Stewart reveals nominees for second Stewie Awards

SIRIUS XM Radio, the Official Satellite Radio Partner of NASCAR, and two-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, announced Monday the nominees for the second annual Stewie Awards, honoring the best, boldest and funniest moments of the 2008 NASCAR season.

The Stewies will be awarded during a special broadcast of Tony Stewart Live, the weekly talk show hosted by Stewart and Matt Yocum, at SIRIUS XM Radio's New York City studios on Thursday, Dec. 4 from 6-8 p.m. ET during 2008 NASCAR Champions Week. The live broadcast will air nationwide on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, available on SIRIUS channel 128 and on XM channel 128 with the "Best of SIRIUS" programming package.

"After seeing the tears of joy stream down Kevin Harvick's face after handing him his Stewie for 'Best Original Drama' last year we knew that, while it would be tough to top last year's event, the show must go on," Stewart said. "So we're excited to be back for Year 2 to celebrate all the great people and performances from the 2008 season. It'll be a great way to cap off the season and we'll have a lot of fun with our guests and our listeners on SIRIUS and XM."

The 2008 Stewie Award winners will be determined by fans around the country who cast their votes online at www.sirius.com/stewieawards.

"Once again the fans, who are such a big part of Tony Stewart Live throughout the year, can get involved by voting in the award winners," Stewart said. "And so, without further ado, the nominees for the 2008 Stewie Awards are ..."

Golden Stewie Award
Honoring a driver from the Golden Era of racing (1960-85)

Lifetime Achievement Award

Best Original Drama
For year's most dramatic moment or sequence
• Ryan Newman wins the 50th Daytona 500 (Feb. 17)

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the Budweiser Shootout for first victory with Hendrick Motorsports (Feb. 9)

• Tony Stewart announces departure from Joe Gibbs Racing to become a driver/owner with Stewart-Haas Racing (July 9)

• Kyle Busch wins eight races, including four in a row, but finishes 10th in final Chase standings

Best Stunt Sequence (Hal Needham Award)
For year's most spectacular crash

• Michael McDowell's tumbling crash during qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway (April 4)

• Jeff Gordon hits inner wall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (March 2)

• The Big One during the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway involves 11 cars and collects six Chase drivers (Oct. 5)

• Brian Vickers' wheel comes off during Coca-Cola 600 (May 25)

• Juan Montoya triggers multi-car wreck at Phoenix International Raceway that ends with David Gilliland's car resting atop Scott Speed's car (Nov. 9)

Best Original Comedy
For year's most entertaining "incident" or occurrence

• Kenny Wallace falsely announces plans for his brother Rusty to come out of retirement

• Goodyear tire controversy at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 27)

• The "Yellow Line Debate" after controversial finish at Talladega (Oct. 5)

• David Starr takes on Germain Racing in melee on pit road at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sep. 13)
Best Engineering and Special Effects (Smokey Yunick Award)
For year's most creative -- and ultimately illegal -- modifications to a racecar

• Carl Edwards and No. 99 team get caught without oil can lid attached at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (March 2)

• Joe Gibbs Racing cars get caught with magnets behind accelerator at Michigan International Speedway (Aug. 17)

• Juan Montoya and No. 42 team are penalized for illegal shocks after winning pole at Kansas Speedway (Sep. 28)

• Brian Vickers and No. 83 team are penalized for too thin sheet metal at Martinsville Speedway (Oct. 19)

Bonehead Move of the Year

• Carl Edwards pushes Kevin Harvick in Lowe's Motor Speedway garage while discussing Harvick's "pansy" comment after Talledega race (Oct. 9)

• Michael Waltrip Racing allegedly steals sway bar from Roush Fenway Racing

• City of Concord, N.C., flip-flops on its stand against a drag strip after SMI chairman Bruton Smith threatens to move Lowe's Motor Speedway to another city

"I Got Dumped" Award
For year's most memorable on- or off-track bumping

• Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond International Raceway: On May 3 Kyle takes out Dale Jr.; on Sep. 6 Dale Jr. overdrives a corner and gets into Kyle

