Year End Wrap for Professional Racing Series

2008 Nascar Nextel Cup Champion

Jimmy Johnson

Nascar has several professional, national classes. Top of the food chain is the Nextel Cup where Rick Hendrick has dominated all teams this year, with the top two driver's points are Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson. Of course, Johnson is the 2008 NNCS Champion for the second consecutive season.

Carl Edwards wrapped up the Nascar Busch Series Championship several races ago, they don't have a chase format like NNCS so Carl's lead was mathematically unbreakable three races from the end of the season. Edward's car owner, Jack Roush has won the owner's honors.

The Craftsman Truck Series was a helluva contest this year, with two veteran drivers in close competition, but it ended up with Ron Hornaday driving a truck owned by Kevin Harvick k to first place in the championship. Mike Skinner was close at the end, close enough to break your heart.

Sebastien Bourdais has won the Champ Car title every year exept his rookie season. This year makes it an unprecedented four- in-a-row. Bourdais dominated the series almost from day one, I remember watching his first race and he took the pole. You knew from the start this kid from LeMans, France was something special. We don't know exactly why

he didn't go to Formula 1 after winning the Formula 3000 (which is now called GP2), as it turns out, Bourdais has signed on with Formula 1 team Torro Rosso (Red Bull) and will compete in the 2008 season. Names like Will Power, Simone Pagenaud and Graham Rahal will move to take his place.

The 2007 Indy Car Champion is Dario Franchitti and he had several firsts.

He won the Indy 500 and is the first series winner to win the 500 in the same year. Then Dario went to Chip Ganassi and has driven his NASCAR Busch and Cup car at the end of this year and will drive in the Daytona 500 early next year.

Formula 1's 2007 season should always be remembered as the dawn of Lewis Hamilton. Although he didn't win the World Championship, he was clearly dominant and though he made several rookie mistakes late in the year he had a great year getting a handful of victories.

His teammate, Fernando Alonso was unable to capitalize in the wake of Hamilton's late missteps which left the way clear for Kimi Raikkonen to claim the prize in the last laps of the last race to become the 2007 World Champion.

For his part, Ron Dennis and the McLaren team dominated with both of their cars and had nothing to show for it at the end due to penalties and sanctions. All in all, Ferrari prevailed with it's Constructor trophy and their driver the World Champion.

-Katykarter

Formula 1: All that Glitters

Whether its the sheer joy of the F-1 spirit, as in the flagman at the Australian GP in Adelaide 1990 or the engineering feats of Formula 1 Team Renault, Alain Prost brought an air of formality that disinguished him from his peers.

Shown above in the Renault Espace F1 minivan: essentially an F-1 car with a minivan body atop, karting in a charity event and battling Senna, Alain Prost became the first 4-time world champion with Williams in 1991.

Formula 1 is the crown jewel in all of motorsports, and Prost's rise and return to the championship exemplified the finest any driver had offered until a young german came along.