As the decade of the 2000s draws to a close, we're looking back at the greatest NASCAR moments, events and stories of the last 10 years. We begin with the most successful drivers of the decade -- bearing in mind, we're ranking them on what they've done this decade, not before that. And yes, you already know who's #1.

1. Jimmie Johnson: Like you expected anything different. Four championships, 47 wins and 180 top-10 finishes over just nine years. He's staked out one of the most dominant stretches of success in NASCAR history ... and the scary thing is, he may be in the middle of it, not at the end.

2. Tony Stewart: Were it not for Johnson, Stewart would be the runaway driver of the decade. With two championships, 34 wins and 209 top-10s, Stewart was already money, but making the jump to team ownership and staying strong as ever? Unbelievable.

3. Jeff Gordon: The difference between Stewart and Gordon is razor-thin on this list, but Stewart gets the nod because of his two championships. In the 2000s, Gordon has only one. But he's also finished in the top 10 for nine of the decade's 10 years, along the way picking up 33 wins and 217 top-10 finishes over 358 races. That'll work.

4. Kurt Busch: He's pinballed between excellence and mediocrity, but when he's been good, he's been very, very good -- one Sprint Cup championship, four top-ten seasonal finishes, 20 wins, 136 top-10s. Imagine how good he'd be if he could make friends. 

5. Kyle Busch: The highest-ranked non-Sprint Cup champion on this list, he's got 62 wins across all three major series. He's said his goal is to get 200 wins over all three, and considering the fact that he's 24, would you bet against it happening? Once he calms down and races consistently, he'll be one of the all-timers. 

6. Bobby Labonte: He led off the decade with a championship, which is a nice way to start but unfortunately means there's only one way to go. Still, he's notched 8 wins and 101 top 10s over the decade, and if he had been in better equipment over the last couple years, that total would be much higher.

7. Matt Kenseth: The 2003 Sprint Cup champion, though it's not his fault he won the Cup while winning only a single race. In the decade, he's had 18 wins and 172 top-10s over 358 races.

8. Mark Martin: Had he not flirted with retirement toward the middle part of the decade, he'd be much higher on this list. But six top-10 seasonal finishes, including two second-places, combined with nine wins and 159 top-10s put him solidly in the conversation for the top drivers of the 2000s

9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 18 wins and 141 top-10s over 358 races, and for a time he was right there in the mix for a championship, ranking in the top 10 four times from 2001-2006. He's fallen off the pace just a wee bit.

10. Carl Edwards: In 193 races, he's got 16 wins, 61 top-5s and 99 top-10s. He had a severe dropoff this year, but he's one of the best in the sport and should be very close to the top on the list of the 2010s' best.

All right, your turn. Who else belongs on this list? Rusty Wallace, Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle just missed the cut; do they belong? Who's too high or too low? Have your say!

Okay, folks, you've got to bring some game to this one. Yogi Berra and Jimmie Johnson. Visit this site (or many others) for suggestions on appropriae Yogi-isms.

And remember, if people don't want to come to NASCAR races, nobody's going to stop 'em.

After the jump, Kyle Busch is feeling left out.

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Don't go bailing on NASCAR just yet, and don't go digging into the turkey, either. We've got one more chat before the holiday. Join us on Wednesday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a little NASCAR yappin' before Thanksgiving. We'll supply the turkey; you bring a side to share. See you here!

Bringing you the best in NASCAR news and opinion. Get your day rolling right ... or left, whichever. 

• From the Department of the Obvious (but still true): NASCAR needs Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch to step it up in 2010. [Scene Daily]

• Bad news: more job cuts are coming in NASCAR. [Fox Sports]

• More news to get your blood a-boiling in the offseason: will Volkswagen enter NASCAR? [Examiner]

• Kyle Busch's Nationwide title was cemented when Carl Edwards crashed at Michigan in August. [NASCAR.com]

• The worst Chaser in history? That'd be, um, Brian Vickers. Ouch. [All Left Turns]

• Git'r done! Larry the Cable Guy will be on BAM Racing's No. 49 in the 2010 Daytona 500. No, I can't imagine we'll be running any pictures of that whatsoever. [NASCAR.com via Yahoo! Sports]

Got a link/tip? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and follow us on Twitter. 

Lest we forget, Jimmie Johnson wasn't the only winner on Sunday night. Denny Hamlin ran away with the Ford 400, and if he hadn't had a couple misfires earlier in the Chase, this could've been a lot more interesting from a championship standpoint. So before we continue with the JJ love, let's spare a thought for Denny Hamlin:

Could Denny Hamlin take over the Memorial Carl Edwards "Dude Who's Going To Unseat Jimmie" role for 2010? We shall see, friends, we shall see...