• After a great season, David Ragan narrowly misses Chase after spinning himself and collecting Roush teammate Matt Kenseth at Richmond (Sep. 6)

• David Gilliland takes out Juan Montoya on backstretch at Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 2)

• Roush Fenway fabrication shop after Carl Edwards takes out himself and teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth at Talladega (Oct. 5)

Best Driver2Crew Chatter Exchange
For year's most memorable driver-to-pit crew communication (Visit www.sirius.com/stewieawards to hear audio of nominees)

• Dale Jarrett signs off and ends racing career by crossing finish line in All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway (May 17)

• Clint Bowyer declares Michael Waltrip "the worst driver in NASCAR" at Bristol Motor Speedway (Aug. 23)

• Owner Rick Hendrick redirects Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s anger at New Hampshire (Sep. 4)

• Tony Stewart expresses concern paramedics will show up at No. 20 team pit box at Martinsville Speedway (March 30)

Best Vocal Performance
For year's most memorable quote or sound bite (Visit www.sirius.com/stewieawards to hear audio of nominees)

• Jimmie Johnson sums up his run at Texas Motor Speedway after Dickies 500 (Nov. 2)

• Steven Wallace reacts to Kyle Busch confronting him in racecar after Nationwide race at Richmond (May 2)

• Ron Hornaday rips Kyle Busch after Craftsman Truck Series incident at Michigan International Speedway (June 14)

• Kyle Busch is unwilling to accept Carl Edwards' apology after being taken out in final laps at Bristol Motor Speedway (Aug. 23)

• Carl Edwards describes his desperation off-the-wall move at Kansas Speedway and where he learned it (Sep. 28)

The critically acclaimed Tony Stewart Live debuted Jan. 2, 2007, and airs weekly throughout the year exclusively on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, available on SIRIUS channel 128 and on XM channel 128 with the "Best of SIRIUS" programming package. The two-hour show features Stewart and Yocum taking calls from listeners, talking with prominent guests and covering the spectrum of motorsports

Victory, Chase good for Junior, but good enough?

Expectation is the word that comes to mind for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 2008 season. His move from family-owned Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Hendrick Motorsports in the offseason brought a heavy load with it.


Dale Earnhardt Jr. snapped a 76-race winless streak at Michigan.Junior was expected to win races after failing to do so in 2007. He was even projected by some to contend for the championship after finishing 16th or worse in the standings in two of the last three seasons. He certainly didn't extinguish those expectations when he won the Budweiser Shootout and his Gatorade Duel race at Daytona. But the season brought his team back down to earth.

Earnhardt started the year as a model of consistency, scoring 11 top-10 finishes in the first 15 races. The culmination of that streak was his victory at Michigan, snapping the 76-race winless drought. Yet another streak followed: Nine finishes outside the top 10 in the next 10 races. Still, it was good enough to make the Chase with ease.

Two weeks into the Chase, Junior's title contention went sour with a four-week span of mediocrity that dropped him from fourth in points to barely hanging on to the top 10. He rebounded with a second-place finish at Martinsville, but a 20th-place finish at Texas and a 41st at Homestead sealed his fate: He fell to 12th in the standings, his worst position since the second week of the season.

Did Earnhardt meet expectations? By most accounts, no. His team thrived early in races, only to fade in the closing laps. Each race became a microcosm of the season. But he did return to Victory Lane and the Chase, which could only set the bar higher for 2009.

Best Race


LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway -- Sure, Junior won the race. But the race also proved that he could still communicate well with crew chief Tony Eury Jr., that he trusted his cousin's judgment from the pit box, and that he can still win races after a 76-race winless streak. Junior stayed out for the final 55 laps, enduring a green-white-checkered finish before having to be pushed to Victory Lane when his car ran out of fuel crossing the line. Was it Junior's best race? That could easily be debated. But if the No. 88 team is to go on to win more races in the future, it can point to an extended day in Michigan that reminded the team it can still do the job.

