Daily NASCAR

One week ago, I was preparing for the final NASCAR race, the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. My first race was through the three toll booths on the way to the track.

Now it’s all football. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. High school on the road Friday night. Texas-Texas A&M. Clemson-South Carolina. Georgia-Georgia Tech. The Egg Bowl. The Palmetto Bowl. A metallic boot formed from the states of Louisiana and Arkansas being stacked on top of each other.

For some reason, LSU’s helmets made me want to drink a Sundrop. All the gold needed was carbonation.

Nike was responsible for that. Nike was also responsible for what looked vaguely like butterfly wings on the shoulders of players from Virginia Tech and Florida.

Uniforms are breaking down, man, just like in NASCAR.

When I started writing about NASCAR for a living, it was easy to tell the cars apart. They had uniforms. Bud Moore’s Ford was red and black. Jimmy Spencer’s had McDonald’s golden arches. Jeff Gordon’s Chevy had the rainbow look. Dale Earnhardt’s found common ground with the Oakland Raiders.

Now every week’s Christmas because the teams wrap their prize cars in different wrappers almost every week. It’s made binoculars a good deal more important when I’m packing my backpack. Unloading the cars is like watching presents being opened.

Just when I decried the fact that stock cars no longer have uniforms, I realized it’s spreading. There’s no continuity, no reliability, and I’ve almost decided to pull against every school that has its uniforms designed by Nike.

What’s become of the world when a man can turn on the television and find the Denver Broncos wearing yellow, brown and hideous socks?

I value the schools that cling to tradition. God bless Alabama and Auburn, Texas, Penn State, Southern Cal, Michigan and Notre Dame, not to mention the Indianapolis Colts and the aforementioned Raiders.

I guess it’s all about gear. It’s all about getting fashion-conscious - fashion being defined as "hey, here’s what we’re wearing!" - fans buying a different jersey, or a different jacket, or a different die-cast collectible - every single week. No mantel is complete without the latest pink Elliott Sadler 1:24 scale die-cast.

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Montoya "went off" after tangling with Stewart during the Ford 400, suggesting that Stewart should be suspended and using several colorful nouns in relation to the two-time champion. Later, after Montoya had his Chevy repaired, he returned the favor, spinning Stewart’s car into the inside barrier of the Homestead-Miami Speedway front straight.

My take: Ah, it’s the curse of the highly talented to forever be in each other’s way.

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Mark Martin looks form his car during practice for the Ford 400 race at Homestead on Nov. 21. Martin could only manage a 12th-place finish in the race on Sunday, resulting in a second-place finish behind Jimmie Johnson in Cup competition. (Photo: Associated Press)

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Leaving Homestead-Miami Speedway, I turned on the satellite radio in the rental car and listened to Doug Kershaw sing "Diggy Liggy Lo" and Hank Williams sing "Jambalaya."

My mind turned almost immediately to Mark Martin. Maybe it was because the music was old.

Sunday was a day for the triumphant. The day after was for the man who fought the good fight but came up short. On the flight home, I hardly thought about Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus at all.

The language has many phrases that come up all the time, and people say them without ever considering what they mean. Martin is "tough as a lighter knot," and I don’t know where that came from but I know what it means. It means he’s feisty, relentless and unyielding. It means he never says die. When a man is 50 years old, going up against all who are younger and some who are half his age, he’d better have those virtues.

The determination that came to Martin as a little kid from the wrong side of the Arkansas tracks, with a crazy daddy who wouldn’t take no for an answer, was still there when he talked about finishing second in the NASCAR championship race for the fifth time.

Martin said he wasn’t disappointed, even though he said it so intensely and repeatedly that it left the suspicion that he was. It’s OK. He’s been disappointed before.

"There’s no frustration, man," he said to the media, knowing how much we wanted to write that he was haunted, bewitched and at wit’s end.

It was a sympathetic audience, which Martin knew, but he also knew it was audience craving something compelling to write, and he was determined not to oblige.

"I know you’d love it (if he were frustrated). I know y’all would love it, but there’s no frustration," he insisted. "There’s none. I’m very proud of what we accomplished.

"On top of all that, I had more fun than anybody. So how could you … what else can you say, man? I had a blast. It’s been an honor and a privilege, and I didn’t leave nothing. I never left anything anywhere."

Jeff Burton, who finished second in the Ford 400, paid tribute to the champion, Johnson, by paying tribute to the runner-up.

