Menard, Bayne, Wallace, and Lally get Daytona 500 spots after point swaps

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Paul Menard, Trevor Bayne, Steve Wallace and Grand-Am driver Andy Lally are guaranteed spots in the Feb. 20 Daytona 500 after offseason point swaps with top-35 teams from the 2010 Sprint Cup season.

Menard will drive the No. 27 Richard Childress Racing entry with 35th-place points earned by the No. 71 at TRG Motorsports last season. Thomas Pumpelly, who was a partner with TRG, divested himself from that organization and took points associated with the 71 with him to become an equity partner at RCR.

Offseason points swaps are allowed by NASCAR if someone from the ownership group of an organization moves into ownership with another team.

TRG will enter Lally in the No. 71 with points earned by Menard in the No. 98 at Richard Petty Motorsports last season. This was made possible because TRG owner Kevin Buckler has joined RPM on the business side.

Menard was unable to transfer the 23rd-place points he accumulated at RPM last season because that technically would have made Richard Petty an owner at RCR, putting RCR over the four-car limit with its four cars and Petty's two.

Bayne will drive the No. 21 Wood Brothers II, LLC, entry with 28th-place points earned byElliott Sadler in the No. 19 last season at RPM. Richard Petty will be listed as a partial owner.

RPM went from a four-car to a two-car operation during the offseason, eliminating the 98 and 19. Wallace will drive a No. 77 Toyota fielded by Rusty Wallace Racing with 30th-place points accumulated by Sam Hornish Jr. in the Penske Racking No. 77 Dodge last season.

Roger Penske formed a partnership with Wallace to make this possible after Penske was unable to acquire sponsorship for Hornish this season.

Jimmie Johnson wins 5th straight title

Kevin Liles/US PresswireFor the fifth time in as many years, Jimmie Johnson is NASCAR's No. 1 driver.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Jimmie Johnson wasn't the best all year. Not even close.

When it mattered, though, he couldn't be beat.

For the fifth consecutive year.

Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick took the champion all the way to the edge this season, waging the most serious threats yet to Johnson's reign atop NASCAR. Only the outcome didn't change, and Johnson maintained his ironclad hold on the Sprint Cup.

Johnson became the first driver in the seven-year history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship to overcome a points deficit in the season finale, finishing second Sunday to race winner Carl Edwards while winning his record fifth consecutive title.

He became only the third driver to overcome a points deficit in the season's final race and win the championship since 1975. The final margin was 39 points over Hamlin, and 41 over Harvick, who finished third in the race.

So despite all the wins -- 53 of them over nine seasons -- and all the celebrations, this one at Homestead-Miami Speedway was obviously very different. Usually so calm and workmanlike behind the wheel, Johnson was exuberant as he crossed the finish line, pumping his fists in the car while screaming "this is unbelievable!" over and over.

"I've always told you the first championship, the first win, that stuff has meant the most to me. This one, I think this takes the lead," Johnson said. "It's not that the other Chases weren't competitive. We were stronger in the previous two Chases, at least, but this one, I am just so proud."

Maybe because for the first time since his reign began in 2006, Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team seemed vulnerable. Harvick was the most consistent driver of the 26-race "regular season," and Hamlin, with a series-best eight wins this year, was the popular pick to dethrone Johnson.

Hamlin carried a 15-point lead into the finale, but struggled the entire race and turned Sunday into a battle of which driver would make the fewest mistakes.

Championship Notes -- Jimmie Johnson

• Fifth NSCS championship in his ninth full time season.

• Only driver to win four/five straight NSCS championships in the 62 NSCS seasons.

• Third driver to win five or more Championships: Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt - 7.

• All five championships have come under the Chase format.

• Only driver that has been in all seven Chases.

• Only the third time the point lead changed in the final race since 1975 (1979, 1992).

• Finished the season with 9 consecutive top 10 finishes.

• Fifth championship won in his ninth full-time season. Richard Petty won his fifth in his 16th season, Dale Earnhardt in his 13th season.

• Won his fifth NSCS Championship in 327 starts. It took Dale Earnhardt 390 starts and Richard Petty 655.

It ultimately was Johnson, who overcame a few slow pit stops by a team that's been in the spotlight since crew chief Chad Knaus benched his team in the middle of a race at Texas three weeks ago. The next day, the crews for Johnson and teammate Jeff Gordon were swapped for the final two races of the year.

The No. 48 team rose above all the drama, even after a mid-race stop cost Johnson five spots.

"I think this year we showed what this team is made of," he said. "At times this season we didn't have the most speed, but we had the most heart."

Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team felt otherwise, especially as they outperformed Johnson during the Chase. But poor fuel mileage last week in Phoenix kept it tight headed into Sunday, and he had a terrible race when he needed only a clean run.

Contact with Greg Biffle very early in the race sent Hamlin into a spin and damaged the front of his car. He dropped to 37th by the restart and had to work all day to finish 14th.

"We had a great year, we won the most races that we ever won, we contended like we've never contended before and just circumstances took us out of this one," Hamlin said.

Harvick, meanwhile, took the lead on a round of pit stops with 80 laps to go, but was flagged for speeding as he entered pit road. It dropped him to 29th, and he was still upset with the call after the race.

"I don't think that penalty will ever settle in my stomach," Harvick said, insisting that "only a handful of people" get to see the pit road speeds. "I won't ever settle for that."

But he wasn't devastated by the defeat, pointing to all the gains made this year by Richard Childress Racing. A year after failing to put any cars into the Chase, RCR had three in the field and Harvick, winner of two races, led the points for most of the regular season.

