of a lack of sponsorship.

Patrick Carpentier was let go from Gillett Evernham Motorsports before the end of the season, and Sam Hornish Jr. lost his bid for rookie of the year when he failed to qualify for the season finale at Homestead. Meanwhile, Scott Speed hasn't exactly lit the world on fire in his handful of starts for Red Bull Racing.

Not all is lost: AJ Allmendinger has shown tremendous promise since moving from Red Bull to GEM for the final five races of the year. Now if only someone would give him a full-time job.

--Getting a victory became more difficult, as former series champions Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth both went winless on the season. Gordon had not been shut out since his 1993 rookie year, and Kenseth last went winless in 2001. His shutout left him 11th in the standings -- his worst showing since that winless year.

It took Stewart until the 30th race of the year to make his only trip to Victory Lane, and there were no first-time winners this season.

Twelve drivers shared the 36 race wins, and Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman were the only non-Chase participants to win this year.


Slow finish has Kyle Busch thinking ahead
I Did Not Just Come Here To Win - Emery
Stewart gearing up for emotional end with Gibbs

Robby Gordon stays behind wheel in Baja 1000

Most drivers in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series are looking forward to getting some rest now that the 2008 season is over. Robby Gordon isn't among them.

After finishing 26th in the Cup season-finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Gordon headed straight for Ensenada, Mexico, to compete in the 41st annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 that begins on Friday.

Gordon has three victories in the off-road classic. He will drive the No. 77 Chevrolet CK 1500 trophy truck in this year's race.

The Baja 1000 is the world's longest nonstop desert race. This year its route across the northern Baja California Peninsula will cover 631.34 miles through rocky desert and mountain terrain, beginning and ending in Ensenada.

"This year's course is very technical, very rough and very fast, which plays right into our team's strengths," said Gordon, who has also won races in Cup and open-wheel racing. "The team has done a good job building up the reliability in our truck."

Gordon, whose one-car team ran the entire 36-race Cup schedule and finished 33rd in the points, took time during the past few weeks to fly out to Baja to "prerun" the course several times.

"Having covered the course twice, I feel very confident of our chances," Gordon said. "With the assistance of both our off-road and NASCAR team personnel, we have a really good support staff in place. Everyone is well informed on our race strategy and goals for this week. If all goes according to plan, we should bring home our fourth overall Baja 1000 victory."

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BIG NUMBERS: NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series finale ended Friday night with a dramatic championship showdown and came up with big numbers on Speed's telecast of the event from Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The race scored a Nielsen Household Rating of .96 (702,000 households), up 146 percent from last year's .39 (286,000 households). The broadcast peaked at a 1.39 (1,021,000 households) and marked the highest year-to-year average rating increase of the season.

Those who tuned in were rewarded with a race-long duel between eventual champion Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday Jr., who lost the title by just seven points.

"What a way to finish," said speed president Hunter Nickell. "The last lap of the last event and we still weren't sure who the champion was going to be. Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday put on an awesome show for the fans."

The 2008 truck series on Speed was the highest rated ever, averaging a .80 and 585,000 households. On the year, 19 of the 22 races on Speed increased over last year, 15 were in double digits.

The rating is the percentage watching a program among homes with televisions.

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ANOTHER WIN: IndyCar Series star Tony Kanaan teamed with Formula One's Rubens Barrichello and three other drivers last Saturday to win the Granja Viana 500 -- a 500-mile kart race in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It is the eighth time in 12 years that Kanaan, a native of Brazil, has been part of the winning team.

Others on this year's winning team included former IndyCar driver Felipe Giaffone, Renato Russian and Luciano Burti.

The event, held at the Giaffone family's venue, featured 65 karts. IndyCar Series drivers Vitor Meira, Mario Moraes and Raphael Matos also competed. A second Kanaan kart included co-drivers Cristiano da Matta and Antonio Pizzonia.

"Each time I win, I feel a different emotion," said Kanaan, who finished third in the 2008 IndyCar Series driving for Andretti Green Racing. "It was a really tough race physically in the beginning, when I was driving for three straight hours in the sun."

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AWARD WINNER: Richard Childress will receive the North Carolina Motorsports Association's Tribute Award at the group's annual awards banquet on Jan. 26 in Concord, N.C.

Childress celebrated his 40th year as a NASCAR team owner in 2008, putting all three of his Richard Childress Racing Sprint Cup drivers in the Chase for the championship and winning the Nationwide Series title -- his 12th NASCAR championship -- with driver Clint Bowyer.

"I am honored and humbled to win this award," Childress said. "Growing up in North Carolina, I was just a kid with a dream to drive a race car and have been very fortunate to have surrounded myself over the years with people who allowed me to achieve my goals."

His driving career lasted from 1969 to the middle of 1981, but Childress is far better known as the owner who helped Dale Earnhardt to six of his seven Cup championships.


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NASCAR teams begin layoffs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Hall of Fame Racing, the NASCAR team owned by Arizona Diamondbacks executives, will cut its staff even if it secures sponsorship to run a full 2009 season.

Other teams aren't waiting.

Petty Enterprises, The Wood Brothers, Bill Davis Racing and Ernie Elliott's engine shop all reduced their staffs in the two days since Sunday's season finale.

Exact numbers are difficult to pin down, but Petty and the Wood Brothers are believed to have let go more than 20 employees each. The two teams are among the most storied programs in NASCAR.

BDR, which has no sponsorship lined up for its Sprint Cup program, has cut its staff to all but a handful of employees. Elliott, who built engines for Chip Ganassi Racing, did the same since it's unlikely Ganassi will use his motors once he completes a merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc.

The layoffs come as team owners adjust to the economic crisis, which slowly trickled into NASCAR but is now wreaking havoc on the industry. Just last week, 100-plus employee were released from DEI so the team can move forward with its merger with Ganassi.

Ganassi let go of 71 people in July, starting a wave that has hit all teams regardless of their level of funding.

Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing all had small staff reductions over the past month, and Roush let additional employees go this week as the organization adjusts to running fewer entries in the Truck Series next season.

But it's the smallest teams -- like Hall of Fame -- that are being squeezed the hardest. Sponsorship is extremely difficult to find and operating costs in NASCAR are at an all-time high. Without outside funding or a merger with another team, many small organizations are in danger of shutting.

HoF general manager Tyler Epp said Tuesday employees were told no one will be laid off before the end of November, as team officials search for more funding. But with 44 employees for a single car operation, Epp said the team is overstaffed.

"The reality is we ran 39th in points this year and personnel changes are going to be made," Epp said. "And we simply have too many people for a one-car team. We're going to have a reduction no matter what happens."

Epp said the team is close on several possibilities, but a merger with another small NASCAR team is not likely at this time. The team has partial sponsorship from DLP HDTV for next season.

Hall of Fame originally was formed by former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, but they sold their interest in the team last year to Diamondbacks executives Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel. Moorad is the Diamondbacks' chief executive officer, and Garfinkel is the chief operating officer.

The team had a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, but Epp said the agreement most likely will not carry into 2009 as the team searches for a new partner. Depending on whom they lease their motors from -- and JGR is still a possibility, Epp said -- the team could also have a manufacturer switch.

HoF started in Chevrolets, then moved to Toyotas with Gibbs. J.J. Yeley began the season driving the No. 96, but was replaced late in the year by Ken Schrader. JGR phenom Joey Logano also ran two races in the car.


