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NASCAR in '09: Johnson, Danica steal the show

The 2009 Sprint Cup season was full of "wow" moments.

It started with a rainy thud that had some people screaming for heads to roll, featured one of the most spectacular crashes you'll ever see, saw a 50-year-old come out of retirement to nearly win it all and ended with one driver accomplishing something no other has been able to in NASCAR's 61-year history.

And none is the No. 1 story of 2009.

Top 10 stories of 2009

10. Rain, rain go away

It's never a good thing when a race ends with the winner standing under an umbrella on pit road. It's even more infuriating when said ending is how you crown the champion of your marquee event. This is how Matt Kenseth won the 2009 Daytona 500, much to the chagrin of a host of fans at the track and at home who thought NASCAR pulled the plug too early.

The "wow" moment came when NASCAR called the race after a 16-minute wait. Though it was the right call – rain persisted well into the night – it wasn't the way NASCAR wanted or needed to kick off the season. In some ways, it set the tone for a bumpy road all the way to South Florida in November.

9. The emergence of Juan Pablo Montoya

It took three years, but JPM finally made his way to the front. It was a breakthrough for a number of reasons. First, he provides NASCAR with its first legitimate foreign-born star. Second, Montoya is a fiery personality, which is something NASCAR desperately needs. And third, he proved to those outside the stock car world that an outsider can make it.

Montoya's "wow" moment came at Indianapolis when, after dominating the race and seemingly on cruise control en route to his first victory on an oval since joining the Cup Series in 2007, he got caught speeding on pit road, ruining his chance to go to victory lane.

Montoya overcame that frustration to not only make the Chase, but to become a contender while in it. The question now: Can he and his team pull of a repeat performance?

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. flames out

The 2009 season couldn't have ended soon enough for NASCAR's most popular driver, who went winless this season and has now won only once in his last 112 races. The fact that Earnhardt's Hendrick Motorsports teammates finished 1-2-3 in the standings while he wound up a distant 25th only highlighted what a struggle it was for Junior in '09.

Junior's "wow" moment came midway through the penultimate race of the season when he sparked a multi-car wreck that all but stopped traffic on the frontstretch at Phoenix International Raceway.

"Dale Jr., that no-talent [expletive]," Tony Stewart, who was caught in the wreck, said over his radio.

Stewart later clarified that the remark was made in the heat of the moment. But that didn't change the fact that many, including some in Junior's Nation, were thinking the same thing.

7. Double-file restarts, shootout style!

Needing something – anything – to liven up what were becoming weekly parades, NASCAR made the call in early June to implement double-file restarts. The results were instantaneous as the action on restarts went from boring to barn-burning.

The "wow" moment came a month later at Chicagoland when, with the new restart policy having bunched the fastest cars at the front, the lead changed hands four times over a final 17-lap sprint to the finish.

"They give everybody a chance," Jimmie Johnson said afterward, "and when you can group everyone up that close and they can see the front and they know the checkered flag is not far away, the racing just gets really intense."

6. Carl Edwards goes airborne

What does it take to get a NASCAR driver on "Larry King Live"? Apparently going airborne, crashing into a fence, landing, then getting out of your car and, in a moment of pure spontaneity, bringing Ricky Bobby to real life.

Edwards' spectacular crash at Talladega is one of those instances where the "wow" moment just keeps happening. All you have to do is watch it.

In this single crash, NASCAR became both savior and Satan – the savior for building a race car that allowed someone to survive such a crash, Satan for putting restrictor plates on the cars, thus inviting spectacular crashes every time they go to Talladega.

5. Tony Stewart did what?

Nobody predicted Tony Stewart would win four races, lead the points standings through the regular season and make the Chase, all in his first year as an owner/driver.

In fewer than 12 months, Stewart took a fledgling organization and turned it into a powerhouse. In the process, he may have just piqued the interest of other drivers who might think about ownership down the road.

Stewart's "wow" moment came in June when he drove from the back of the field to win at Pocono – the first victory by an owner/driver since Ricky Rudd did it in 1998.

