Last week NASCAR spent the better part of four days celebrating their 2010 season in the city that never sleeps: Las Vegas. From Sprint Cup victory style burnouts on the Las Vegas Strip to the pomp and circumstance of crowning a five time champion it was a very busy week for the elite in NASCAR. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin with:

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Even the harshest critics of sports dynasties has to concede to a HOORAH for Jimmie Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus, team owner Rick Hendrick and the entire #48 Lowes team. Winning just one NASCAR Sprint Cup championship these days is difficult enough. Winning five of them in a row is just simply amazing.

That’s leads to a WAZZUP with the frequent comments that says Johnson’s five consecutive titles is a major negative for the sport of NASCAR racing? The New York Yankees’ string of championships didn’t damage Major League Baseball. The same can be said for basketball’s Boston Celtics and their consecutive titles.

Fellow driver, and Chase contender, Tony Stewart made a poignant point in his speech, during Friday night’s awards banquet, when he said “they’re the best again, and it’s up for us to figure how to get back on top of the mountain. They’re making history and that ought to be embraced. It’s not bad for our sport, it’s historic. We may never see this kind of dominance again.” Those comments were a very classy thing to say and Stewart deserves a HOORAH.

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In one of his more unusual accolades, HOORAH to Jimmie Johnson for being named as the most viewed and acknowledged NASCAR personality of the 2010 season. Yes, there is a professional agency who actually monitors and times these appearances. That would be Joyce Julius and Associates Inc who has been carefully monitoring every NASCAR telecast for the past 25 years.

During the course of the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s live telecasts of their 36 races, including network replays, Johnson was mentioned a series high 7,875 times. He was also featured in a series’ high 88 interview segments with his television face time totaling to 1 hour, 31 minutes and 35 seconds.

As in the case of the final Chase standings, Denny Hamlin finished second in the Joyce Julius annual survey. Hamlin’s television stats for 2010 included 6,072 mentions along with 56 interviews totaling 1 hour, 1 minute and 50 seconds.

Seriously, this company really performs this service and apparently their business is very lucrative.

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WAZZUP with champion crew chief Chad Knaus not taking any time off to enjoy the rewards of his hard work? Often described as a workaholic, Knaus left Las Vegas on Sunday and by Monday was with his Lowes #48 team for two days of testing at what was termed “an undisclosed race track.”

HOORAH for his driver Jimmie Johnson who did opt to take some time off for some well deserved quality family time at home. Hendrick Motorsports test driver Josh Wise filled in for Johnson during the two day team test.

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HOORAH for the “Family Feud” game show take off during last week’s Chaser’s For Charity Fan fest held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The drivers from the 2010 Chase were divided into two-six man teams to play the game under the supervision of Kevin Burke who did a magnificent job.

Burke walked over to Kyle Busch and congratulated him on his upcoming wedding day set for New Year’s Eve. Then he asked Busch to repeat the following lines: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, it won’t happen again.” After repeating the lines, Burke told Busch “congratulations you’re now ready for being a husband and Brad Keselowski owes me fifty bucks for getting you to apologize.”

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HOORAH for the NASCAR Victory Lap that featured all 12 cars from he 2010 Chase making a run down the famed Las Vegas Strip. The capacity crowd lined up on the sidewalks loved it especially when some of the drivers performed a victory burn out exhibition.

But WAZZUP with the engine of Jeff Gordon’s Chevrolet stalling during this run? He had to be pushed by Clint Bowyer. Riding inside of Bowyer’s two seat exhibition car was SPEED Channel analyst Kenny Wallace who yelled “spin him out while we’ve got the chance.”

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Sadly, I have no choice but to issue a WAZZUP to Friday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup awards show. The television broadcast, aired by the SPEED Channel, ran four hours at a rather tedious pace.

Another WAZZUP goes to comedian/impressionist Frank Caliendo who hosted the show. The well known Las Vegas headliner’s jokes just seemed to fall short with many of them only getting polite response from the racing audience. Caliendo was also featured in some of the special video presentations which only seemed to make the evening even longer.

The same cannot be said for country music superstar Martina Mcbride whose soul stirring performance of “God Bless America” garnered a well deserved standing ovation.

