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Jimmie Johnson won his third straight title on Sunday matching the indomitable Cale Yarborough. Thus ended an era in which no driver had accomplished such a feat. Should Johnson be able to pull off another title in the coming years, he will sit alongside car owner Jeff Gordon as current drivers with 4 titles to their name. Should he pull off that feat in 2009, he will be in the company of 1 with 4 consecutive titles.

Kudos to the entire 48 team and the Hendrick organization. Three titles is no small accomplishment and 3 straight is, well, almost unheard of. As hard as it is to win in today’s NASCAR, they have set the bar high for the 2009 title run.

Johnson won the title with 7 wins this year and 22 top 10 finishes. But Carl Edwards did his best to give Johnson a run with 9 wins and 27 top 10 finishes. So why did Carl not win? His bad finishes were worse than Jimmie’s and Johnson never had a catastrophic failure in the home stretch. Look out for the 99 team in 2009.

The end of another era actually started moments after the race at Homestead finished. Plans were being laid for today’s pink slip hand out at many teams. Some teams may not even exist next year and others are changed forever. Of all the big teams, only Hendrick, Penske, Gibbs and RCR have not had to take on major financial partners or merge. Yates, Evernham, DEI, and Ganassi have all had to make major changes in order to survive over the past few years. The economic crisis of 2008 has seriously eroded the playing field and will change the face of NASCAR for years to come.

And the winners are….
Fittingly, Dale Jr. had mechanical failure that doomed his race and his bid to be on stage in NYC in December. Dale Jr. and Matt Kenseth will miss the onstage festivities because Kyle Busch bested them both over the last several races. Busch started the Chase disastrously but came back to beat out these two rivals. What has to be a disappointing season for Earnhardt, his fans and his team has finally come to a close. Let’s hope we see more from them next year. Perhaps they will be better with less pressure on them. But how much less? A one-win season and last in the Chase is not what the Hendrick organization had in mind, especially with Kyle Busch winning 8 races and dominating the regular season. The pressure on the Busch camp to repeat that success will be huge. For Earnhardt, it will be to prove that this year was an anomaly and that the teaming of NASCAR’s most liked driver and the juggernaut Hendrick organization is a dream team waiting to happen.

Hope you enjoyed the season. Now you can relax until February.

Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.

(Jimmie Johnson photo is by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)