I Did Not Just Come Here To Win - Emery
Hall of Fame Racing planning staff cuts

Hall of Fame Racing planning staff cuts

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Hall of Fame Racing, the NASCAR team owned by Arizona Diamondbacks executives, will cut its staff even if it secures sponsorship to run a full 2009 season.

HoF general manager Tyler Epp said Tuesday employees were told no one will be laid off before the end of November, as team officials search for more funding. But with 44 employees for a single car operation, Epp said the team is overstaffed.

"The reality is we ran 39th in points this year and personnel changes are going to be made," Epp said. "And we simply have too many people for a one-car team. We're going to have a reduction no matter what happens."

HoF is one of many small NASCAR teams being squeezed during this economic crisis. Sponsorship is extremely difficult to find and operating costs in NASCAR are at all-time high. Without outside funding or a merger with another team many small organizations are in danger of shutting.

Epp said the team is close on several possibilities, but a merger with another small NASCAR team is not likely at this time. The team has partial sponsorship from DLP HDTV for next season.

Hall of Fame originally was formed by former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, but they sold their interest in the team last year to Diamondbacks executives Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel. Moorad is the Diamondbacks' chief executive officer, and Garfinkel is the chief operating officer.

The team had a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, but Epp said the agreement most likely will not carry into 2009 as the team searches for a new partner. Depending on whom they lease their motors from -- and JGR is still a possibility, Epp said -- the team could also have a manufacturer switch.

HoF started in Chevrolets, then moved to Toyotas with Gibbs. J.J. Yeley began the season driving the No. 96, but was replaced late in the year by Ken Schrader. JGR phenom Joey Logano also ran two races in the car.


I Did Not Just Come Here To Win - Emery
NASCAR teams begin layoffs
Logano ending Hall of Fame Racing experiment

Teams may lay off as many as 1,000

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The glitz and glamour surrounding NASCAR's championship-deciding race roared on at Homestead-Miami Speedway as if nothing was amiss.

Lucky fans still lined up for their pre-race garage tours, celebrities and CEO's crowded pit road and the champagne flowed following Jimmie Johnson's record-tying third consecutive title.

Yet it felt a little flat.

Above all the pomp of Sunday's season-finale hung an air of uncertainty and, in some cases, sheer panic. Team members quietly passed around resumes, looking to latch on at stable organizations. Others worried that the checkered flag at the end of the race would also signify the end of a steady paycheck.

Mass layoffs are expected throughout the NASCAR this week, as team owners from all three national series adjust to the economic crisis. It's difficult to say how many will be put out of work, but some guess as many as 1,000 will lose their jobs.

The cutbacks are most evident at the top-level Sprint Cup Series, where layoffs began a mere two months into the season when BAM Racing stopped showing up at the track. Then Chip Ganassi let 71 people go when he cut down to two cars in July.

The numbers have steadily grown since, reaching all the way to the elite teams of NASCAR. Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing -- three teams that combined to grab nine of the 12 spots in the Chase for the championship -- have all gone through a round of layoffs in the past month.

It all paled to last Wednesday, when Dale Earnhardt Inc. gave pink slips to 116 employees so it could ease the way for a merger with Ganassi.

"It's gut-wrenching to make those decisions," DEI president Max Siegel said.

Several other teams will probably share that experience this week.

Sponsorship woes have put famed Petty Enterprises and the Wood Brothers on shaky ground, while the bottom might well be about to drop at Bill Davis Racing. The team won the Truck Series championship with Johnny Benson on Friday night, but the owner struggled to muster even a small celebratory smile.

"The entire economy, worldwide, is something that I don't think many of us ... certainly myself, has never seen in 40 years of business," Davis said.

People are angry and confused that after almost a decade of growth, the sport has turned so fast.

Some resentment is directed at NASCAR, which finds itself trying to help its teams while not creating a welfare system. Unlike most professional sports leagues, NASCAR doesn't have franchises and all its participants are viewed as independent contractors free to come and go as they please.

So chairman Brian France isn't about to start floating loans of credit to keep teams in business. The sport is and always will be a survival of the fastest and fittest.

But France and his staff are willing to look at cost-cutting measures, and just last weekend suspended all testing in 2009 to help teams save millions of dollars. The decision comes with consequences: If there's no testing, teams no longer need employees dedicated to that part of the program.

It's a given that NASCAR's business model is best suited for NASCAR and its direct employees, and it should be noted the sanctioning body has no current plans for staff reductions. Car owners knew the rules when they decided to enter this big-time level of auto racing, and they can't fault NASCAR if their businesses are now failing.

At some point, when those once employed by DEI or any other prominent team look for someone to blame, they need to consider this: Bad business decisions and mismanagement have as much to do with team stability as the crumbling economy does.

"We've all overspent," seven-time series champion Richard Petty said. "We all had it so good we just kept going forward without saying, 'What if it goes bad?' "

As the layoffs by Hendrick, Gibbs and Roush demonstrate, not every team that is downsizing is in financial crisis. Some are simply tightening the bulging staffs they created in their climb to the top. Teams added specialists to prepare for the Car of Tomorrow, which was meant to be phased in, but went to full-time use this season ahead of schedule. Now that teams are using one model of car instead of two, shop production has decreased and there's not as much work to do.

"If you looked at where we were a year ago, we were running two different kinds of cars," owner Jack Roush said. "So that required a staffing increase for most of the teams that enabled or justified a reduction. Most of our reduction was in the area of car building."

But it's not going to end there, and it's likely to get much worse. Attendance is down at most tracks, sponsorships are harder to come by and the Big Three automakers are in deep financial trouble.

France said a little more than a week ago that NASCAR "won't live or die" by a manufacturer pullback or pullout. But many teams most certainly will, and the trickle-down effect will be devastating to those who rely on racing to pay the bills.

"This is the way they pay their mortgages," driver Jeff Burton said. "And this is the way they pay their car loans and send their children to school and pay their bills."


NASCAR bans 2009 testing to save teams cash
I Did Not Just Come Here To Win - Emery
Tough economic times ahead for NASCAR

Teams may lay off as many as 1,000

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The glitz and glamour surrounding NASCAR's championship-deciding race roared on at Homestead-Miami Speedway as if nothing was amiss.

Lucky fans still lined up for their pre-race garage tours, celebrities and CEO's crowded pit road and the champagne flowed following Jimmie Johnson's record-tying third consecutive title.

Yet it felt a little flat.

Above all the pomp of Sunday's season-finale hung an air of uncertainty and, in some cases, sheer panic. Team members quietly passed around resumes, looking to latch on at stable organizations. Others worried that the checkered flag at the end of the race would also signify the end of a steady paycheck.

Mass layoffs are expected throughout the NASCAR this week, as team owners from all three national series adjust to the economic crisis. It's difficult to say how many will be put out of work, but some guess as many as 1,000 will lose their jobs.

The cutbacks are most evident at the top-level Sprint Cup Series, where layoffs began a mere two months into the season when BAM Racing stopped showing up at the track. Then Chip Ganassi let 71 people go when he cut down to two cars in July.

The numbers have steadily grown since, reaching all the way to the elite teams of NASCAR. Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing -- three teams that combined to grab nine of the 12 spots in the Chase for the championship -- have all gone through a round of layoffs in the past month.

It all paled to last Wednesday, when Dale Earnhardt Inc. gave pink slips to 116 employees so it could ease the way for a merger with Ganassi.

