Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports, & Lowe’s on their 4th championship in a row!

From Marty Smith (ESPN) on Twitter:

Just asked Johnson to be honest with me about where he stacks up among the greatest ever: “This puts us up there. No doubt.”

Hendrick teammates Mark Martin & Jeff Gordon finished the season in 2nd & 3rd, respectively.

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished the season 25th.  This season has been a bumpy season for Junior & team.  Lance McGrew was finally named the official crew chief (removing the interim designation) a while back.  I really think Lance, Junior, & the 88 team can do great things together.  I’m very optimistic about 2010!

Brad Keselowski’s last race with JR Motorsports was Saturday.  He will be joining Penske Racing & driving the #12 in the Sprint Cup series next year.  Good luck, Brad!  Kelly Bires will be joining JRM next year.  I’m very excited to see how he does for JRM.

Today is the first Arkansas Razorback football game of the season.  The Razorbacks are taking on the Missouri State Bears at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.  Go Hogs Go!

Some Exciting Former Hog News:

• Former Hog baseball player Craig Gentry has been called up from AA Frisco to the majors – the Texas Rangers.  Northwest Arkansas has been fortunate enough to keep up with Craig’s progress through the Rangers organization because Frisco plays the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.  Good luck, Craig!

Brad Keselowski has helped Dale Earnhardt Jr make JR Motorsports a weekly contender in the NASCAR Nationwide series.  Brad has 5 wins in the NW series and got his first Cup series win in April at Talladega.  Penske Racing announced Tuesday that Brad will join them beginning in 2010 and will drive the #12 Penske Dodge in the Sprint Cup series.  Congratulations Brad on this great opportunity!  Just remember that Rick Hendrick & Hendrick Motorsports isn’t out of reach!

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals have 3 games left (with only 1 win needed) and they will have clinched a Texas League playoff spot for the 2nd straight season (in only 2 seasons in existence in NWA).  Good luck Naturals against the Tulsa Drillers this weekend!

I took this photo at JR Motorsports last October when I was in Charlotte for the fall NASCAR races.  Brad Keselowski drove this car at Fontana, CA Labor Day weekend last year.  Well, I guess I should say “wrecked” instead of “drove”.  Brad was asked about this car this past weekend in Cali.

“Dale’s got it out on his property there,” said Keselowski, who lives in an apartment on Earnhardt Jr.’s property. “Every once in a while, we’ll get in a golf cart or a four-wheeler and drive by it and see it.”

“It’s a good conversation piece,” Keselowski said. “It’s actually out back in the woods. It’s on a hill and there’s vines and stuff growing through it. It’s cool because Dale left it completely intact. Every single piece other than the radio is in it. It’s really cool to see.”

Michigan International Speedway is location in Brooklyn, Michigan.  It seemed quite literally in the middle of nowhere.  There was a town closeby and the track had neighbors but nothing major and there was not really a major highway going in and out of the track.  (Oh yeah…Speaking of the road…A lot of people complain about traffic in & out of Texas Motor Speedway being some of the worst.  We don’t ever have problems at TMS.  MIS was much, much worse.)  Because the track is so close to Canada, there are a lot of Canadian NASCAR fans that come down for the race.  The track flies, not only an American flag, but also a Canadian flag.  Plus, we listened to both the Canadian and United States national anthems.

As I mentioned in my last post, we had weekend pit passes.  These allowed us to be on pit road during qualifying & practice plus there was also an area back behind pit road that drivers passes by when going to & from the garage and their motorcoaches.  Here is a shot from pit road during the Nationwide series qualifying on Saturday.  The 2nd photo is of Regan Smith signing autographs along the fence of fans behind pit road.

Speaking of the fence of fans…Some drivers stop along the fence and are nice enough to sign some autographs.  I got 5 autographs on Friday standing there.  I got the following autographs on Friday.

• Michael McDowell, Driver, Michael Waltrip Racing #00
• Sam Hornish Jr, Driver, Penske Racing #77
• AJ Allmendinger, Driver, Red Bull Racing #84
• Regan Smith, Driver, Dale Earnhardt Inc #01
• Mike Helton, President, NASCAR
• Jeff Hammond, Former Crew Chief & Current Co-Host of NASCAR Trackside

Another advantage of our pit pass was that we were able to be on pit road before the Sprint Cup race on Sunday.  We got to get on the track at the start/finish line.  We were also able to walk along pit road and see the pit boxes & signs for each Sprint Cup team.  Here are shots of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s pit box and pit sign.