"It's a 180 for us," Harvick said.

While Harvick could find the bright spots, Hamlin, sitting next to him at the podium, had a harder time finding much to be happy about. With a vacant look and muffled answers, he vowed to be back stronger next season.

"My job is to work in the offseason to do everything I can to be better and, you know, I know every year that I am in the Cup series, I'm going to be better than I was the previous year," Hamlin said. "We're going to keep working and go get them next year."

As both drivers discussed their day, Johnson's championship celebration was shown on the multiple televisions hanging around the room and both drivers watched portions of the presentation.

Who could blame them? It was history.

The fifth title moved Johnson past Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for most titles among active drivers. He now ranks third on the career list behind seven-time champions and Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

"Finally, finally, after being able to pull this off, he'll get the respect and the rewards that he deserves," Knaus said.

The championship was a record 10th for Hendrick Motorsports, which broke a tie with Petty Enterprise for most in NASCAR. Johnson and HMS also joined three other pro teams -- the Boston Celtics, New York Yankees and Montreal Canadiens -- to win five consecutive titles. The Celtics are the all-time leaders with eight consecutive NBA titles.

"Somebody has got to win it, and I'm glad it was us," team owner Rick Hendrick said, noting "this race was so up and down. It was like who's going to screw up the most?"

Not Johnson and Knaus, who once again showed why they've been so good for so long.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

Jack Roush In ANOTHER Plane Crash, Is Hospitalized (Video Inside)

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- NASCAR team owner Jack Roush is in serious but stable condition after walking away from a plane crash in a jet he was piloting in Wisconsin on Tuesday.


"There are injuries. Possible surgery," Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith said in a text message to The Associated Press. "But he walked out of the plane."

Video taken in the immediate aftermath of the crash shows a fireman spraying foam around the plane, then opening the forward door and peering in. A few moments later, Roush, his face bloodied and blood stains covering his shirt and pants, gingerly walks through the opening.

Jack Roush

A backboard is brought up as Roush lies down next to the plane. Meanwhile, his lone passenger, identified as Brenda Strickland, also gingerly makes her way out of the plane on her feet, assisted by rescuers.

Roush, an aviation buff, was expected to attend the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., this week.

The aviation website avweb.com reported that Roush's Premier Beechcraft jet pancaked the runway with a loud bang while landing at Oshkosh, but that Roush and a passenger were out of the plane and standing after the crash.

The website said a pilot who witnessed the incident said the plane was coming in for a landing when it appeared to initiate a go-around and in the process one wing dropped and the jet fell toward the ground.

"The right wing tip hit the right side of the grass to the right of the runway, and then immediately after, the nose hit and it cartwheeled, tail over the nose, and then skidded to a stop," eyewitness Roger Florkiewicz told WFRV-TV 5 in Green Bay.

A dramatic YouTube video of Roush emerging from the plane also suggests the crash was witnessed by many people already at the airport for the AirVenture show. The video was shot by someone standing among a group of spectators watching the frightening scene and they react with relief and even some applause as Roush emerges from his broken jet on his feet.






That is one lucky man....one lucky man indeed.

WTF?? Carl Edwards Wrecks Keselowski To Win (VIDEO INSIDE

Carl Edwards played NASCAR's "Boys, have at it" policy to the hilt Saturday night, aggressively taking Brad Keselowski out and sending him into a hard crash as the drivers raced toward the checkered flag in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Gateway International Raceway.


It was the third major encounter between Edwards and Keselowski in the past two years, and as with the last time at Atlanta in March, Keselowski ended up on the losing end.

Although Edwards won the race, Keselowski dominated the entire affair, leading 136 of the 200 laps. But after a green-white-checkered restart, Edwards appeared to be gaining the lead in the first turn of the penultimate lap when Keselowski's car washed up the track and got Edwards out of shape.


 Keselowski was able to take the lead, but as the cars came off the fourth turn on the final lap, Edwards managed to get close enough to turn left into Keselowski's right rear, sending him into the inside wall. Keselowski's car was then hit by two other cars and sent spinning like a top down the frontstretch in one of the more violent crashes of the year.



"Man, that's awesome!" Edwards shouted on his radio after hanging onto his out-of-shape car and taking the victory just ahead of Reed Sorenson. "Is he (Keselowski) all right?"

Keselowski appeared to be OK, but he went to the infield care center instead of victory lane.


Outside the care center, his father, Bob Keselowski, a former racer himself, was livid. "Brad got into Carl getting out of Turn 1 racing," he told ESPN's Jerry Punch. "They bumped, they rubbed -- typical rubbin' racin' deal. Carl flipped out like he did at Atlanta and tried to kill the kid. I'm sick and tired of this. I'll get my own damn uniform back on and take care of this. He ain't gonna kill my boy."

The mood was exactly the opposite in victory lane, and Edwards wasn't shy about taking responsibility for what clearly was a take-him-out move.

"I just couldn't let him take the win from me," Edwards said. "We came to win. He took it from us there in turn one. And, man, I just couldn't let him take it from us. I had to do what I had to do."

Keselowski, who finished 14th, said afterwards,

"I'm OK. Just one of them deals, I guess. It was really hard short-track racing there the last two laps. We were racing real hard, side by side. Carl's car was really good. My car was really good. He had me pinned down a little bit which is good, that's good racing. I can respect that. Of course when you're pinned down, it takes the air off the right side of these cars. It got me a little loose. I just rubbed him a little bit, rubbed him a little bit in one and two. I'm sure we rubbed a little bit in three and four, but just good racing. It just didn't end in a good way".