"It's gut-wrenching to make those decisions," DEI president Max Siegel said.

Several other teams will probably share that experience this week.

Sponsorship woes have put famed Petty Enterprises and the Wood Brothers on shaky ground, while the bottom might well be about to drop at Bill Davis Racing. The team won the Truck Series championship with Johnny Benson on Friday night, but the owner struggled to muster even a small celebratory smile.

"The entire economy, worldwide, is something that I don't think many of us ... certainly myself, has never seen in 40 years of business," Davis said.

People are angry and confused that after almost a decade of growth, the sport has turned so fast.

Some resentment is directed at NASCAR, which finds itself trying to help its teams while not creating a welfare system. Unlike most professional sports leagues, NASCAR doesn't have franchises and all its participants are viewed as independent contractors free to come and go as they please.

So chairman Brian France isn't about to start floating loans of credit to keep teams in business. The sport is and always will be a survival of the fastest and fittest.

But France and his staff are willing to look at cost-cutting measures, and just last weekend suspended all testing in 2009 to help teams save millions of dollars. The decision comes with consequences: If there's no testing, teams no longer need employees dedicated to that part of the program.

It's a given that NASCAR's business model is best suited for NASCAR and its direct employees, and it should be noted the sanctioning body has no current plans for staff reductions. Car owners knew the rules when they decided to enter this big-time level of auto racing, and they can't fault NASCAR if their businesses are now failing.

At some point, when those once employed by DEI or any other prominent team look for someone to blame, they need to consider this: Bad business decisions and mismanagement have as much to do with team stability as the crumbling economy does.

"We've all overspent," seven-time series champion Richard Petty said. "We all had it so good we just kept going forward without saying, 'What if it goes bad?' "

As the layoffs by Hendrick, Gibbs and Roush demonstrate, not every team that is downsizing is in financial crisis. Some are simply tightening the bulging staffs they created in their climb to the top. Teams added specialists to prepare for the Car of Tomorrow, which was meant to be phased in, but went to full-time use this season ahead of schedule. Now that teams are using one model of car instead of two, shop production has decreased and there's not as much work to do.

"If you looked at where we were a year ago, we were running two different kinds of cars," owner Jack Roush said. "So that required a staffing increase for most of the teams that enabled or justified a reduction. Most of our reduction was in the area of car building."

But it's not going to end there, and it's likely to get much worse. Attendance is down at most tracks, sponsorships are harder to come by and the Big Three automakers are in deep financial trouble.

France said a little more than a week ago that NASCAR "won't live or die" by a manufacturer pullback or pullout. But many teams most certainly will, and the trickle-down effect will be devastating to those who rely on racing to pay the bills.

"This is the way they pay their mortgages," driver Jeff Burton said. "And this is the way they pay their car loans and send their children to school and pay their bills."


I Did Not Just Come Here To Win - Emery
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Tough economic times ahead for NASCAR

Jimmie Johnson wins third straight Cup title

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus never slowed down enough to consider what a record-tying third consecutive championship would mean to their legacy.

Don't count on them doing it now.

After tying Cale Yarborough's 30-year mark as the only driver with three straight championships, Johnson and his crew chief were already thinking about going after No. 4.

"I could go race again next week and start the season and go for four," Johnson said after Sunday's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "It's on our minds. It's not that we're chasing a number, we just know what we're capable of. We know we can do better. It's a search to do the best we can."

Knaus, the first crew chief in series history to win three straight, even offered to report to work Monday morning to start their pursuit.

He was only partly kidding.

"We want four. Why not? That's why we're here," Knaus said. "We can definitely bid for four. Give me a reason why not."

Carl Edwards could certainly offer a reason or two after winning Sunday's race -- his series-best ninth victory of the season -- only to fall 69 points short of wresting the Sprint Cup trophy away from Johnson. Edwards led a race-high 157 laps, and won despite running out of gas as he crossed the finish line.

Johnson won the title by finishing 15th.

"We won more races than Jimmie (seven), and we ran with him when he won," Edwards said. "I know they'll enjoy this championship, but they knew we were here."

Indeed they did, constantly looking in the rearview mirror as Johnson chased Yarborough's mark.

Yarborough won his three titles 30 years ago, under a different scoring system and in a very different NASCAR. He accomplished his feat when drivers scraped together the cash they needed to race, and the champion was the guy on top at the end of a long grueling season.

Johnson's titles have been won in the glitzy new Chase to the championship format, where the best 12 drivers compete over a 10-race sprint to the title.

Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team have mastered the system, proving themselves unbeatable in their pursuit of Yarborough's mark. They've won their titles with consistency -- he finished outside the top 10 just twice in this Chase, a 15th-place finish at Texas -- and by winning eight of the last 30 Chase races.

They've also gotten very rich along the way: Johnson has won more than $2 million in the 10 Chase races this year. Yarborough earned a combined $1.63 million in all three of his championship seasons.

Although the industry was keenly aware of its front row seat to history, the celebration seemed subdued because of the economic crisis that's finally found its way to NASCAR. The Big Three automakers are crumbling, car owners are struggling to find sponsorship, and widespread layoffs are expected Monday, when teams could combine to let go up to 1,000 employees.

Just this weekend, NASCAR said it would suspend all testing next year to help teams save millions in their 2009 budgets.

"The real risk is race teams folding," said Jack Roush, Edwards' car owner. "The bigger concern I've got is we keep the racing affordable, the race teams affordable for the sponsors, and we're able to keep these other race teams in business."

Had this crisis hit earlier, and the testing ban was in place this season, Johnson very well might not have won the title. He struggled at the start of the year in adapting to the full-time use of NASCAR's current car, so he and Knaus embarked on an aggressive testing schedule that helped them catch the competition by late summer.

By the time the Chase began in September, Johnson drove right past them.

"It's what we work for, it's what we do," Knaus said. "We don't want to do anything but race and win races and win championships."

When Edwards won back-to-back races at Atlanta and Texas to take a bite out of Johnson's points lead, Johnson rebounded with a win at Phoenix last week to make Sunday's drive a mere formality. He needed only to finish 36th or better to win the title, but got off to a rocky start when he qualified 30th.

He wasted no time driving through the field at the start of the race, and picked up at least one position a lap at the start. He would have finished higher, but he stopped for fuel near the end.

Edwards pushed it to the limit, knowing he had to win the race, lead the most laps and pray for Johnson to have some trouble to win his first title. But he was a gracious runner-up, and after his trademark celebratory backflip, he walked over to Johnson's passing car on the track to congratulate him.

"At least we can lay our heads down tonight and know we won some races and just got beaten by a true champion," Edwards said.

It was the second straight night Edwards won the race, yet still came up empty in the championship bid. He won Saturday night's Nationwide Series event, but came up 21 points short of champion Clint Bowyer. Edwards' win Sunday chopped 72 points off Johnson's margin.

Kevin Harvick finished second and was followed by Jamie McMurray and Jeff Gordon, who finished the year winless for the first time since his 1993 rookie season. But the four-time series champion didn't let his own struggles dampen his Hendrick teammate's celebration, as Gordon walked to the victory stage to offer his congratulations.

Bowyer finished fifth and was followed by Kasey Kahne, Travis Kvapil and Casey Mears.

Tony Stewart, in his final ride for Joe Gibbs Racing after a successful 10-year run, wound up ninth after giving up the lead late in the race to pit for fuel.