In news that surprised exactly no one, Joey Logano has taken the Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year award, knocking off Max Papis and Scott Speed. Stiff competition there, huh?

Since rookies tend to have about as much success in NASCAR as turkeys on Thanksgiving, the rookie of the year award isn't quite the big deal it is in some other sports. Even so, the award is a harbinger of future success; in the last ten years, only two winners -- Regan Smith last year and Jamie McMurray in 2003 -- have not made the Chase at one point. Winners have included Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin. (Not winners: Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr.)

Logano had a strong rookie season, notching one win  -- a rain-shortened one, but still -- along with three top-5s, seven top-10s and about 250,000 jokes about shaving and voice-cracking, half of which were made right here. He finished the year in 20th place, ahead of Casey Mears, McMurray, Earnhardt and many others.

Congratulations, Joey! And to honor your win, we promise not to make any more "little kid" jokes. Go ahead, have a chocolate milk to celebrate! (Whoops.)

NASCAR fans have a lot to say about everything in the sport. Sometimes it's positive, and sometimes it veers into foot-stomping, tantrum-throwing complaining. But are the fans legitimately mad, or are they just griping because it's not their guy holding up the trophy? Tough question, and that's where we come in. In the tradition of the great Urban Legends Reference Pages, we'll take on some of NASCAR fandom's most pervasive whines and decide whether there's any merit to them. First up: one of the many knocks on the four-time champ.

The complaint: Jimmie Johnson wouldn't have won four championships if we were under the old points system.

The reason behind the complaint: NASCAR fans worship at the altar of Earnhardt and Petty -- justifiably so, I might add -- but now that Jimmie Johnson is edging into their territory, many are getting nervous. The "new" championship format, with its end-of-regular-season points reset, provides an easy out. The thinking goes like this: the old guys won their championships under the equivalent of a full-season playoff, but Jimmie Johnson has won all his championships under the new, 10-race system. Therefore he only wins because of the new system, right? Not so fast.

The truth:  First off, it's called the "old" system for a reason -- it's old and it's done with. So on one level, the complaint is irrelevant. You race under the system you've got; we don't hear many people complaining that they should take away many of Richard Petty's wins because they came against less-than-full fields or against cars with far less technological muscle than his. Times change, like it or not.

But more importantly, this is something that can be easily disproven just by looking at statistics. Let's illustrate, for Johnson's four championships, the breakdown of points under both systems.

2009
Chase format: Johnson, Mark Martin (-141), Jeff Gordon (-179)
Old system: Johnson, Jeff Gordon (-66), Tony Stewart (-71)

2008
Chase format: Johnson, Carl Edwards (-69), Greg Biffle (-217)
Old system: Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson (-16), Kyle Busch (-252)

2007
Chase format: Johnson, Jeff Gordon (-77), Clint Bowyer (-346)
Old system: Jeff Gordon, Johnson (-353), Tony Stewart (-706)

2006
Chase format: Johnson, Matt Kenseth (-56), Denny Hamlin (-68)
Old system: Johnson, Matt Kenseth (-4), Kevin Harvick (-320)

So there you go. Johnson would have won two of his four championships outright, and he obviously wouldn't have raced the same way at Homestead last year (he casually cruised to a 15th-place finish while Edwards won) had the points been as tight under the old system. (Of course, the reverse holds true for 2006, where Kenseth was only four points back under the old system.) Only in 2007 did the Chase really benefit Johnson.

What you need to look at, though, isn't just the numbers, it's the names. Note that while there are twelve drivers named above, only one shows up in the top three -- heck, top two -- every year under both systems. After Johnson, only Gordon and Stewart even show up twice on those lists. And with the exception of this year, look how far back the third-place guy is under the old points scenario. It's been a two-man race every year since 2005, and Johnson's always been one of those two.

Whine verdict: Almost baseless. The Chase may have shuffled the competitors, but it doesn't change the fact that Johnson dominates under any scenario. At least two, and probably three, of the last four championships would still have been his under the season-long system.

Okay, your turn. Post your take below. Got a whine you want us to break down? Add  it below or email me at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. 

Time to put the 2009 season on the shelf once and for all. Were you ready for it to be done, or do you want a year-round schedule? (Bite your tongue, year-rounders. We need a breather!)