Turn for the Worse


Camping World RV 400 at Dover International Speedway -- Race 2 of the Chase began with Earnhardt sitting fourth in points, 50 behind leader Jimmie Johnson. But a 24th-place finish at Dover, combined with top-five finishes for Johnson, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle, dropped Junior all the way to ninth in points in just one race, 129 back of Edwards in the lead. Earnhardt never recovered. His next three races ended with finishes of 13th, 28th and 36th, ultimately dropping him to 10th in points and out of title contention.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2008 Season Statistics

Race Start Finish Laps Status Led Rank

Daytona 3 9 200/200 Running 12 8
Fontana 15 40 203/250 Running 0 23
Las Vegas 8 2 267/267 Running 17 10
Atlanta 2 3 325/325 Running 62 6
Bristol 15 5 506/506 Running 0 5
Martinsville 22 6 500/500 Running 146 4
Texas 1 12 338/339 Running 31 4
Phoenix 13 7 312/312 Running 87 3
Talladega 9 10 188/188 Running 46 3
Richmond 22 15 410/410 Running 15 3
Darlington 2 4 367/367 Running 35 3
Charlotte 6 5 400/400 Running 76 3
Dover 25 35 387/400 Running 0 3
Pocono 7 4 200/200 Running 0 3
Michigan 3 1 203/203 Running 14 3
Sonoma 15 12 112/112 Running 0 3
New Hampshire 5 24 284/284 Running 29 3
Daytona 3 8 162/162 Running 51 2
Chicagoland 2 16 267/267 Running 0 2
Indianapolis 11 12 160/160 Running 8 2
Pocono 12 12 200/200 Running 1 2
Watkins Glen 2 22 90/90 Running 33 4
Michigan 4 23 199/200 Running 43 4
Bristol 40 18 498/500 Running 0 3
Fontana 18 11 250/250 Running 0 4
Richmond 4 4 400/400 Running 90 4
New Hampshire 4 5 300/300 Running 79 4
Dover 10 24 397/400 Running 0 9
Kansas 11 13 267/267 Running 0 8
Talladega 15 28 173/190 Crash 19 10
Charlotte 10 36 289/334 Running 0 10
Martinsville 10 2 504/504 Running 0 9
Atlanta 9 11 325/325 Running 1 10
Texas 5 20 332/334 Running 1 11
Phoenix 5 6 313/313 Running 0 10
Homestead 22 41 246/267 Wheel Bearing 0 12
Totals 10.3 14.1 98.6% 896 12

Junior's twin worlds of popularity, performance

The official awards banquet isn't until Friday night, but that didn't stop Jimmie Johnson from adding to his trophy collection one day early. At NASCAR's annual Myers Brothers Media Luncheon, the three-time champion received an award for leading the most laps. He received an award for winning the most poles. His crew chief won an award, his pit crew won an award, his sponsor won an award, even one of his engine builders won an award. And Dale Earnhardt Jr. upstaged them all with one thing.

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Facial hair. Lots of it. "I called him 'Mountain Man' when I first saw it," Jeff Gordon said of the Grizzly Adams-like growth sported by his Henrdrick Motorsports teammate. Hey, Junior is going hunting with some of his uncles in a few days. And he had never grown a beard before.

"I figured, I'd see what happened," Earnhardt said. "I got through the itching and I was all right."

Besides, it's not like the guy has to be all clean-cut for the annual year-end awards ceremony, a black-tie affair held within the refined, opulent environs of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Despite making the Chase after a one-year absence, despite winning a race to snap that 76-event winless skid, Earnhardt isn't on the program for Friday night. His late-season swoon relegated him to 12th in the Sprint Cup standings, and only the top 10 appear on stage. Junior was in New York on Thursday to pick up his sixth consecutive most popular driver award, a trophy only Bill Elliott (16 times) and Richard Petty (nine times) have won more.

It was one of those moments when Earnhardt's popularity and performance, not always directly proportional, stood side-by-side. Clearly, there is no driver that fans adore more. He earned 1.2 million votes in balloting for his latest most popular driver award, which was never in doubt. His value to sponsors is rock-solid even in a recessed economy. He moves merchandise and sells tickets. But even Earnhardt, smart and savvy guy that he is, realizes his on-track performance isn't quite where many believe it should be.