Yes, Stewart had the support of Hendrick Motorsports. But remember, before Stewart added his name to the organization, Haas CNC Racing had but one top-five finish in seven years of trying. That all changed because of one man.

4. Inaugural Hall of Fame class announced

For some, the biggest surprise wasn't who was selected in NASCAR's inaugural Hall of Fame class, but rather that NASCAR didn't already have a Hall of Fame. Alas, it doesn't still, as the NASCAR HOF won't officially open until next May.

Still, there was plenty of intrigue surrounding the inaugural five, even if four of them – Bill France Sr., Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Bill France Jr. – were virtual locks. The "wow" moment came when David Pearson's name wasn't called.

Though Junior Johnson is certainly worthy of a spot in the Hall, there were plenty of dissenting opinions about whether he deserved to get in before Pearson – the second-winningest driver of all time and, in some people's eyes, the greatest ever.

3. Mark Martin turns back the clock

For the first time ever, NASCAR invited fans to its postseason champion's banquet in early December. Seated at the back of a giant ballroom at the Wynn Las Vegas, this group was the most vocal of any throughout the four-hour affair. And who did they cheer for more than any other?

A 50-year-old named Mark Martin.

Whether it was because of his age, his aw-shucks attitude or the fact that he's never won a title, Martin garnered more fan support in 2009 than any other driver, save Dale Earnhardt Jr. Along the way, he won five races, sat atop the points standings through the first three weeks of the Chase and was the only driver who could hang with Jimmie Johnson all the way to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

His "wow" moment came in New Hampshire in the first race of the Chase. Despite declaring it one of his worst tracks, Martin prevailed, sending a signal to all comers, including Johnson, that the old man was going down fighting.

Martin nearly pulled off the unthinkable, and if it hadn't been for that last-lap crash at Talladega, he just might have. In the end, he finished second, again, though by the sound of things you'd have thought he'd won it all.

2. Jimmie Johnson four-peats

Was it ever really in doubt?

Not even after his incident at Texas, when he and Sam Hornish Jr. got together (which was Johnson's "wow" moment), was Johnson ever really at risk of not four-peating.

In fact, he pretty much sealed the deal six weeks earlier (or two weeks into the Chase) at Dover when he went out, led 271 of 400 laps and essentially signaled to the field that even their best wasn't good enough.

Even when he was down after Texas, he rebounded by winning the next week at Phoenix, providing yet another anecdote as to why he's one of the best NASCAR has ever seen.

A few years ago, Johnson, bearing the brunt of the anti-Gordon crowd, received as many boos as he did cheers. But a lot of those boos subsided in 2009, possibly signaling a shift in allegiance.

Though he still doesn't get the support from fans that Dale Earnhardt Jr. does, Johnson's fan base is growing. And a fifth straight title would only speed up that process.

1. Danica is coming

In a move that was seemingly years in the making, Danica Patrick announced in early December that she will give NASCAR a try, beginning with running a part-time schedule for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports in the triple-A Nationwide Series.

While Patrick has yet to accomplish anything in a stock car, she trumps Johnson simply because of her appeal. More than any other driver – open wheel or stock car – Patrick is a crossover star, meaning she attracts race fans and non-race fans alike.

Though her "wow" moment won't come until she makes her debut on Feb. 6 in Daytona in the ARCA series, so far she's doing all the right things leading up to her moonlighting experiment. She's willing to start at the bottom and work her way up; she's not promising anything but what's on the immediate horizon – i.e., she's making no Cup Series predictions; and she came right out and said it's probably not a good idea to make her debut in the 2010 Nationwide opener at Daytona, which is essentially a Cup race in different cars.

With apologies to Johnson and the rest of the NASCAR world, whatever Patrick does on the track in 2010 will be the biggest story of the weekend, a fact demonstrated earlier this month when she drew a minor media circus at an ARCA test in Daytona – an event that without her would have gone mostly undocumented. Some race fans can't and won't understand why this is. But it's simple, really – like it or not, a lot of people want to know what Danica Patrick is up to.