NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2010 Season Recap
For the third time in five years, the driver who won the most races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series did not win the championship.
Jimmie Johnson won the Sprint Cup title again this year, his fifth in a row, setting an all-time NASCAR record. But Johnson did not dominate the 2010 season as he has in some of his past championship years. Denny Hamlin won the most races this year with eight victories, while Kevin Harvick amassed a 200+ points lead during the first 26 races. Johnson was second in race wins with six.
The Chase itself – the final ten-race “playoff” session – was widely billed as a wide-open competition with no clear favorite. But it was hard to argue against the three drivers noted above as favorites — Hamlin for winning the most races, Harvick for leading the points, and Johnson because, well, he’s Jimmie Johnson.
The final race in Homestead-Miami did, in fact, come down a three-way battle between Hamlin, Harvick, and Johnson – the only drivers who still had a mathematical chance at the title. Although Hamlin had a 15-point lead heading into the race, Johnson took over the points lead the moment the green flag fell because he qualified much closer to the front than either Hamlin or Harvick. It was a deficit that the two competitors could not overcome, handing Johnson his fifth consecutive title.
It was an interesting year in other respects for Johnson’s two closest competitors. Denny Hamlin injured his knee playing basketball just weeks before the start of the season and the 2010 Daytona 500. Initial reports were that he would wait until the post-season to have the torn ligament repaired, but the date was moved up to March when it was deemed to be in his best interest to have the surgery sooner. Hamlin only had the Easter week off to recover before resuming driver duties at Phoenix in April. In what was largely seen as a team-building moment, he opted to drive the entire race at PIR, despite excruciating pain. 
The most compelling aspect of Kevin Harvick’s story this year was the degree to which his team improved from last season. Harvick missed the Chase in 2009 after failing to win a race and finished the season ranked 19th in points. This year, he won three races (the most since 2006) and finished the year ranked third, 41 points behind Johnson. He finished the season with an average finish of 8.7, compared to Johnson’s 12.2.
Overall, the 12 Chase drivers, in order of their final ranking, were 1) Jimmie Johnson, 2) Denny Hamlin, 3) Kevin Harvick, 4) Carl Edwards, 5) Matt Kenseth, 6) Greg Biffle, 7) Tony Stewart, 8) Kyle Busch, 9) Jeff Gordon, 10) Clint Bowyer, 11) Kurt Busch, 12) Jeff Burton.
As noted, Denny Hamlin won the most races with eight, Johnson, six, and Harvick, three. Kyle Busch also had three wins while Carl Edwards won the final two races of the year at Phoenix and Homestead. Biffle, Stewart, Bowyer, and Kurt Busch had two wins a piece. Three Chase contenders – Kenseth, Gordon, and Burton – went winless in 2010, while three non-Chasers each won a race, including Ryan Newman, David Reutimann, and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Mark Martin finished the year in 13th place, the highest of the non-Chasers, but the more notable season among the non-Chase contenders belonged to Jamie McMurray, who ranked 14th. Jamie Mac won three races in 2010 including two of the biggest – the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 – but three DNFs and seven finishes of 30th or worse counteracted those impressive victories.
The 2010 season will likely be remembered as the year NASCAR told the drivers to “have at it” on the racetrack, although the edict was misappropriated as an excuse for all sorts of untoward aggressiveness. The original statement was made by Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, and referred only to the fact that NASCAR would not be policing bump drafting at Daytona and Talladega: “We will put it back in the hands of the drivers and we will say, ‘Boys, have at it and have a good time.'”
If you’re missing NASCAR already, take heart. The Sprint Cup Awards Banquet is on Friday, December 3, and select drivers will be tire testing at Daytona December 15-16. Preseason Thunder follows in mid-January.
Meanwhile, you can find a Daytona 500 Countdown Clock here: http://www.sunlink.org/images/testtime.html
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Becca Gladden is a freelance writer and race handicapper specializing in NASCAR.