"We didn't win the race, but they knew we were here and we showed why we've been champions and won 33 races with this team," said Stewart, who is leaving to run his own race team next season.

Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top 10.

Matt Kenseth, who won the 2003 series championship in the final year of the old points system, led late but ran out of fuel and finished 25th in his first winless season in seven years.

"We just can't seem to get things to go our way," said Kenseth, who was frustrated teammate Edwards could stretch his gas but he could not. "I don't understand how he can make power and still get that much better fuel mileage than us. I had such a big lead, I was just riding around."


Yarborough resigned to Johnson three-peat
Monzón Hails ‘Change Of Spirit’

Johnson and Knaus' run fueled by milk, cookies

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Rick Hendrick set history in motion over milk and cookies served on a plate donned with Mickey Mouse ears.

In a snack setting designed for children, the car owner called Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus together to discuss the strain in their relationship following their failed 2005 championship run. If the two couldn't stop bickering like little kids -- and Hendrick wasn't convinced they could -- he was fully prepared to split them.

"It was getting to the point where Chad and Jimmie were having more bad days than good days," Hendrick said. "I called them into my office ... and said 'If we're going to act like kids, we're going to have cookies and milk and we'll have some down time where we can talk about what you don't like about each."

They cleared the air that afternoon, and Hendrick scrapped any plans to overhaul the race team.

Man, did he make the right call.

Johnson and Knaus haven't looked back since, putting together three dominating seasons not seen in 30 years of NASCAR racing. Barring anything short of disaster on Sunday, Johnson will become the first driver to win three consecutive Cup titles since Cale Yarborough from 1976-78.

The two-time defending champion leads Carl Edwards by a cushy 141 points, and although he starts 30th after an unusually poor qualifying effort, the title is practically in the bag. He needs to finish 36th out of 43 cars to win the title, and odds are it won't be an issue: Johnson has only finished lower than 36th once all season.

This charge into the record books has been mesmerizing, as Johnson and Knaus have steamrolled their way to the top. They methodically knocked off Matt Kenseth in 2006 for the first title, then won a take-no-prisoners showdown with teammate Jeff Gordon. This time, they've rallied from a poor start to the season to furiously reclaim their spot atop the sport.

And to think, it almost didn't happen.

"The meeting was supposed to be how we split the guys up," Hendrick said. "But in this meeting, these guys really put their heart on the table and they talked specifically about what they didn't like. Instead of holding it in, they were able to become closer friends and still respect each other's professional position in the team.

"I'm real proud of them because I would have bet money that we couldn't fix it. I think both of those guys would be successful in their own right, but I think they're stronger together."

Untouchable, actually.

Only this was the year they actually appeared vulnerable, struggling out of the gates with the full-time use of NASCAR's new car model. The severity of the situation was revealed in March at Las Vegas, where no other driver had come close to Johnson in over three years.

But instead of notching a fourth-straight win in the desert, Johnson struggled all afternoon and finished 29th. He was alarmingly off the pace set by race-winner Edwards, who was jockeying with Kyle Busch to be the driver to knock Johnson off the throne.

Johnson and Knaus refused to go quietly. They feverishly went to work, embarking on an aggressive testing schedule that helped them quickly catch up to the competition.

Their first win came five weeks later at Phoenix, but they didn't really hit their stride until late summer. Johnson won at Indianapolis in July to start a stretch of four wins in 10 races and re-establish himself as the man to beat.

And if there were any doubts, he erased them with another near flawless Chase. He won at Kansas and Martinsville, then passed nine cars in the final eight laps at Atlanta to finish a stunning second to Edwards.

"Man, Jimmie is magic," a deflated Edwards offered after learning of Johnson's finishing position.

Johnson was disappointed with a ninth-place finish in Charlotte, and angry when a 15th-place at Texas allowed Edwards to take a bite out of his points lead two weeks ago. But if Johnson was on the ropes, he never flinched.

Instead, he schooled the field last week at Phoenix, turning the season finale into a mere formality. With one last Sunday drive, Johnson will place his name among the NASCAR greats.

But don't ask the laid-back Californian where he ranks. Just 33 years old and in his seventh full season, he wouldn't dare compare himself to the heroes before him. Not even to Yarborough, who has stood alone in the record books for 30 years.

"I don't think I have, or any driver, has the right to proclaim their spot in history," Johnson said. "That's not for that person to decide. That's for the fan base, the guys that have done it and are in that club and were accepted into that club."

Knaus doesn't play the history game, either, even though he'll become the first crew chief to win three straight titles. Yarborough used Herb Nab in 1976 and '77, while Tim Brewer and Travis Carter led the effort in 1978.

Knaus is not interested in anything but winning. The race on Sunday. The championship this year. A record fourth title next year.

"We're here to win championships," he said. "Maybe when I retire I'll reflect on it, but right now it's about the challenge in front of us. That's winning a championship this year, then going back to work to win one next year. That's what we do."


Johnson fast, Edwards struggles in final practice
Patient Pablo Waiting For Opportunities

Runner-up Edwards looking ahead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- As Carl Edwards coasted across the finish line Sunday, out of gas and relegated to another runner-up championship finish, he had some consoling words for his team.

"We will definitely get them next year," Edwards said.

Don't bet against them.

Sure, the Roush Fenway Racing driver came out of the final weekend of the NASCAR season at Homestead-Miami Speedway oh-for-two in his effort to win at least one of the titles in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup seasons, but he also gave everyone something to think about over the winter.

The 29-year-old Roush Fenway Racing driver made it as interesting as he could, winning both the Nationwide race on Saturday and the season-ending Sprint Cup event -- his series-leading ninth victory -- less than 24 hours later in his long-shot bid to catch Jimmie Johnson.

It just wasn't enough.

Johnson, who needed only to finish 36th or better on Sunday to win a record-tying third consecutive Cup title, cruised to a comfortable 15th-place finish while Edwards stretched his mileage to its limits and hoped Johnson would find trouble.

"Second place in the championship isn't what we came here for, but Jimmie's a great guy," Edwards said. "He deserved to win."

Despite the two victories, it wasn't the weekend Edwards hoped for.

He came up 21 points short of Clint Bowyer in the second-tier series and, despite chopping 114 points off Johnson's lead over the last two races, Edwards wound up losing that championship by 69 points.

After doing his trademark victory backflip off his No. 99 Fusion for the final time this season following the Ford 400, Edwards was philosophical about the latest of his runner-up finishes.

"I'm sure glad we won today's race because it will make it a little bit earlier to deal with the offseason and coming so close to that championship," Edwards said. "We ran really well this season and it's something I wanted to make sure my guys understood is they did their jobs.

"We have given it our best and performed very well."

The numbers prove that.

His finish in Nationwide was sensational, nearly coming back from a 241-point deficit by winning four times and finishing no worse than fifth in the last nine races.

In Cup, besides his series-leading victory total, Edwards chalked up 18 top-five finishes and 26 top-10s. Add that to seven wins, 19 top-fives and 22 top-10s in Nationwide and it adds up to a heck of a season.

Trying to deny Johnson another title, Edwards stumbled with finishes of 29th at Talladega, where he took the blame for a multicar crash, and 33rd the next week at Charlotte, where he had an electrical problem.

But, instead of saying, "Wait "til next year," Edwards charged to the end with finishes of third, first, first, fourth and first -- the last two wins coming on amazing fuel economy runs.

