Jimmy Johnson celebrates with Chad Knaus and the Lowe’s Home Improvement #48 team, as he is showered on the victory stage with the NASCAR Sprint Cup by confetti stars at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Denny Hamlin takes the race win at Homestead after winning the Ford 400 race.

Hamlin started his day way back in the field, 38^th. It took many laps to find Hamlin in the top 20 in the race, but once he broke the top twenty, he never fell out of it. Hamlin would lead the race for 71 laps.

In the last portion of the race, Hamlin left the field behind by several seconds as Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick tried their best to knock Hamlin from the lead on restarts, but it would not happen as Hamlin would nail his restarts to bring him to victory lane at the end of the race. Hamlin will be able to enjoy his off season with the win, one of a few that he earned this year.

Two benchmarks were set in the 61 year NASCAR historybooks. The first, Johnson being a 4-time in a row Series Champion and the second where Rick Hendrick captured with a team finish in the standings of 1,2,3 after Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon set the pace that many tried in vain to follow and could not catch it.

The race was a battle from the start and to the end. A great race overall by all the drivers to wrap up the 36 race season. Now, the recap of the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami.

Have 36 races gone by? You have to ask yourself, “Where has the year gone by?”

All I can say is that I remember when we were just at Daytona International Speedway for the limited version of Speedweeks before the Bud Shootout and the Duels followed by the 500. Now, here we are 36 races later at Homestead-Miami with 400 miles before we crown the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion.

All signs point that Jimmie Johnson will be wearing that crown today, barring any type of calamity that could hit the Lowe’s Home Improvement #48 Hendrick driver. If that calamity hits, the Championship could be placed on Mark Martin, providing he gathers the maximum points needed and Johnson finishing worse the 25^th.

It could happen, but the destiny that looks ahead for Johnson says that he will be hoisting the Cup at the end of the race today.

The race started with Johnson along side of Scott Speed kicked off the 400 miles to end our season. Johnson leads the first 5 points of the race and five points closer to take the Cup.

The race proved to be two things that have occurred over the past several races, one that three of Team Hendrick would have a good day, the other, the fourth member of the team would finish his year struggling just to finish the race.

Johnson led only 28 laps of the event. He fell back in the field mid-race after several leaders did not pit would see the El Cajon native restart his race 23^rd followed by his only challenger mark Martin restarting 25^th.

It took over 50 laps for both drivers to see the top twenty. Johnson would see 11^th after a caution on lap 156. Johnson would sometimes fight and sometimes work on the points battle over the next 120 laps. The day ended up with a 5^th place finish for his efforts in front of teammate and owner Jeff Gordon who finished 6^th.

Mark Martin finished his banner year with a 12^th place finish. He would struggle with a car that did not cooperate with him over the majority of the race. In the end, Martin battled with Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth over the closing laps of the race to have the 50 year old driver end up 2^nd place in points.

Jeff Gordon started his day in the middle of the field 20^th. The team would help Gordon stay in the Chase as he Battled with Kurt Busch for the overall 3^rd place in the points standings.

The closing laps of the event, Gordon would fall to fourth in the standings as they struggled to get a very loose race car back in control to move back in on Busch to fight for 3^rd overall. It took 40 to 50 laps, but Gordon was able to move past Busch to lock in the 3^rd spot overall and lock in a record for Hendrick Motorsports.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. would see his last race sum up the season of 2009. A finish with a car that had damage, and a team that did their best to salvage a finish to keep the team in the top 35 in points for next year with a 28^th place finish.

Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch would have overall good days with Burton grabbing a second place finish for the event. Burton led 19 laps of the event. He contended with Kevin Harvick over a majority of the race as well as Kurt Busch. Sometimes, you would see the three racing three wide during the race with their efforts showing it as Burton took second, Harvick third and Busch fourth.

The big rivalry of the day, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya. Mid race we saw that Montoya get into the back of Stewart on the front stretch, where Stewart would pay back Montoya on the back stretch by coming down on Montoya, causing Montoya to slam the outside turn three wall in front of Martin Truex Jr.

Montoya would sit in the garage for 30 some laps to come back onto the track. A few laps later Montoya would once again be following Stewart to where he shoved Stewart out of the way coming out of turn four to spin Stewart out on the front stretch.

Montoya would find himself on pit road for two laps by NASCAR for his efforts. Stewart finished 22^nd, Montoya 38^th.

Another bench mark was set today as Michael Waltrip would finish his full-time career. We have not seen a race without the name Waltrip full time since 1973. Martin Truex Jr. will take Waltrip’s position at the team.

I want to say thank you to all of you who have read our stories and comments at SpeedwayMedia.com over the years and the years to come.

It has been a hard year for some teams, we have seen mass changes with teams as well as teams that have struggled with diversity that they just want to call it a day and head into the winter break.

Will we see another record set with Johnson? Will we see a new team dominance? Can the challengers come back next year to have the banner year that they be called, Champion?

To read the Ford 400 Lap By Lap click on the link below.

http://www.speedwaymedia.com/articles/Story.asp?S=3861122091849