"I don't know what I'm doing to get that," he said, sounding somewhat confused by his own popularity. "I don't know what I'm doing to make that happen. I'm just lucky."

It's easy to forget, with his two-year-long winless streak and his acrimonious departure from Dale Earnhardt Inc. still fresh in the memory, that this is still a driver who's won 18 times on NASCAR's premier circuit and was a championship contender right down to the wire in 2003, 2004, and 2006. The expectations were stratospheric when he joined Hendrick, then a seven-time championship organization, prior to last year. And he seemed to deliver, running as high as second in points early in the season, benefitting from the months of ground work that crew chief Tony Eury Jr. had laid, and finally unshackling himself from that long winless skid with a fuel-mileage run at Michigan.

Sound & Speed to feature Junior, Montgomery Gentry

For the fourth consecutive year, the worlds of NASCAR and country music will collide in Music City for Sprint Sound & Speed presented by SunTrust on Jan. 9-10, 2009. Award-winning country duo Montgomery Gentry will headline the kick-off concert to be held at the Sommet Center at 8 p.m. on Jan. 9.


Montgomery GentryOn Jan. 10 at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium fans will have the opportunity to meet drivers, team owners and top-name musicians for autographs, story-telling and question-and-answer sessions. Among the NASCAR stars scheduled to appear at the festival are Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip.

Other drivers scheduled to appear are Reed Sorensen, Jamie McMurray and David Stremme.

Country music celebrities scheduled to participate in autograph and question-answer sessions include Josh Turner, Jason Michael Carroll, members of Diamond Rio and newcomer Rick Huckaby.

Additional drivers and artists will be announced in the coming weeks.

The event also will feature show car and sponsor displays, as well as a charitable auction with memorabilia from the racing and entertainment industries.

Tickets for Sound & Speed will go on sale Dec. 12, and will be available through TicketMaster (www.ticketmaster.com) and on the Web site www.soundandspeed.org.

Tickets for the Saturday festival at Municipal Auditorium are on sale now. Tickets for the Jan. 9 concert at the Sommet Center range from $17.50 to $35. Tickets for the Jan. 10 Sound & Speed Festival at Municipal Auditorium are $20 for adults and $15 for children. Combo tickets, good for the concert and the festival, range from $40 to $50.

Charitable beneficiaries of Sound & Speed are Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Earnhardt Jr. wins Chex most popular driver award

NASCAR fans across the nation have once again made a statement about their favorite driver. After tallying more than one million votes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the recipient of the 2008 NASCAR NMPA Chex Most Popular Driver award.

Throughout the race season, fans voted daily for more than 40 of their favorite drivers online. Earnhardt Jr. was presented with the award Thursday at the National Motorsports Press Association's Myers Brothers media luncheon in New York. The award is Earnhardt Jr.'s sixth consecutive win since 2003. Only Bill Elliott (1991-2000) has more consecutive wins.

The NASCAR NMPA Chex Most Popular Driver award has been given annually since 1956 and today is the only award for NASCAR's top drivers given by the fans. The six wins by Earnhardt Jr. moved him past Bobby Allison and now only behind Richard Petty (9) and Bill Elliott (16) for most total awards.

"I've been fortunate enough to win this award now for the sixth time, and I can tell you it never gets old." Earnhardt Jr. said. "I've said it many times before that this award is special because it's the voice of the fans.

"I think back to [more than] a year ago when I made the decision to go to Hendrick Motorsports, and my biggest concern was whether the fans would support my decision. They did, and I will always be grateful for that. I appreciate everyone who voted, and I want to thank Chex and the National Motorsports Press Association for all they do for the sport."

"The fans have spoken, and it's obvious that Dale Earnhardt Jr. truly is amongst the elite of fans' support," said Tom Jensen, president of the National Motorsports Press Association. "He deserves this award, and we're thankful for all the fans who continue to vote and make this award a rich part of our sports history."

The top 10 drivers receiving the most votes in alphabetical order were Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Michael Waltrip.