"It's been fun," Edwards said. "We could go be aggressive. We knew we were at a disadvantage after those two races where we lost a bunch of points. But, not to be cliche or sad or whatever, but anybody out there shooting for something or trying for something, you can't lose if you give it 100 percent. If you give it 100 percent, you win no matter what."

"One of the toughest things to do is to just keep your head up, do the best you can and take what you get," he added. "That is why I'm so excited the years to come because I feel like this team can do it, regardless of the odds."

Now Edwards heads into the winter knowing he will be at least a co-favorite with Johnson for the 2009 Cup title -- and that is just fine with him.

"We won more races than Jimmie, and we ran with him when he won," he said. "I personally feel like we closed a big gap this season. ... I know they'll enjoy this championship, but they knew we were here."

Team owner Jack Roush agreed.

"It was a pretty good year for those guys," Roush said, grinning. "I think they can top it next year."


Edwards wins race; Bowyer takes title
Johnson wins pole to strengthen championship bid
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Stewart prepares for final ride with JGR

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Tony Stewart has never been good at hiding his emotions. Yet as he closed in on his final ride with Joe Gibbs Racing, the two-time series champion was playing it close to the vest.

Stewart was low-key at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he declined an opportunity to reflect on a successful decade with Gibbs and the No. 20 team.

"Everything. All 10 years. All 10 years stand out to me," was all he offered.

His subdued mood was understandable: Stewart is leaving Gibbs after Sunday's season finale to run his own team, a venture that was too good to pass up but meant leaving an organization he and crew chief Greg Zipadelli built into a NASCAR powerhouse.

"This is the longest relationship I've ever had with any car owner," Stewart said in a team release earlier this week, "so that's why this situation is so different than anything else I've ever dealt with."

"Smoke" and "Zippy" are also the longest active driver-crew chief pairing in NASCAR. They partnered for Stewart's rookie season in 1999 and found instant success, going on to rack up 33 wins and two championships while helping Gibbs position the organization among the NASCAR elite.

During preseason testing at Daytona, when Stewart was still contemplating a contract extension with JGR, he said he couldn't imagine a scenario where he and Zipadelli would not be working together. But when Stewart chose to leave, Zipadelli opted to remain at Gibbs and will team with 18-year-old phenom Joey Logano next season.

Zipadelli isn't sure how he'll feel after the final race with Stewart.

"I guess I'm just numb to it. It's not what I expected to happen a year ago. But it's the path that we're headed," Zipadelli said. "Ten years. For me, it's starting over. For him, it's starting over. There were a lot of days over the years where I was frustrated and stressed out and burned out. But if he said 'Let's continue this and sign a new deal,' I wouldn't think twice about staying with him."

The two have weathered their share of storms over the year, most of them Stewart-inflicted. The temperamental driver has had numerous run-ins with other drivers, fans, media and NASCAR that at times threatened to destroy the team.

But the organization always stood behind him, and Zipadelli believes Stewart has grown tremendously from every experience.

"I think he's certainly way more mature, way more understanding of what it is to be a team instead of I. And when he first came here, it wasn't that way," Zipadelli said. "And there was a good two to three years that some things were just pretty stupid. But you knew all along, he didn't do things -- in my heart I believe this -- he didn't do those things to be destructive or hurt people.

"It was just his way of dealing with things, and it was the wrong way."

Although Stewart declined to look back on the highlights, Zipadelli rattled off their meaningful accomplishments. The championships, two wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and their first Cup win at Richmond in 1999 top his list.

"We both did our job over the years," he said. "It was great. I appreciated it, but it's just not what we're going to be doing anymore."

------

NERVOUS NELLIE: Team owner Rick Hendrick has already won seven Cup championships, so you might think that he would be immune to the pressure of a title chase.

You would be wrong.

Even with Jimmie Johnson needing only to finish 36th or better on Sunday to assure Hendrick of a third straight Cup title and his eighth overall, Hendrick is battling a case of nerves.

"You know, I wish I could tell you that I've gotten used to it, but I (haven't)," Hendrick said. "I think I get more nervous, or as nervous as I ever have."

Johnson virtually wrapped up the title with a dominating victory last week at Phoenix, but Hendrick said it wasn't an easy day for him.

"That was the longest race that I ever can remember," the owner said. "You've just got so much riding on it. ... In the Chase anything can happen. It just brings a lot of pressure and a lot of nervousness, I guess, and I don't get used to it."

Hendrick, who also fields Cup cars for four-time champion Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears, said he expects Sunday to be a stressful day.

"Sunday morning when they line up and start is when I'll wear out my shoes going back and forth down pit road because I can't stand still," he explained. "We think we've got a really good shot at closing the deal, but we could have the motor problem like Jeff (Gordon) did (at Phoenix) in the first 10 laps, and then we're done. So I'll rest better Sunday night, hopefully."

------

PRETTY GOOD YEAR: Despite stumbling in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, Kyle Busch says he has not been disappointed by a surprising season that so far has included 21 wins -- eight in Cup, 10 in Nationwide and three in trucks.

The 23-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished 14th in the truck series while running only 18 of 25 races. He went into Saturday's Nationwide event here sixth in that series, despite racing just 29 of the first 34 races. But he goes into Sunday's Cup finale a disappointing 11th in the standings after dominating the 26-race regular season.

"It's been a great year and it means a lot to have a year like this and win as many races as we have," Busch said. "People discounted the Nationwide and the truck wins because (those are) lesser series than what the Cup series is. But there's Cup guys that are running in those series -- ex-Cup guys in the truck series and Cup guys now in the Nationwide series, and upcoming guys that are supposed to be the best of what there is today."

Maybe Busch's biggest disappointment is that he won't get to test a Toyota Formula One car in Japan next week.

"I don't get to drive the Formula One car anymore," he said. "I have to go to the Nationwide banquet (next Saturday) and accept my sixth-place awards instead. NASCAR took me away from the Formula One car."

------

SPARK PLUGS: There have been 12 different winners in the first 35 Cup races this season, but Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart are the only new winners since the 15th race of the year in June. ... Biffle leads all drivers with three victories in nine races at the Homestead track. ... David Ragan, completing his second full season in Cup, leads the series with 10,395 of 10,459 possible laps completed. Ragan is 13th in the season points.

------

Auto Racing Writer Mike Harris contributed to this report


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Edwards wins race; Bowyer takes title

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Carl Edwards won the season-ending Ford 300 on Saturday night, but came up 21 points short in his attempt to overtake Clint Bowyer for the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.

All Bowyer had to do to keep Edwards from winning a second straight title in the second-tier series was finish in the top eight. He did that easily, taking fifth to stay on top of the standings, right where he has been most of the year despite winning only one of 35 races.

"We've been consistent," Bowyer said after climbing out of his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. "We did the things it takes to win championships. I want to thank Richard for giving me the opportunity."

Edwards wrested the lead from Kyle Busch late in the race and stayed out front to the end of the 200-lap event at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He earned his seventh Nationwide victory and kept Busch from recording a record 11th series win.

Edwards did all he could in his No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, other than getting the five-point bonus for leading the most laps, but it wasn't enough.

"We've raced a long time, we're both from the Midwest and he's a good competitor," Bowyer said of Edwards. "He's last year's champion and it feels really good to beat him."