"The thing that interests me is sometimes I hear the fans say it’s coming easy to him (Johnson)," said Burton. "I suspect they work really hard. I suspect nothing comes that easy to anybody, and I’m sure that Chad (Knaus) and Jimmie (Johnson) and everybody works exceptionally hard.

"I know that I’ve had the privilege to work with Mark Martin, and I know if you’re going to run as well as he does, you’re going to have to work your (butt) off, and I’m sure that Jimmie does that."

But Martin steadfastly stuck to his guns, which fired pride and conviction.

"My race team dug as hard as they could dig," he said, "and we accomplished more than anybody else in the garage this year except for the ‘48′ (Johnson).

"That ought to be enough to make you proud."

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Photos: Getty Images

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Denny Hamlin did what he’d never done before, but Jimmie Johnson did what no one ever did before.

The Ford 400 was Hamlin’s fourth victory of the season, but it was his first on a high-banked track, Homestead-Miami Speedway. His first seven career victories were on tracks that were relatively flat: Pocono, Loudon, Martinsville and Richmond.

"I promise you in the next couple years we’re going to win a championship," said Hamlin. "To win on a track where people don’t expect us to win is a great achievement.

"When I first started out (2006), I was better on the short tracks because that’s where my experience was. Until I won at a different style of track, people didn’t put us in that category (being a contender) at other tracks. For some time now, I’ve felt like the 1.5-mile tracks had become our best suit, and that used to not be the case."

Johnson’s distinction was a bit more precious. By finishing fifth, Johnson effortlessly locked up his fourth straight Sprint Cup championship, and he did it the way at Homestead that he always has. After starting on the pole and leading 28 of the first 32 laps, Johnson appeared to go into comfortable hibernation. En route to the previous three titles, Johnson finished ninth, seventh and 15th in the season finale.

"This is so amazing," said Johnson. "It’s something I’m so proud of. I’ve always tried to set my marks high, but I had no clue I could do this."

After racing all year, Johnson closed the season by coasting. No one else has ever won four championships in a row. A key for Johnson was arriving at the final track without any reason to take chances. It’s a winning formula, a record-breaking one. Cale Yarborough won three straight titles 1976-78. Johnson is the first to win four.

On the "championship stage" and in Victory Lane, everyone was happy. Johnson began the day leading Mark Martin by 108 points and ended with a margin of 133. Even the runner-up was ecstatic. Martin, at 50, had a season so phenomenal for someone of his age that finishing second - for the fifth time - apparently wasn’t that disappointing.

"I’m happy," said Martin after finishing 12th, "and I’m going to be happy. This is the first time, as long as I can remember, I’m not glad (the season’s) over with."

Apart from Hamlin’s trend-setting victory and Johnson’s record-breaking championship, a few subplots bubbled up, the most notable being the bare-knuckled fight between two of the sport’s more talented stars, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya, both of whom managed to subordinate their chances at winning the Ford 400 to their desire to wreck each other.

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Jimmie Johnson, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship after finishing in fifth place in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Denny Hamlin won the race. (Photo: Getty Images)

Ford 400
Homestead-Miami Speedway

Not a bad way to finish - Denny Hamlin’s Chase was a disappointment, but with his fourth victory of the season, he doubled the output of his previous best season by closing the season with a Toyota victory in the Ford 400.

Laugher: Jimmie Johnson’s fourth championship was never in doubt. As has been his Homestead-Miami Speedway pattern, he was safe, secure and cautious, hiking his final margin over Mark Martin to 144 points.

Chin up - Jeff Burton, paired with crew chief Todd Berrier late in the year, finished second in the season’s final two races.

Notable numbers

.300 - Johnson’s career winning percentage in Chase races.

2.632 - Hamlin’s margin of victory.

3 - Number of times, in six years, Johnson has won four Chase races in a single year.

126.986 - The race average speed in miles per hour.

Quotable quotes

"I promise you within a couple of years we’re going to win a championship." - Denny Hamlin.

"We’re not where we need to be, or even where Denny (Hamlin) is, but we’re making headway." - runner-up Jeff Burton.

"I almost get emotional thinking about it. It was an incredible achievement to even have a chance and to be a part of history here." - Mark Martin.

"That guy (Johnson) can do things with a race car that nobody’s ever done before." - Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief.

"To do something no one’s ever done is so awesome." - Jimmie Johnson.

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