On Saturday during Nationwide qualifying, I stood at the front of the line of cars with the JR Motorsports #88 Navy Chevy until it went out for its qualifying laps.  David Stremme (driver of the Rusty Wallace Inc #64 Dodge) decided to take a closer look at the Navy car while waiting his turn to qualify.  I’m almost surprised he didn’t hop in the car.  Maybe that would have made him too obvious, though.

There were a couple Nationwide series cars with paint schemes that I thought might interest a couple of my readers.  Tony Stewart was the driver in Michigan of the Joe Gibbs Racing #20 Old Spice Toyota, and Jason Leffler drove the Braun Racing #38 Great Clips Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Toyota.

I took this photo during the national anthem prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup 3M Performance 400.  I’ve always thought it was cool how the drivers, crews, and officials line up on pit road.

We sat across from the JR Motorsports #5 pit during the Nationwide series race.  Rick Hendrick (owner, Hendrick Motorsports) sat up there during the entire race.  Landon Cassill was also up there.  I think he was working for the team in some capacity.  Here is sequence of photos I took during the team’s first pit stop.  (Mark Martin was driving this car in Michigan.)

Carl Edwards won both of the races in Michigan.  His tradition, after winning a race, is to do a backflip off of the car.  Here are the two shots I got of him doing so.

Brad Keselowski won his first NASCAR Nationwide series race in Nashville, TN on June 7, 2008.  He won his second on Friday night in Bristol, TN.  His Bristol win, besides being the second of his career and this year, is the 4th win this season for JR Motorsports.

Around the Web:

• Foxsports:  Late bobble costs Bowyer, lists Keselowski
• NASCAR.com:  Keselowski uses Bowyer’s slip to capture win at BMS
• SceneDaily.com:  Bowyer’s Bobble Boosts Keselowski to Nationwide win at Bristol
• SI.com:  After starting 37th, Keselowski wins Bristol Nationwide
• SpeedwayMedia.com:  Keselowski Scores 2nd Win of Season at Bristol, Closes in on Points Lead
• ThatsRacin.com:  Offered Penske’s No. 12 Dodges in Sprint Cup, Keselowski Declines

I’ll, of course, be taking my laptop with me.  (We should have internet access in the hotel room.)  Whether or not I use my laptop, I’ll have my cell phone and will be twittering along the way.  Feel free to follow along with me this weekend.  I’ll have lots of stories and photos to share when I return, I’m fairly certain.

Who’s gonna win this weekend?  Well, I’m rooting for one of the JR Motorsports teams – #5 driven by Mark Martin or #88 driven by Brad Keselowski – in the Nationwide series race on Saturday.  On Sunday, I’m rooting for the #88 driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr.  All of these teams have a great shot at a win.  (Junior actually won the June race in Michigan so I’m sure he can defend his win.)

Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

At this point in 2007, Jeff Gordon was leading the Sprint Cup standings (and was 344 points ahead of 2nd place).  He & Jimmie Johnson were tied for the most wins so far with 4 a piece.  After today’s race, Kyle Busch leads all drivers this year with 8 wins and is leading the standings by 242 points.  Both of those stats are alarming to me.  First of all, I expected Kyle to do ok in his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing.  I figured he’d have 1 or 2 wins and probably make the Chase.  Instead, he has 8 wins and is a sure thing for the Chase (if not the championship).  The 242 point differential between Kyle and 2nd place is a big surprise to me.  Jeff Gordon had 4 wins at this point last year but was farther ahead of 2nd place than Kyle is with 8 wins.  This makes me think that it may be any one’s ballgame once the Chase starts.  Kyle has definitely had some great finishes this year (very reminiscent of Jimmie Johnson at times in 2006 & 2007 when nothing seemed to stop the team from a top 5 or win).  Unfortunately, he has a handful of very poor finishes (including Martinsville, which is a Chase track).  He will more than likely need no stumbles (or bad luck) in the Chase to keep his roll going and end up 2008 Sprint Cup Champion.