It was a disappointing finish for Edwards, who faces even bigger odds Sunday trying to make up a 141-point deficit against Jimmie Johnson in the Sprint Cup finale. Johnson can wrap up the title by finishing 36th or better, no matter what Edwards does.

"Man, that's a great win, to be able to hold off that 18 (Busch's No. 18 Toyota), as strong as that group has been," Edwards said. "It's no good to finish second, but I know Clint will be a great champion.

"Tonight went about as well as it could and, no matter what happens tomorrow, we're going to go into the offseason knowing we're going to be really good next year."

Both Edwards and Bowyer, another Cup star, had consistent seasons. The difference was Bowyer rolled up 29 top-10 finishes and finished every race, while Edwards had 22 top-10s and failed to finish two races.

"It's not tonight that decided this championship," Edwards said. "It's an all-season thing. We've got a great team here and on the Cup side. There's no shame in finishing second."

The 29-year-old Bowyer, who started the night with a 56-point lead, fell out of the top 10 several times in the first half of the race. He actually trailed Edwards in points several times, but his team used a two-tire pit stop during a caution just past the halfway point to get its driver into the top five, and he managed to stay there the rest of the race.

The last of eight caution flags in the race came out with nine laps remaining, making things a little more nervous for Bowyer.

"I knew Clint had to be sweating those last few laps knowing some of those guys behind him had (fresh) tires," Edwards said. "But he did a good job of staying where he needed to be."

The last four laps were run under the green flag and none of the top five positions changed as Edwards pulled away from Busch.

Bowyer said it was a nerve-racking race.

"The whole race we were three-wide, in traffic, behind, trying to catch up," he said. "Carl did a good job of keeping the pressure on us. But we knew we had to just stick with it and stay smart, and that's what we did."

The driver championship was the fifth for Childress in the developmental series.

Rookie Joey Logano, Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, started from the pole and finished 10th. That wrapped up the car owner points championship for Gibbs in the No. 20 Toyota, a car also driven at times this year by Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. Bowyer wound up second in owner points, 12 behind.


Edwards wins Nationwide race to close on Bowyer
Pellegrini Pleased With Positive Start

Johnson fast, Edwards struggles in final practice

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Things were definitely looking up for Jimmie Johnson on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he is hoping to put the finishing touches on a record-tying third straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in the season finale.

After a 30th-place qualifying effort Friday, Johnson's No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was fastest in the first of two practices on the 1.5-mile oval before slipping to fourth in the second and final session.

Series runner-up Carl Edwards was in the opposite situation. Edwards, who trails Johnson by 141 points going into Sunday's Ford 400, qualified fourth, but had a so-so final day of practice. He was seventh in the opening session, but fell to 23rd in the last hour.

That wasn't a good omen for Edwards, who has to lead laps and finish at or near the top to have any hope of catching Johnson, who needs to finish only 36th or better to match Cale Yarborough's 30-year-old record of three straight Cup titles.

"Just the fact that we're starting in front Jimmie, that's a small victory for us," Edwards said after qualifying. "The better chance we can have, the better pit stall selection we can have, the more traffic he's in, all of those things add up to a better chance for us to make this Cinderella story happen and come back from nowhere and win this."

One of the few things that could give Edwards a chance is for Johnson to have a parts failure of get caught up in a crash.

Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, said starting in midpack is not where he would like his driver to be.

"There is a lot of mayhem that goes on back there, especially at this racetrack with the way the groove widens up," Knaus said. "You get people all over the racetrack, so that's always a concern.

"People say, 'Well, that's just bad luck if you get caught up in a wreck when you're at the back of the field.' But, quite honestly, if you hadn't qualified so poorly you wouldn't be back there and you wouldn't be in the wreck. Obviously, engine issues, mechanical issues ... you just don't even know what's going to happen. So I'm worried about everything, to be quite honest with you. But the thing I'm most concerned about, is just making sure we keep (Edwards) in eyesight."

Denny Hamlin, another of the 12 drivers in the Chase for the championship, was fast on Saturday. He was right behind Johnson in the first practice and led the "Happy Hour" session, just ahead of three-time Homestead winner Greg Biffle.

But the spotlight will be on Johnson and Edwards. As 2007 Homestead winner Matt Kenseth can attest, the race winner gets little attention if somebody else wins the championship.

"It's cool to win anytime you can, especially the last race of the year because you can't get beat the next week," Kenseth said. "You've kind of got all winter to be a little bit happy about your win and enjoy it."


Johnson wins pole to strengthen championship bid
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Earnhardt supports DEI merger with Ganassi

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not sentimental about the demise of Dale Earnhardt Inc., and he supports the company's partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Had this week's merger not happened, Earnhardt isn't sure DEI could have survived this current economic crisis. The team was formed by the late Dale Earnhardt in 1995 and was intended to be handed down to his children.

"It's good for them, I hope," he said Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "It was going to be disappointing if they didn't merge. Next year would be a tough year. I just hope that they move forward."

NASCAR's most popular driver left DEI at the end of last season to drive for Hendrick Motorsports, citing a tense relationship with his stepmother, Teresa, and a lack of faith in the race team's direction.

It's been a rapid descent since, as the four-car team has lost sponsors and struggled to compete consistently.

He wouldn't speculate on what his father, who was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, would think of the merger or DEI's poor performance. But Earnhardt does believe his father would have had an easier time keeping the team among NASCAR's elite.

"He would have had better luck in securing the sponsorships that they currently have in this state," he said. "When my Daddy died, everything about everything changed. If he was here, it would be sad. But he's not, and everybody has to go do their own thing and make their own way. Everybody has got to take care of themselves. He ain't here to take care of everybody, so you gotta do it yourself, and that's that.

"I want them to succeed, I want them to be happy, I want it to work, but I can't exhaust any of my emotion over it because of what I've got going on myself."

Earnhardt, who made the Chase for the championship this season driving for Hendrick, runs his own Nationwide Series team and has been busy trying to secure sponsorship for his flagship No. 88 car that Brad Keselowski drives. The lack of funding forced him to lay off 20 percent of the JR Motorsports work force late last month.

Still, he's committed to keeping his team afloat and is pleased that Teresa Earnhardt took the necessary steps to keep her team running.

"I just think I ain't got much to say about it anymore. I did. But I'm so far removed from it, past it, a little bit farther removed from it, and I don't have the initial knee-jerk reaction about it no more when these types of things happen," Earnhardt said. "I'm more on the sidelines with everyone else now where I just view it from a distance. But I have an emotional connection with it. I want it to work and want it to do good, but a lot has changed.

"It's difficult to feel any real close connection to it anymore."

DEI has four cars this season but only one has full funding for next year. Ganassi started the year with three cars, folded Dario Franchitti's team in July and was headed into 2009 with 1.5 of his cars funded.

Combined, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates will be a four-car operation for Juan Pablo Montoya, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr. and a driver yet to be named.

The union resulted in 100-plus layoffs at DEI earlier this week, with no guarantee more won't come. Although Earnhardt lamented the loss of jobs, he insisted they were coming regardless.

"They weren't going to run four teams next year, or three or whatever," he said. "You can't blame a single individual for the layoffs. The sport is going to have a lot of those."


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Edwards outqualifies Johnson

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Carl Edwards got the jump on Jimmie Johnson in Friday's qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Edwards, facing a daunting 141-point deficit heading into Sunday's Ford 400, qualified fourth, trailing only first-time pole winner David Reutimann, rookie Scott Speed and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth. Johnson, who needs only to finish 36th or better on Sunday to wrap up his third straight Cup title, will start a disappointing 30th.