Along those patriotic lines a HOORAH goes out to the Sprint Cup drivers who made it a point to thank the members of America’s Armed Forces during their speeches. There is simply not enough ways to show appreciation for the sacrifices these men and women make especially in light of the fact that many of them will not be home with their families during the holidays.

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Now some HOORAHS for this week’s NASCAR notable quotable comments. The first goes to driver Greg Biffle who, during his speech, congratulated Jimmie Johnson on the recent birth of his first child and then said “you even beat me at that, you must be really fast.”

Let’s talk red carpet fashion and send a HOORAH to the NASCAR wives and girl friends. These ladies looked amazing last Friday night.

Another fashioned themed HOORAH goes to SPEED Channel personality Steve Byrnes who, commenting on the tuxedo he was wearing, said “this is the only piece of clothing I have that doesn’t have a SPEED logo on it. It’s a Vera Wang, whatever that is.”

Even the Wallace brothers got in on the red carpet fashion talk. SPEED Channel analyst Kenny Wallace asked his brother the obligatory pre awards show question “who are you wearing?” Without hesitation, Rusty Wallace replied “Leonardo Da Vinci.”

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The final HOORAH of the week goes to Dale Earnhardt Jr for winning the NASCAR Most Popular Driver award for the eighth year in a row. At the end of the 2010 season the beleaguered driver said he needed to work on his confidence levels to eradicate his team’s sub par performances over the past two racing seasons. An overwhelming vote of confidence from the fans will certainly help that process along.

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The final WAZZUP of the week goes to NBC Sports for their recent “Most Hated Athletes of 2010” poll. Do we even need something like this?

NASCAR’s bad boy Kyle Busch finished tenth in the final ranking one position ahead of Michael Vick. Wait a minute. There are American sports fans who hate Kyle Busch more than a NFL quarterback who went to prison for his involvement in a dog fighting ring? Really?

Amazingly, Jimmie Johnson finished 19th on the most hated poll. Apparently that’s the price you pay for making NASCAR history by winning their championship five years in a row.

In case you’re wondering, top honors from the poll went to basketball’s LeBron James for having the audacity to leave the NBA’s Cleveland team for an offer from Miami that was too good to refuse. Apparently the Cleveland fans voted ten times each.

As you may have noticed, Jeff Gordon lost DuPont as his primary sponsor for the 2011 season and now has AARP’s The Drive To End Hunger as a sponsor. The car has completely lost its rainbow look from the past 18 seasons. Gordon unveiled the new scheme on CNN’s American Morning and I have to say it is a very beautiful looking car, but as a Jeff Gordon fan it is just really hard to see Gordon drive a car without a rainbow or flames on it. I have been watching NASCAR since around 1996 and I know many other Gordon fans can agree with me on this.

It is going to be really hard for Gordon fans to get used to this new look, but you can’t deny that it eventually was going to happen. The construction business has really been hurting under the slumping economy and when you aren’t making enough money you have to step back on things to stay afloat. Unfortunately, they had to step back on their commitment to Jeff Gordon, which is really sad considering that they have sad such a long relationship together. DuPont will still be on the car for 13 races, but only as an associate sponsor and it just isn’t the same with DuPont on the side than on the front.

But, in my opinion everything will turn out ok. Gordon has been struggling since Robbie Loomis left in 2005, with the exception of 2007 when he set the modern record for Top 10’s with 30. Gordon will return to victory lane next year and win big. I predict 4-5 wins for the new 24 team and I say at least 24 Top 10 finishes. Will that lead to a championship? We’ll have to wait and see, but you can’t really say much when we have the Chase. What do you guys think? What do you Gordon fans think? I want to hear from you.

The 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season is in the books and now it is time to hand out some awards. Any race fan loves a big wreck, so our first award will go to the biggest wreck of 2010.

I know many fans will look at the Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski incident from Atlanta and go with that, but I did not pick that as the biggest wreck.

Biggest Wreck
Winner: Elliott Sadler Pocono Raceway
Sadler crashed so hard that it knocked the engine clear out of the car. NASCAR measured the hit to have been the hardest in history. Thank God he walked away.