Anyway, even though the racing is done for the year, we're not going anywhere. We'll be posting plenty every single day, and we'll continue with our regular weekly chats throughout the offseason. We'll also be continuing the podcasts -- remember to call in and you too can get on the show. We'll also be kicking off a couple new features starting today, including our "Best of the Decade" series (one guess as to what that will focus on) and "Stale Whines," in which we take on the different complaints about NASCAR and its drivers and, one by one, put stakes through their hearts. (The complaints, not the drivers.) It's going to be just like the regular season, except without the races -- and considering the quality of some of the races this year, that might be a good thing. 

We'll do a complete season recap after Thanksgiving, but for now, post your thoughts below -- favorite moments of 2009? Least favorite? Best storylines? Have your say ... and then get ready. After all, it's less than three months to Daytona.

On Sunday night, Jimmie Johnson clinched his fourth straight Sprint Cup championship, and in so doing cemented his place among the greats of the sport. But he's done more than that; he's now propelled himself above and beyond NASCAR. He's the most successful athlete currently competing right now, and it's not even close. 

Were this Tiger Woods snagging his fourth straight Masters, or Kobe Bryant clinching his fourth straight ring, or Tom Brady capturing his fourth straight Super Bowl, you'd be getting their greatness rammed down your throat 24/7. But this is NASCAR; the sports fan public knows they can't throw a pass 50 yards or hit a golf ball 300, but they figure they know how to drive fast and turn left. How hard could it be for Johnson to win some of those little races, huh?

Answer: plenty. Put aside the physical demands -- the intense heat of the car's interior, the physical strength needed to wheel a car for 500 miles. Even running a race -- to say nothing of winning one, or winning an entire season -- requires the mental discipline, ultrafast-twitch reflexes and utter, stone-cold fearlessness that only the best athletes possess. (And don't even start the whole "the car's the star, not the driver" nonsense. Equipment is a key element of every sport. When's the last time you saw a baseball player succeed without a bat, or a football player succeed without pads?) 

So, with the playing field leveled, let's break down why Johnson is the top athlete at work today. For starters, you could argue that the level of competition in every single sport right now is the highest it's ever been. Kids train practically from birth to play one sport; sophisticated training techniques make today's marginal athletes the equivalent of yesterday's All-Stars.

Even so, Johnson has established a four-year gap between himself and his nearest competitors that's greater than any other athlete in any other sport. Nobody in any league is a prohibitive favorite; even Tiger is vulnerable these days.

Plenty of people both inside and outside NASCAR are dismissing Johnson's accomplishments, and that's too bad. They're missing out on history here. Nobody else is riding as high these days, in any sport, anywhere. And anybody who thinks it's certain to end in 2010 ... well, didn't we think that coming into 2007, 2008 and 2009?

Bandwagoners, here's a heads-up: push aside your Yankees caps, Patriots jerseys and Cowboys jackets and make room for some of Jimmie Johnson's gear. (He's the 48.) If you're the type of person who wants to jump on board a proven winning train, you've got one right here waiting for you, ready to roll.

For everyone else, take a moment -- just a moment, that's all -- to applaud what Johnson's doing here. You're not going to see anything like this again anytime soon. 

_______

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One of the bigger surprises of the 2009 Chase came when Pat Tryson, crew chief for Kurt Busch, announced in October that he would be leaving the No. 2 Dodge team to go crew Martin Truex Jr.'s new team. Sure, it was an unfortunately-timed split, but the team looked like it was going to make the best of an awkward situation, and even managed to win the Dickies 500 in Texas. The split was looking almost amicable.

And then came Sunday night.

After a race in which he was leading but lost ground on the final pit -- a stop where he took two tires where everyone else took four -- Kurt took time to offer congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and tipped his cap to all his sponsors. And then he smiled, the kind of grin which has a name that we can't repeat or describe here but the word "eating" is in the name -- stared straight in the camera, and unloaded more dirty laundry than a college freshman home for Thanksgiving break.

"Maybe this is my best opportunity to throw my crew chief under the bus for giving me two tires at the end instead of four," he said. "We probably had a shot at  winning, and I told him he had to keep an eye on the other guys ... Hey, I'm throwing him under the bus because we don't have him anymore and we're looking for a new crew chief."

Boy, with that guy in your ear every Sunday, the candidates have got to be just lining up out the door, right? Busch did throw some thanks Tryson's way -- "we worked great together" -- but finished by saying, "We'll find somebody great, somebody better, and we'll beat the 56 next year."

Between this and all the other little fights starting to break out around the track, it's almost a shame the season has to end, isn't it?