It's only the seventh time in 36 races this season that Johnson has started 20th or lower. The good news for Johnson is his worst finish in any of those races was 33rd in the August race at Bristol.

Edwards, who knows his chances of winning the title mainly hinge on Johnson having a parts failure or crashing, shrugged off the qualifying spread.

"We just race as hard as we can," Edwards said. "No matter what happens to Jimmie, we have to run very well to have a chance to win this championship."

The qualifying discrepancy does give Edwards one other edge, since pit selection is based on qualifying.

"Pit selection will be big -- not as big as other places, though, because you can pass so easily here," Edwards said. "But I'll take whatever I can get. This will make it a little easier to sleep tonight and have a little confidence going into the race."

Before qualifying, Johnson was asked what he needs to do this weekend.

"We've got to finish 400 miles," Johnson said. "I'm looking forward to it. I'm ready to get on track.

"It's been a busy week and (I'm) just really eager to get in the car and get into what I do and what this team's about and what we like to do, which is drive that car and make it fast."

Even after his disappointing lap in qualifying, Johnson didn't appear too concerned.

"Oh well, we'll roll with it," Johnson said. "I had some trouble coming to the green (flag) and lost some time, so it's probably not the qualifying effort that we wanted.

"But we had a great practice and have a great car and we'll be just fine. We'll just kind of run from there and see what we get."

The previous best start for Reutimann in 63 Cup races for Michael Waltrip Racing was second this summer at Bristol.

"It feels great," said Reutimann, whose fast lap was 171.636 mph. "It gives us a good starting position, so I'm pretty excited about that.

"Our team is a second-year organization and, last year, we were just worried about getting in races, much less winning a pole. Our team has come a very long way. Our main jump to getting into the situation we're in now was the 600 series cars that we're in now. The cars are much, much lighter, just a better car. Almost right away when we started building those cars. ... we started running better."

Speed, making only his fourth Cup start, swapped cars with Red Bull teammate Brian Vickers this week, assuring Speed of making the race in the top-35 No. 83 Toyota. The former Formula One driver didn't need the help.

"We didn't exactly get a lot of laps in practice," Speed said. "I think that helped us. We didn't have enough time to mess it up.

"I just drove it in the corner and it stuck. No magic."

Vickers, driving the team's No. 84, which needed to qualify on speed, had no problem, either. He put the car into the field in 20th.

Kenseth is the defending race champion.

Rounding out the top 10 were Kevin Harvick, David Ragan, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson and Martin Truex Jr.

Tony Stewart, making his final start for Joe Gibbs Racing before moving to his own Stewart-Haas Racing team, qualified 13th.

Ken Schrader, Max Papis and Sam Hornish Jr. failed to qualify.


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Trucks: Benson wins title; Bodine takes race

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- A two-tire stop and a late decision to stay on track during a caution period were just enough to give Johnny Benson the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title by seven points over Ron Hornaday on Friday night in a race that went to overtime.

Todd Bodine won the Ford 200, but all eyes were on the championship contenders as Hornaday tried desperately to make up ground after falling behind in the pits during the final caution at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Benson, who came into the race with a three-point lead, finished seventh, one position ahead of Hornaday after the dramatic green-white-checker finish.

"Tonight was tough," Benson said. "Tonight was about (crew chief) Trip Bruce and making the calls he did. ... Trip said early on we might not be the fastest, but it was going to be the smartest one that won it. And that's what it came down to -- Trip's calls."

Bruce said it was obvious Hornaday had a better truck most of the night.

"They made a mistake," the crew chief said. "I think they would have beat us if they stayed out. But we ran hard to the end and it's our championship."

Hornaday led early in the race, with Benson falling several positions behind. But Bruce's decision to put only two tires on Benson's Toyota truck during a caution on lap 92 of the event scheduled to go 134 laps vaulted Benson from ninth to his first lead of the night.

He and Hornaday swapped positions several times until Mike Skinner's shredded tire brought out another yellow flag on lap 125. During the ensuing caution period, runaway leader Kyle Busch pitted and Hornaday's crew chief Rick Ren brought his driver's Chevrolet onto pit road for a four-tire stop, while Bruce kept Benson on the track.

When the race was restarted, Benson was sixth and Hornaday 13th. It appeared three-time and defending truck champion Hornaday would catch Benson, but rookie Tayler Malsam crashed on lap 132, forcing a two-lap overtime. Hornaday ran out of time.

"I was frustrated," Hornaday said of the four-tire stop. "My radio wouldn't work. I didn't want to stop. My truck was good enough to stay out, but they kept telling me to come in and I had no choice. Then it hurt me that a lot of those guys only took two tires.

"It was a good call, but it didn't work. I ran out of laps."

Benson still looked a little surprised to be the champion after celebrating in Victory Circle.

"I was kind of crying down the backstretch but, hopefully, I'm over it," he said. "My wife kept telling me that I only had to win by one. ... That was my approach going into the race."

It took NASCAR several minutes to determine that Benson, the 1995 Nationwide -- then Busch -- Series champion, won this title.

"I'm just so happy for (truck owners) Bill and Gail Davis," said Benson, who will not return to the team next season. "It took them a long time for them to tell me who actually won it, but I'm pretty happy now. This means a lot."

Sprint Cup star Busch built a lead of more than 5 seconds midway through the race, fell back after a pit stop and retook the lead before pitting again during the late caution.

It appeared he might get to the front again, but the last caution flag slowed him down and he wound up fourth as Bodine passed rookie Brian Scott for the win and Kevin Harvick, Hornaday's truck owner, finished third.

A year ago, Hornaday overcame Skinner's 29-point lead in the final race to win his third title when the leader got caught up in a crash. This time, the longtime NASCAR star fell just short.

"Ron's truck was really good, but it came down to pit strategy at the end and that's the way it goes," the disappointed Harvick said. "But I think everybody is happy for Johnny. He's been so close before."

Bodine, a former series champion, was surprised to find himself in Victory Circle after making a late-race pass on rookie Brian Scott to take the lead.

"We had a troublesome race truck," Bodine said. "They got us a lot of spots on pit road. The fastest truck doesn't always win, and that's the way ti was tonight.

"If those other guys hadn't pitted, we'd have probably run no better than second."


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Hutchens, Gibson join Stewart-Haas

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Stewart-Haas Racing filled two key positions on Friday, hiring Bobby Hutchens as director of competition and Tony Gibson as crew chief for Ryan Newman's new No. 39 Chevrolet.

"Bobby Hutchens brings a ton of technical and management experience to SHR, and Tony Gibson has helped a lot of well-known drivers earn their recognition by getting them to victory lane," Tony Stewart said. "I'm very proud to have both of these guys as a part of my team."

Stewart will leave Joe Gibbs Racing after Sunday's season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to head up the former Haas CNC Racing team.

Hutchens was formerly vice president of competition at Dale Earnhardt Inc., while Gibson has most recently been crew chief for the No. 8 DEI entry, co-driven this year by Mark Martin and Aric Almirola.

"Stewart-Haas Racing has an incredible amount of potential, and to be an integral part of what we all believe can be a championship-winning organization was an opportunity I could not turn down," Hutchens said. "It's important that a race team's front office is in sync with what's happening on the shop floor, and having lived in both worlds, I'm committed to making Stewart-Haas Racing a strong and efficient operation."

