Breaking The Chase: The 2009 Sprint Cup Season

the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup series season will be remembered as one of the greatest Mark Martin making a strong comeback Jeff Gordon's return to form Tony Stewart becoming an owner driver Kyle Busch getting wrecked on a last lap at Daytona Brad Keselowski putting Carl Edwards in the catch fence mwr's first win rcr's Worst season Joey Logano becoming the youngest winner in NASCAR history at the age of 19. but whatever it may be this season may have had a completely different Outlook without the chase so that being said let's break down the 2009 season in the first six races we would have four different winners with Matt Kenseth winning the opening two races at the Daytona 500 and in second race at Auto Club Kyle Busch would win his home race at Las Vegas and then again two weeks later at Bristol Kurt Busch would take the fourth race of the season in Atlanta and two weeks later Jimmy Johnson would take Martinsville to round out the first six races after the first six races Jeff Gordon would lead the points but how coming into the season Jeff Gordon was riding a 41 race winless streak but in the first six races he would be very consistent with finishes of 13th second sixth second fourth and fourth four top fives and five top tens in the first six races and it seemed as if Jeff Gordon was having a return to form in the top seven drivers would all be within one race of each other Jeff Gordon would break his 47 race winless streak at Texas and would follow it up with finishes of 25th at Phoenix and 37th at Talladega which would end up losing him the point lead to Kurt Busch by five points but he would regain the lead in the next race at Richmond but would end up losing more points with the 16th Place finish at Darlington and a 34th at the coke 600. after another six races there will be five drivers within a legitimate shot of a championship Jeff Gordon at the top of the table 44 points above Tony Stewart in his first year with a new team that he co-owned with Gene Haas Kurt Busch in third and 115 points back with one win on the season Jimmy Johnson in fourth 128 points back also with one win Denny Hamlin in his fourth season in fifth place 147 points back with Five drivers in contention who knows who could take the point lead in the next few races but that narrative would not continue because over the next six races it would seem as if one true favorite would emerge and that would be Tony Stewart Tony in turn two Barrel one down on him now [Music] it's a long way from turn three to the start Finish Line though look at him looking [Music] Tony Stewart out of the final turn made the big move in the off season he comes to go over the house take over part of the ownership and Tony Stewart's gonna take that team to Victory Lane get him to the bottom because he just wanted to touch him man just wanted to touch it here he comes as they come to the line some he would pick up two wins and follow it up with finishes a second seventh second and fifth with all these finishes Stewart would thrust himself into the lead by 180 points Jeff Gordon would fall a second due to having two finishes outside the top 20 and Jimmy Johnson would stay in third by grabbing a win three top fives and five top tens and we ended up being 194 points back meanwhile Kurt Busch would not fare too well something a Miss bill on the two of Kurt Bush he came on the radio half a lap ago and said something is just flown out now he thinks that the belts might have come off because he's got no power steering on that two car now he would have a disastrous race at Pocono finishing 37th 18 laps down and this would end up putting him out of contention because at the halfway point he would be over 300 points back Denny Hamlin would also have a very bad stretch of races by having two finishes outside the top 30 and would also fall out of contention at this point it would seem as if it were Tony Stewart's Championship to lose over the next six races the question would be could anyone catch Stewart and the short answer would simply be no Tony Stewart would continue his consistency with a fourth place finish at Chicagoland while Gordon would finish second and Johnson eighth at Indianapolis Stewart finished third while Johnson would win and Gordon would come out ninth at Pocono Stewart would finish 10th while Gordon would finish eight and Johnson 13th at Watkins Glen Tony Stewart will win his third race of the Season while Johnson would finish 12th and Gordon would have a disastrous day finishing 37th at Michigan Tony Stewart would finish 17th while Gordon would score a runner-up finish while Johnson would finish 33rd one lap down Stewart would still hold the lead but now by a 284 points over Gordon and 303 points back to Johnson at Bristol Tony Stewart would have a terrible night finishing 33rd 11 laps down Johnson would go on to finish eighth and Jeff Gordon would come on 23rd after that race Jimmy Johnson would now be in second 220 points back and Jeff Gordon 254 points back with 12 races to go at Atlanta Jeff Gordon finished eighth and Tony Stewart will come home 11th while Johnson would not be so fortunate finishing 36-22 laps down after Atlanta Gordon would be behind by 237 points while Johnson would be behind by 290. the next race at Richmond Gordon would have a strong night finishing third while Jimmy Johnson would come home 11th and Steward and 17th Gordon was now backed by 179 points and Johnson by 272 points now Loudon Johnson finished fourth beating Stewart and Gordon who both finished 14th and 15th Gordon was backed by 187 points and Johnson would shrink the Gap to 233 points the next race at Dover Johnson would Dominate and win while Gordon would finish Sixth and Stewart Knight both shrinking the gap Gordon now back by 175 points and Johnson 176 points at Kansas Stewart remind everyone why he was the dominant force in this championship by going out and winning while Gore were finished second and Johnson would come home ninth Stewart would build a gap to 195 points to Gordon and 223 points to Johnson Out Auto Club Jimmy Johnson would re-establish himself as a title Contender by winning while Gordon would come home second for his second straight week while Stewart would finish Fifth and both would shrink the Gap once again Gordon backed by 180 points and Johnson by 188 points with six races to go it would be a matter of who could catch Stewart and if they could beat him at Charlotte Jimmy Johnson would dominate while Gordon would still have a solid night finishing fourth and Stewart would have a mediocre night finishing 13th a gap to new second place Runner Jimmy Johnson was now just 117 points and 139 points back to Gordon at Martinsville Jimmy Johnson would finish second Gordon would also have a strong day finishing Fifth and Stewart would have finished ninth but would still lose points Johnson was