No Junior in New York caps off disappointing season

So it's Champions Week in the Big Apple.

It's time to rain down more confetti on the head of Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who became the first driver (and only second ever) in 30 years to win three consecutive championships in 2008. It's maximum exposure time for other drivers and their sponsors as well.

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But something will be missing in New York this week -- or at least during this Friday night's gala wrap-up festivities in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The most popular driver in NASCAR will be sitting this one out. Again.

When the top drivers of the 2008 season are introduced one-by-one to come up on stage and be recognized Friday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not be among them for the third time in four years. Since the Chase format was introduced in 2004, he has made the main stage at the end of a season only twice -- placing fifth in points in '04 and again in 2006.

This year was supposed to be different, and it certainly started out that way.

Starting anew

Ditching the supposed wicked stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, and the company she was busy running into the ground that was founded by his late and legendary father, Earnhardt Jr. was starting anew in a No. 88 Chevrolet fielded by the most successful owner currently operating in the business, Rick Hendrick.

Former champion Darrell Waltrip predicted Junior would win the season-opening Daytona 500 and "at least" six races during the 2008 season. When Earnhardt opened up Speedweeks in Daytona by winning both the Bud Shootout and his 150-mile qualifying race for the 500, Waltrip was looking like a genius.

So was Hendrick. You got the feeling early on that if Mr. H would have been pressed hard to predict a champion from his crop of drivers at Hendrick Motorsports, he would have at the very least hemmed and hawed a good bit before picking Jimmie over Junior.

Earnhardt seemed that hot, that focused.

When he finished in the top 10 in five of the first six races, including second at Las Vegas, third in Atlanta, fifth at Bristol and sixth at Martinsville in consecutive weeks, the Juniorella story still seemed plausible. He hadn't won in nearly two years, but who cared? Surely that was only a matter of time, and then he would go on to contend for the title.

Reactions in garage vary on DEI, Ganassi merger

The company his father founded essentially will cease to exist, at least in the form that his father intended.

But Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that he has learned to move on. So the son of the late Dale Earnhardt -- who founded the Dale Earnhardt Inc. racing organization in 1996 with the hope that Dale Jr. might someday run it -- admitted to mixed feelings about the news that DEI is merging with Chip Ganassi Racing.

DEI, Ganassi merge
Teresa Earnhardt and Chip Ganassi will combine their slumping race teams next season, an effort to stabilize their organizations in a tough economic time.

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Head2Head: Good move?
"I just ain't got much to say about it anymore," said Earnhardt, who left DEI at the end of last season to drive for Hendrick Motorsports after his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, rejected his bid to buy a majority share of the company. "I did, but I'm so far past it and a little bit farther removed from it. I don't have the initial knee-jerk reaction about it no more when those kinds of things happen to 'em. I'm more on the sidelines with everyone else now, just viewing from a distance. I still have emotional connection with it where I want it to work and I want it to do good. But a lot has changed. It's difficult to feel any real close connection to it anymore."

That isn't true, of course, for everyone in the garage. Driver Regan Smith, for instance, enters this Sunday's Sprint Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway poised to capture Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors. But the driver of the No. 01 Chevrolet currently fielded by DEI has no idea what lies ahead for him in the immediate future.

As speculation continued to swirl about the new combined operation running Chevrolets next season (Ganassi currently runs Dodges), DEI officials weren't offering any further information on that, or on who the yet-to-be-named driver of the organization's fourth car might be. The release announcing the deal named Juan Montoya, Martin Truex and Aric Almirola as drivers, but did not name a pilot for the merged team's No. 41 car.

That leaves Regan Smith, the DEI driver who nearly won the Sprint Cup event at Talladega earlier this season, in limbo. Smith's No. 01 car is without a sponsor and will be folded into the new four-car team, while the driver effectively is a free agent.

"My name wasn't on the merger release, but I'm definitely talking to a lot of people," he said. "I wouldn't say I'm any closer by any means, but I would say there's a lot of interest, and I'd say everyone knows the teams available in the garage, and every single one of them has interest in me. We've just got to see how some financial stuff plays out here in a few weeks, and go from there."