Fans also love a good fight, so our next award will go to the best fight of the year.
Best Fight
Winner:Jeff Gordon vs Jeff Burton
How about a good old fight between the two calmest drivers in the sport? I liked it.

Our last award will go to the best race of 2010
Best Race
Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway
Most competitive race in NASCAR history with well over 70 lead changes with a spectacular finish between Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray. Nearly every driver on the track that day led a lap. Incredible.

Jeff Gordon unveiled his new paint scheme for the No. 24 AARP Drive To End Hunger car during a media tour in Manhattan on Monday.

The primarily crimson and black paint scheme is a big change from the flaming Dupont paint scheme, but we shall see it’s return for 13 races next season.

[media-credit name=”(c) Jeff Gordon Inc.” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Gordon appeared on the CNN American Morning show and CNBC’s Squawk Box.  The four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion explained the AARP Foundation’s initiative to end senior hunger in the U.S. where millions of seniors are forced to choose between food and medications.

Gordon’s new sponsorship will appear on the car at the Daytona races during Speedweeks in February.  The Dupont paint scheme will appear at the Kobalt Tools 400 March 6 in Las Vegas followed by the Pepsi sponsorship at Bristol then back to D2EH logo.  Sponsorships will rotate throughout the upcoming season.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver has shown so much maturity in the 16 years he has been at that organization.  Gordon has married and divorced, remarried the lovely Ingrid Vandebosch and is now the proud father of Ella and Leo.  Along the way life’s lessons have given him reason to focus on what is really important in life.

Gordon was quoted as saying in an SI interview. “I’ve been very successful.  I’ve made  a lot of money, won a lot of trophies, but there is a lot more to life than just that.  These days I’m not winning like I was in the mid-to late-90’s.  I think back to those days when all you thought about was racing and winning and going to victory lane and popping the champagne and hold up the trophy and smile for the cameras.  That’s not really who you are and there is so much more you have to have to back that up to make you happy.  If you are waiting for that next win you are going to be a pretty unhappy person because life has its own way of balancing life out.”

Some may think driving the No. 24 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports has lost some of it’s importance to Gordon.  Comments get bantered about regarding how much drive he still has to win.

Let there be no doubt, Gordon is a racer and fully intends to do his job to the best of his ability in the upcoming season.  He will be out from the shadow of his teammate and five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, Jimmie Johnson.

The time for a change may have been overdue.  In 2011, Alan Gustafson will assume duties as crew chief for the No. 24 team.  Gordon will now share the building with Mark Martin and his crew chief, Lance McGrew.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. assumes Gordon’s former team and crew chief, Steve Letarte.

The change at Hendrick Motorsports may be just what Gordon needs to find his way back to victory lane, a place he has failed to see since April, 2009 at the Samsung 500 in Texas.

Gordon has shown the competitive fire still burns in some on-track controversy this year with teammate Johnson, bumping escapades during a road-course race and of course the shoving contest between he and Jeff Burton.

Those who have waited for Gordon to return to championship form just may see it during the 2011 NASCAR season.  The HMS driver with 82 career wins will very likely add to that total in the upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Every driver in NASCAR has gotten in a crash at least once. Many drivers cause crashes. Heck, sometimes even drivers have received a new nickname because of their crashes. For example, Sam Hornish Jr.’s nickname through his NASCAR career has been “Dances With Walls.” However; Hornish did not win the “Most Wrecks” competition for 2010.

[media-credit name=”Matt LaFlair” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]After an 18th place points finish in 2009, Marcos Ambrose was actually considered to make the Chase this season. Sorry fans, but you will have to wait another year. Ambrose is the King of Crashing for 2010. Ambrose led all Sprint Cup Series drivers with 19 spins or wrecks and an even more astounding seven in the season’s final eight races. In second place was Sam Hornish Jr. with 17 and in third was no other than Elliott Sadler with 15. Not surprisingly, all three of the top placers are in a tough position. Sadler will not be racing in the Sprint Cup in 2011, Ambrose is driving for a mediocre Richard Petty Motorsports and finally we just don’t know if Penske has the funding to let Hornish run another full year.

Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. both battled together for NASCAR Nationwide Series Championships and for Rookie of The Year honors, but today it was for the least crashes award and unfortunately it ended in a tie. Both established drivers only got in four crashes each this year. It isn’t a surprising number for Matt Kenseth, but this award removes another excuse for why Jr. didn’t run well in 2010.

Scott Speed had long been viewed as the odd man out at Red Bull Racing in 2011 and Speed confirmed this week on his Twitter page that he and Red Bull Racing have severed ties.

Red Bull Racing had sent Speed a termination letter which wasn’t very surprising. In fact, Speed wasn’t even surprised himself.

[media-credit name=”scottspeed.com” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]With Kasey Kahne driving the #82 next year plus the return of Brian Vickers, Speed was left without a ride for next season. Vickers has been sidelined since May with blood clots in his lung. He is currently scheduled to return for the 2011 season and the 53rd Daytona 500. Kahne on the other hand, drove the #83 for the final five races of 2010 after breaking ties with Richard Petty Motorsports. He will be with Red Bull for a year before making a move to Hendrick Motorsports.

Speed was the first American since Michael Andretti to race in Formula One, but he never scored a point in the series. He did win a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in 2008, but as of today that is his only win in NASCAR. He has made 76 Cup starts, but only has three top 10 finishes and one top 5 which came back in 2009. I would like to see Speed get a Nationwide Series ride for 2011 and then from there move on to Cup. Ironically, a lot of the racers with the last name Speed haven’t fared too well.

1.Carl Edwards: Has to be the obvious pick after winning the final two races of the season after not winning for over 70 races.

2.Kevin Harvick: Earned most points out of every single driver in 2010. Look for Kevin to prove everyone wrong. It may get a little harder with the fourth entry, but we’ll see.

3.Jimmie Johnson: Yes, he is a 5-time champion now under the Chase system, but he was not the best driver for the whole season. He had 23 Top 10 finishes to Harvick’s 26.

4.Denny Hamlin: Won eight races and finished runner-up in the Chase. Third most amount of points in 2010. Won a lot, but consistency was an issue. He had only 18 Top 10 finishes. Not good.

5.Jeff Gordon: No other man wanted 2010 to end more than Jeff. With a new crew chief in Alan Gustafson expect Gordon to get back in the winner circle.

6.Kyle Busch: Had a decent year. Could have been better, but when you compare it to 2009, it was a huge improvement even though he won 1 less race.

7.Matt Kenseth: Ran mediocre for first 26 races and found something over the final eight. Expect Roush-Fenway Racing to be back in 2011.

8.Tony Stewart: Didn’t have a really Stewart like year, but he found victory lane. Stewart needs to better than that.

9.Clint Bowyer: Won two races in the final ten, but one cost him 150 points for cheating. Don’t really know how he will do with the four car operation. We’ll see.

10.Kurt Busch: Really seemed to have demolition-derbied his way through 2010 and then repeated acts of immaturity on the race track. If he wants to win a championship, he will have to change his attitude. Yes, I know he won in the Chase, but was that really a championship?

11.Jeff Burton: Seemed like a championship contender early on and faded and had a pretty off year.

12.Greg Biffle: He won 2 races and that is good progress, but needs to learn to stay consistent. You can’t win one race and finish 30th the next weekend and expect to make any progress.

Biggest Surprises
1.Kevin Harvick: 19th in points in 2009 with 9 Top 10 finishes to most points earned over entire season with 26 Top 10’s. Not just that, but his entire team made the Chase.
2.Jamie McMurray:  At the end of 2009, Jamie didn’t even know if he was going to have a job and Chip Ganassi put him in the 1 car and McMurray won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year. Great year for Jamie.

Biggest Disappointment
1.Dale Earnhardt Jr.: He is with the best team in the garage and has not the put numbers on the board at Hendrick Motorsports. It has a big disappointment to the fans as well.
2.Juan Montoya: Was no where to be seen in 2010 and completely fell off the map. Montoya demolition-derbied his way through 2010. This is a guy who was a threat to win it all in 2009.

Best Driver Of 2010 (Not Jimmie Johnson)
1.Kevin Harvick: I think a majority of NASCAR fans would agree with me on this pick.