Gibson, a Cup crew chief since 2002, is looking forward to working with Daytona 500 winner Newman and two-time Cup champion Stewart.

"I've known Tony a long time and have always respected him as a racer and as a person," Gibson said. "He understands people, works well with them, and genuinely wants to see them succeed. And he's smart enough to know that their success is also his success.

"He's building an impressive race team, and I'm very happy to be a part of it."


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NASCAR bans 2009 testing to save teams cash

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- NASCAR has suspended all testing at its sanctioned tracks next season in a cost-cutting measure that should help teams save several million dollars in their 2009 budgets.

The moratorium, which includes the traditional "preseason" Daytona 500 testing, is for NASCAR's top three divisions. Teams cannot test at any track where a Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series or Truck Series event is held.

NASCAR told teams its decision Friday morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The decision is an about-face from just a few months ago, when NASCAR considered expanding the testing schedule to as many as 24 days at any track.

Reaction was mixed among drivers, who generally loathe the midweek test sessions but value the data that's gathered.

"I think it's a mistake," said Jimmie Johnson, who's poised to win his third consecutive Sprint Cup Series title. "I do understand and recognize that we need to cut expenses. ... Now we're going to need to focus on other ways to collect data or create simulation programs or machines to create on-track activity and then test at tracks that may not work and on tires we won't race on and try to find a baseline.

"It's going to slow things down and make it more expensive. We still have to get on the track. We still have to test. We cannot sit still."

The current testing policy was seven tests over 15 days at tracks selected by NASCAR. Teams also could rent time at NASCAR tracks that don't host Cup races -- Nashville, Kentucky, Memphis -- and were free to test at any facility not on the NASCAR schedule.

NASCAR can't control teams from testing at tracks it doesn't sanction, and Johnson was certain his Hendrick Motorsports team will put together a busy schedule at those facilities next year.

It creates an interesting dilemma for NASCAR, which also wants the second-tier teams to catch up to the super teams of Hendrick, Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Childress Racing. Those four organizations can and will test aggressively at non-NASCAR tracks, while teams short of cash may not be able to afford that luxury.

"At the end of the day, speed equals dollars. It's the formula in racing, it's the way it works," Johnson said. "At the end of the day, the only way we're going to beat Roush, or Childress or Yates or Ganassi or any of the teams out there, is by finding more speed and technology and that takes money to do. No matter how you try to fold the rules, you can't change that.

"We've got to do what we've got to do to win."

But Carl Edwards, who drives for Roush's five-car team, applauded the decision because of the immediate cost relief it will give teams. Estimates vary on how much testing costs, but teams are believed to spend about $1 million a car for the three-day January test at Daytona.

"I think it gives a little bit of relief to the teams as far as expenses and the team owners," Edwards said. "As long as everyone operates on the same rules, you are going to have nearly the same competition whether you can test every day of the year or not test at all."

But Robbie Loomis, vice president of Petty Enterprises, said he's worried the testing cutbacks will hurt rookie drivers.

"Rookies like (Joey) Logano need to spend a little bit more time in Nationwide, and I think a rule like this will make people look at them a little different before they bring their driver up," Loomis said. "Jimmie Johnson was in Nationwide a couple years before he came to Cup. But when Jimmie Johnson came here, he was ready to go."

The testing ban comes as NASCAR is trying to cut costs to save struggling teams. Sponsorship dollars are extremely difficult to find, and several teams are in danger of folding if they can't find a miracle or a merger.

Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. agreed this week to combine their teams next season, and the partnership resulted in 100-plus layoffs at DEI. The Wood Brothers, who have been in NASCAR since 1953, lost the Air Force as a sponsor this week when it said it was moving to Gillett Evernham Motorsports next year.

Furniture Row Racing, an independent one-car team based in Denver, Colo., said it will run a limited schedule in 2009. The Furniture Row company both owns the team and sponsors the No. 78 driven by Joe Nemechek.

"This is simply a business decision by Furniture Row of balancing priorities in a tough economy and, from all appearances, looks to be getting even tougher," team president Joe Garone said.


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Former NASCAR champions hoping for the best

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- When it comes to good times and bad times, NASCAR's King has seen it all.

With the United States facing the worst economic downturn since the Depression and the possible collapse of the domestic auto industry, Richard Petty sees hard times on the horizon for his sport.

And he's convinced NASCAR will survive.

Rex White, who won his only championship in 1960 long before NASCAR's big paydays, stressed that money has always been a problem for teams -- especially the have-nots.

"We had a problem with money every day, every week, with meeting payroll or winning enough money to race on and being able to finance the car and buy the pieces and parts that you need to go there and win the race," White said Thursday. "So money is always a big problem when you race. Racing has never really paid its way properly maybe until today. Not even today. Without the sponsors, they couldn't even race today."

Seven-time points champion Petty agreed it's sponsorship woes, moreso than the automakers' angst, that worry a midpack team such as Petty Enterprises.

The team's signature No. 43 car has only partial sponsorship for 2009.

"Back in the 70s, we depended entirely on the technology that the factories had," Petty said. "The teams now have started hiring their own engineers and doing a bunch of stuff. ... If the factories all went home, the general public up in the grandstand probably wouldn't know the difference, if we had sponsorship for the cars."

Petty doesn't deny the team has talked about a possible merger. On Wednesday, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing announced they will combine teams next season.

Earlier this year, Petty sold majority ownership in Petty Enterprises, the team started by his father more than 50 years ago, to Boston Ventures, an investment banking firm.

"We talk to everybody about everything that we've been talking about, and we're still standing here independent," Petty said. "But we're not wanting to take on somebody else's bad because we have enough of our own."

Petty and White were two of several former champions who gathered Thursday to celebrate the season's final week, with Jimmie Johnson trying to wrap up a record-tying third straight Sprint Cup title Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

None of the champions imagined a future that doesn't include NASCAR.

"I think it'll go on, and NASCAR will survive it because people that are race fans, they'll come to see some kind of racing," White said. "It might not be the same as it is today, but racing will continue on."

But former champions Dale Jarrett and Darrell Waltrip acknowledged the nation's economic woes are bound to cause some major changes in the sport.

"Right now, you're not seeing the effects of the economy so much because a lot of the things that are happening right now were already budgeted and paid for," Waltrip said. "It's next year when we're going to see the problems. I think when we get to Daytona (in February) and beyond, that's when we're going to see people that don't have jobs, they can't charge stuff on their credit cars. I think that's when we're going to really see a negative effect on the sport."

Fans aren't the only ones who might have to change their spending habits.

Jarrett suggested the days of teams getting on a private jet and flying to tracks might be coming to an end.

"I'm talking about crew members that have no idea what it's like to get in a van and drive to Dover, Del., for the races," Jarrett said. "Hopefully, we can just do some cutbacks until things get a little bit better, and we don't lose any of the manufacturers."

The Sprint Cup series currently features Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge and Toyota vehicles.

No matter the possible cutbacks, 2004 champion Kurt Busch is focused on the long term, calling today's troubles "a blip in the road."

"Listening to what Richard says, it's given me the perception that he's been through a category 5 hurricane, survived it and he's seen the series and NASCAR get hit by storms and survive it," Busch said. "Teams will have to scale back, but the series will survive. And we'll still be here to collect a trophy on Sunday."


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