10TH TITLE: Hendrick Motorsports now is NASCAR’s all-time leader in NASCAR Sprint Cup owner championships with 10 after Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet team earned their fifth consecutive series title Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports previously was tied with Petty Enterprises, which earned nine Cup owner championships.

THE OTHER GUYS: With its fifth straight championship, Hendrick Motorsports becomes one of just four teams in major American professional sports to have scored five or more titles consecutively. The Boston Celtics posted eight NBA titles in a row starting with the 1958-59 season and ending in 1965-66. Hendrick now is tied with the New York Yankees, which earned five World Series rings from 1949-53, and the Montreal Canadiens, which scored five Stanley Cups from 1956-60.

COMPARISONS: In the major American professional sports leagues, Hendrick Motorsports’ 10 total Sprint Cup owner championships are tied for eighth behind the New York Yankees (27 World Series titles), Montreal Canadiens (24 Stanley Cups), Boston Celtics (17 NBA titles), Los Angeles Lakers (16 NBA titles), Toronto Maple Leafs (13 Stanley Cups), Green Bay Packers (12 NFL championships) and Detroit Red Wings (11 Stanley Cups). The St. Louis Cardinals own 10 World Series titles.

ALL-TIME CHAMPIONSHIPS: The 2010 Sprint Cup car owner championship is the 13th for Hendrick Motorsports across NASCAR’s three national series, extending the team’s all-time record. Richard Childress Racing ranks second among owners with 11 combined titles. In the car owner category, Hendrick has won 10 titles in the Sprint Cup Series and three in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Hendrick Motorsports also has won a NASCAR Nationwide Series driver championship, which came in 2003.

KNAUS SETS THE STANDARD: Chad Knaus is the only crew chief ever to win more than two consecutive Sprint Cup titles (he now has five in a row), and his championship total (also five) ranks him second all-time among crew chiefs in NASCAR history. Only Dale Inman (eight titles) has more.

FIVE-PEAT: Johnson is the first driver in NASCAR history to capture five straight Sprint Cup titles and the first champion in the Chase format to overcome a points deficit going into the final event. Johnson, however, is not the first driver ever to come back and win a championship. Most recently, Alan Kulwicki rallied from 30 points down going in to the 1992 season finale to win it all.

TWO TO GO: With a fifth title, Johnson breaks a tie with teammate Jeff Gordon to become the Sprint Cup championship leader among active drivers and third all-time. Johnson is two titles shy of NASCAR’s all-time leaders, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, who scored seven apiece during their Hall of Fame careers.

DRIVE FOR FIVE: Winning five straight championships is a first for Hendrick Motorsports, which previously was the only NASCAR team to have achieved four titles consecutively. In addition to Johnson’s 2006-10 run, Hendrick scored four in a row with Gordon (1995, 1997 and 1998) and Terry Labonte (1996). No other team has won more than three Sprint Cup championships in consecutive seasons.

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK: Johnson isn’t the first driver in motor sports this year to come back from a points deficit and capture the series championship in the season finale. John Force (NHRA Funny Car), Sebastian Vettel (F1) and Dario Franchitti (IndyCar) join Johnson in coming from behind to capture their series championships in the final race of the season. Force trailed first by 37 points going into the Nov. 14 finale, when he rallied to win his 15th Funny Car title. Vettel made up 15 points in F1’s season finale on Nov. 14, while Franchitti overcame a 12-point deficit on Oct. 2 to capture the IndyCar championship in the last race of the season.

WINNING PERCENTAGE: Hendrick Motorsports is the most efficient team in major American professional sports, earning 10 titles since its inception in 1984 for a 37.04 all-time title-winning percentage. The Celtics rank second with 17 titles in 65 seasons (26.15 percent), while the Yankees are third with 27 World Series championships in 107 seasons (25.23 percent). Hendrick has won 10 of the last 16 Sprint Cup championships (1995-2010), putting the team’s title-winning percentage during that span at 62.5.

SINCE 1984: No other major American professional sports team has earned more championships than Hendrick Motorsports since 1984, the organization’s inaugural season. In that time, the Los Angeles Lakers have earned eight championships and the Chicago Bulls have collected six titles. The New York Yankees and Edmonton Oilers have scored five titles apiece.

STILL ROLLING: Hendrick Motorsports never has run a Sprint Cup campaign without winning a pole position (1984-2010). The team scored five this season, including two from Johnson.

APPROACHING 200: Hendrick Motorsports has posted at least one Cup-level win in 25 straight seasons (194 victories from 1986-2010), the longest active streak in NASCAR. The streak began Feb. 16, 1986, when Geoff Bodine won Hendrick’s first Daytona 500.