Until today, Dale Earnhardt Jr was 2nd in the Sprint Cup point standings and had been gradually shrinking Kyle Busch’s points lead.  Unfortunately, a 22nd place finish dropped him to 4th in the standings behind Carl Edwards and teammate Jimmie Johnson.  Junior isn’t known to be a great road course racer so I’m happy with the finish.  I’m just a little upset he lost all of the points he had been gaining.  The series is on to Michigan next weekend where Junior won the spring race.  Did I mention I’m going to be there in person?  I’m hoping for a repeat performance of his win in June. 

A belated congrats to Ron Fellows.  Ron was driving a JR Motorsports car last weekend in Montreal and brought home the 3rd NASCAR Nationwide series trophy for JRM in 2008.  (Mark Martin & Brad Keselowski have both taken home trophies this year.)  Now, it is Landon Cassill’s and Junior’s turns to win one for JRM.

As I mentioned a while back, Brad Keselowski got his first win in the #88 JR Motorsports car on June 7 at Nashville.  Dale Earnhardt Jr got his first win in the #88 Hendrick Motorsports car the following weekend on June 15 at Michigan.  Our visit to JR Motorsports was the Monday & Tuesday (yes, we stopped by twice) after Junior’s win.  In the picture above, you see a checkered flag up on the flag pole underneath the JR Motorsports flag.  Junior is continuing a tradition (which I think goes back to his father at Dale Earnhardt Inc) of raising a checkered flag on the flag pole after a victory.  To be visiting JRM the week after a win and to see the flag is a great thing for me as a Junior fan.  It was almost like I was getting to celebrate a bit with them by being there to see it.  Cheesy, I know, but that’s how I felt.

Also, outside JRM, they are starting to lay the bricks in the walkway that contain special messages from JR Motorsports fans.  I took a special photo of the brick (1st brick laid, in fact) that happened to be from Junior’s nieces.  (Their nickname for him is so cute.)

While I didn’t get a Dale Jr sighting (like Shelby did Kasey), I did see someone else I recognized.  TJ Majors (Junior’s spotter for the Cup series & Brad’s spotter for the Nationwide series) was in the shop talking to some of the team members.

Click here to see the photos, including Karsyn’s & Kennedy’s brick, I took at JR Motorsports.

Brad Keselowski is now the proud owner of a brand new Gibson guitar. Congratulations to Brad and his JR Motorsports #88 Navy team on their first win Saturday night at Nashville!

Around the Web:

• NASCAR – The Fanhouse – AOL Sports Blog:  Keselowski Finally a Winner at Nashville
• Jade Gurss: A Happy and Sad Day
• NASCAR.com: Keselowski gets first career victory with late-race pass
• Scenedaily.com: Keselowski wins his first race at Nashville
• Scenedaily.com: Earnhardt Jr pumped over Keselowski victory
• SI.com: Keselowski gets first Nationwide win
• SpeedwayMedia.com: Brad Keselowski Wins at Nashville – Notes & Quotes
• ThatsRacin.com: Keselowski takes advantage late, breaks through
• ThatsRacin.com: Junior couldn’t watch driver win, but sees the significance

Congratulations to Coach John McDonnell on his 84th conference championship and his 21st conference triple crown (winning the championship in indoor, cross country, and outdoor track).  The Razorbacks will be competing for their 43rd national championship next week.  After 35 years as the University of Arkansas head track coach, Coach McDonnell is retiring at the end of this season.    Good luck to the Hogs, and Good luck Coach McDonnell!

In other news:

-The 5th annual NASCAR Day was on Friday.  As of Sunday morning, $1.3 million had been donated.

-JR Motorsports (owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr) may be going Cup racing next year.  There seems to be a lot of speculation about drivers and such already.  However, Junior just talked about the possibility on Friday and didn’t really give any details.  It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

-Kasey Kahne won the NASCAR All-Star race Saturday night after getting voted into the race by the fans.  Kasey & crew made a gutsy call to not take any new tires on the final pit stop which, in my opinion, won him the race.

-The NWA Naturals are now 23-20 on the season after beating the Arkansas Travelers in NLR last night.

-Springdale native (and FLW Pro) Greg Bohannan came in 3rd this past weekend at the FLW Tour’s Wal-Mart Open here on Beaver Lake.