now back by 80 points and Gordon by 117 points at Talladega Johnson finished a solid sixth place while Gordon would crash on the last lap to finish 20 but Tony Stewart's day would be even worse watch a car get turned around he and his teammate Tony Stewart got into the wall but you see it turns Ryan Newman around so it's almost like that wing acts as a to help to lift the car up lands on Kevin Harvick's Hood Stewart would crash with five laps to go in the race and finish a terrible 35th and Jimmy Johnson would take the point lead by seven points over Stewart and 79 points over Gordon at Texas the Hendrick teammates would both have their own issues both races here a year sideways and inside inside trouble for Jimmy Johnson as he slams the inside wall oh man he's got a lot of damage to that race car and there were three wide oh trouble turn two Montoya Gordon spins around kaslowski into it major points implications montoya's car back in the wall Edwards heavily damaged front and rear and Jeff Gordon has some damage as well yeah I don't think Jeff Gordon's got much damage but Montoya got into the 99 right there as they entered the corner it looks like Gordon has zeros due to these issues Johnson would have a disastrous day finishing 38th and Gordon would manage to recover the 13th as for Stewart he would have a very solid day finishing Sixth and would take back the point lead by 93 points over Jeff Gordon and 94 points over Jimmy Johnson it was seen with two races to go Stewart had the championship in hand at the penultimate race of the Season Tony Stewart's title hopes would come crashing down team up Kyle Busch in comes Montoya all near contact again oh trouble Alpha Four Dale Earnhardt Jr involved couple of cars Tony Stewart is there the 17 is there Bobby Labonte in the 71. 20 of legano involved [Music] Stuart we get caught up in a wreck on lap 172 and finished 25th Gore would have a decent day finishing ninth now what about Jimmy Johnson Johnson would dominate the race at Phoenix by Leading 76 percent of the race and winning it with this performance he would retake the points lead by 13 points over Stewart and 56 points over Jeff Gordon this was truly a three-way title fight three drivers 267 laps and one Championship Johnson would be going for his second title Stuart for his third and Gordon for his record tie in seventh championship no matter what Jimmy Johnson had to beat Stewart but if Gordon won the race and received Max points Jimmy Johnson would have to finish eighth to quench the title Johnson would put his low Chevrolet on pole while Stewart would qualifying Fifth and Gordon 20. Johnson would lead the opening nine laps before getting passed by Marcos Ambrose and then four laps later passing him back to lead another 19 laps before getting passed Again by Tony Stewart on lap 33. meanwhile Jeff Gordon would crack the top 10 by lap 15 and green flag pit stops would initiate on lap 51 with all three contenders having smooth stops and they would cycle out with Steward in third Johnson Fifth and Gordon in seventh Stewart and Johnson would be in the top five for the whole first third of the race while Gordon would continue to charge toward the front getting as high as sixth then on lap 81 the costume would come out Marcus Ambrose would spin out causing the yellow this would trigger pit stops and Stewart's pit crew would keep him out front while Johnson would lose one place falling to Fifth and Gordon would come out seven on the restart Stewart would lose the lead and fall all the way back to seventh while Johnson would charge the third Jeff Gordon would end up having a disastrous restart falling all the way back to 17. the caution would come out on lap 101 due to John Andretti blowing a tire and this would cause another round of pit stops Stewart would come out third with Johnson and Fifth and Gordon all the way back in 15th the race would go on but on lab 116 Tony Stewart would find himself in trouble he found a place to race without having a bunch of pressure and Montoya has just been no contact Montoya and Tony Stewart together looks like that might just be this would start a feud between Stewart and Montoya that went on through the entire race that little bit of contact would cause Montoya to go into the wall and bring out a caution this would trigger more stops but Gordon would stay out while Johnson and Stewart would pick Gordon would be in seventh while Johnson would be in 23rd while Stewart would be in 29th Juan Pablo Montoya would get back on the track and have just one mission in Tony Stewart's title hopes and on lab 156 he would do just that well the guy's spinning sideways Tony Stewart back in 1999 did it and he spins it down comes down across the racetrack and nudges the pit wall he's a good driver could have had a little help right there I'd say he had a lot of help I saw that one coming for about five laps now NASCAR had just this would effectively end any hope at a third Championship that Tony Stewart had Stewart had worked himself up to 14th while Johnson worked up the 16th both that Stewart would have no shot at winning a third title and would go on to finish 22nd the race would go on and Johnson would get back in the top 10 on lap 162 from a restart while Gordon would get back up to fifth on lap 174 though Gordon's Championship hopes would be dashed well Hamlin just Motors off that top Groove and pulls him by another car Lane yeah although we say the top they're not right against the wall like we saw some guys making time really early in the race I don't think we're going to see that be the groove but I think you're going to have to be middle to the upper portion of the track it's what we saw Kyle Busch do last night when he won the Nationwide race seven championships represented in that battle on the left side of your screen the four-time champ Jeff Gordon and the maybe soon to be four-time champion with that pass Gordon would not get back by Johnson all night and with that Jimmy Johnson would be the 2009 champion and would claim his second championship so either way Johnson would have claimed the 2009 title had albeit in much closer fashion with two other contenders Mark Martin wouldn't have been in the conversation for the title that year but would still have a very good comeback season and finish fifth in the standings Jeff Gordon would have a very nice return to form finishing second 66 points back off of Johnson Tony Stewart would have a very good season in his first year as an owner driver but due to his season falling apart in the last 15 races he would come up just short of a third title well that'll do it for today guys thank you so much for watching and I will see you next week for 2010. 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Channel: P1 Motorsports

Views: 7,341

Keywords: NASCAR

Id: n_vGSXyM1kU

Length: 15min 12sec (912 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 16 2022