ANOTHER ONE FOR CHEVY: Chevrolet captured its 34th Sprint Cup manufacturers’ championship this season after winning 18 races. Johnson led all Chevy drivers with seven victories.

RACE RECAP | HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

10 Greg Biffle
9 Matt Kenseth
8 Tony Stewart
7 Ryan Newman
6 Kasey Kahne
5 A.J. Allmendinger
4 Aric Almirola
3 Kevin Harvick finished 3rd in points (-41)
2 Jimmie Johnson is the 2010 Sprint Cup Series Champion

-It’s Johnson’s 5th straight title
-He had to come from behind to win this one
-No driver has ever won 5 straight
-He leads all active drivers with the most championships
-10th championship for Hendrick Motorsports

VICTORY LANE

1 Carl Edwards led the most laps and wins his second race in a row after not winning since 2008.

OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY

-Denny Hamlin went for a wild ride in the backstretch grass after running into Greg Biffle. He later had a tire going down and pitted. Denny finished 14th and 2nd in the point standings (-39)

-Jeff Burton pounded the wall hard, sending him the garage

-Kevin Harvick made his way to the front only to get caught speeding on pit road

-The engine expired on the 24 of Jeff Gordon

-Jimmie Johnson’s pit crew had less than stellar stops all day

-Kevin Harvick dumped Kyle Busch with about 22 laps to go, the 18 caught fire and Kyle is okay

Denny Hamlin, Chase leader heading into the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, clipped Greg Biffle and went for a wild ride.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/nascar/.element/swf/2.2/sect/video/nascar_embed.swf?context=nascar_viral&videoId=cup/2010/11/21/cup_hom_high_one.nascar

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(November 20, 2010)

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—Kyle Busch pulled away from Kevin Harvick during a 23-lap run to the finish to win Saturday’s Ford 300 Nationwide Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Harvick ran second, followed by 2010 series champion Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne.

With his 13th victory in 29 starts this season, Busch extended his single-season win record. The victory was his 43rd in the Nationwide Series, leaving him five behind all-time leader Mark Martin.

Danica Patrick qualified fifth, pitted early and led four laps—her first of the season—by staying out while others pitted under caution on Lap 24. Soon after a restart on Lap 28, however, she dropped back to 21st in the running order. She finished a career-best 19th in her 13th start in the series.

After winning the owners championship in his own No. 18 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Friday night, Busch secured the Nationwide owners’ title for Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday. Stenhouse clinched Raybestos rookie of the year honors.

Notes: Keselowski scored his 26th top-five finish of the year, a single-season record. … The victory was Gibbs’ 49th in the past three seasons. Busch has 31 of those. … Busch led 153 of 200 laps.

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(November 19, 2010)

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—
Kyle Busch ran away from Ron Hornaday Jr. after a restart with four laps left in Friday night’s Ford 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and won the race by .577 seconds over last year’s series champion.

In winning for the eighth time in 16 starts this season and the 24th time in his career, Busch locked up the owners’ championship for his No. 18 Toyota in his first year as an owner in the series.

“This is so cool, to come out here and win in our last race the way we did,” said Busch, who is still looking for sponsorship to sustain his truck team next year. “(Crew chief) Eric Phillips made some great calls and got my head back in the race.”

Johnny Sauter ran third, followed by 2010 truck series champion Todd Bodine and Aric Almirola, second in the standings this year.

Busch was running in the top five when Sauter’s No. 13 Toyota pinched him into the outside wall on Lap 102 of the 134-lap race. The right front tire on Busch’s Toyota blew shortly thereafter, causing the fourth caution of the race. That turned out to be a minor hurdle between Busch and the victory.

Busch stayed on the lead lap and restarted 21st on Lap 111. By the time John Jackson’s wild slide into the sand barrels protecting the entrance to pit road brought out caution No. 5 on that same lap, Busch was running 14th. NASCAR red-flagged the race while the barrels were replaced.

Hornaday took the lead after a restart on Lap 115 and held it until Elliott Sadler’s spin off Turn 4 caused the sixth and final caution and set up the decisive four-lap run to the finish.

Kevin Harvick, Hornaday’s owner, urged his driver to take the outside on the final restart. Hornaday tried to hold Busch down to the inside, but to no avail. Hornaday said it wouldn’t have mattered which lane he picked.

“No, it didn’t matter—we were just too tight up through the middle, and his truck was free enough where he kept the momentum going,” Hornaday said. “I just wish Johnny had hit him a little harder when he squeezed him against the fence over there, so he didn’t have such a good truck to come back and beat me.”