Denny Hamlin won the season finale Sunday evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway!

Jimmie Johnson made NASCAR history by becoming the first driver to win 4 consecutive series championships.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

“You know, as far as tonight went, I think we were patient all day,” Hamlin said. “We just had a few adjustments we had to fine tune, and every stop we were changing three or four things it seemed like, but we just weren’t content with running second or third in the last race, so we just threw some stuff at it the second to last run, had an awesome stop, we gained three spots or something like that on pit road, got us out front.  Weren’t able to hold it, but it gave us information to go back on for that last run, and we took some of those adjustments out and the car took off, and it was game over after that.”

Denny Hamlin led 3 times for a race-high 71 laps. He resumed the lead on lap 223 and led the final 44 laps to collect his 4th win and 20th top-10 finish this season. The win moved him up 3 spots in the standings to finish the season 5th.

“We’ve come a long way as a race team,” Hamlin said. “You know, even though we had some parts failures in the Chase, the driver still made a mistake, which that can’t happen in the Chase next year. There’s some things I need to do to get better. I feel like through the season I’ve gotten better.  I’m figuring out what I need to make my race car better.  Mike is starting to figure it out.  We’re getting on the same page now, figuring out what we need to be good at racing.  One thing we’re going to have to improve on next year is qualifying.  We can’t come from 38th like we did today.  It looks good on paper, but realistically you put yourself at more risk. So there’s some things we need to do to be better, and I think this Chase has just made us stronger, because now I think everyone is focused and everyone is fired up about next year knowing that we’re one of the few guys that can run with that 48 every single week.”

Jeff Burton was up front to lead 19 laps and scored a runner-up finish.

“Certainly we’re happy with what we did tonight,” Burton said. “We weren’t ecstatic about what we did; Denny and those guys did a little better job than what we did at the end.  Just a little too loose, but I think that’s a little bit of me and Todd getting to know each other a little bit better.  Again, we’re playing catch up. We’re not 100 percent sure what we need to be doing to the cars, and the speed that we have right now we’re not 100 percent accustomed to it.  So we’ve got to get familiar with it and understand what we need to do with our cars, and that’s as much about me telling him what I want as much as anything. Hopefully we can continue to improve this winter because I know a lot of our competition is, and we can come out and be strong next year.”

Friday night’s Camping World Truck winner Kevin Harvick finished 3rd.

“Yeah, it was a good night for us,” Harvick said. “We got off a couple runs there in the middle of the race with a flat right front tire and over adjusted it for the second run and kind of lost some track position. But good weekend.  It’s been a good last several months.  Really since Sears Point, I think the cars have shown the speed that they needed to.  We’ve crashed a lot and made a lot of mistakes from all angles to kind of screw that up when we had good cars, so from the driver’s seat, from a lot of different angles.  But the speed has been there, and now we just need to get the consistency back and do the things we’ve always been known for as a company, and that’s being consistent and making decent days out of bad days. You know, happy with the turnaround, and we’ll go forward.”

Harvick led 56 laps in the race.

Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya tangled throughout the day. Stewart led 43 laps early on and looked strong.

Stewart vs. Montoya -- Part 1

Montoya’s team was able to get him back out on the track after the accident. He didn’t waste any time hunting down Stewart.

Stewart vs. Montoya -- Part 2

Stewart finished 22nd while Montoya wound up 38th. Both drivers lost ground in the point standings. Stewart slid one spot to 6th. Montoya dropped two spots to 8th.

There were 7 cautions for 31 laps and 18 lead changes among 10 drivers: J. Johnson 1-9; M. Ambrose 10-13; J. Johnson 14-32; T. Stewart 33-52; Kurt Busch 53-54; C. Bowyer 55; K. Harvick 56-62; T. Stewart 63-85; K. Harvick 86-134; Kurt Busch 135-157; D. Hamlin 158-180; Kurt Busch 181-195; D. Hamlin 196-198; J. Burton 199-217; Kurt Busch 218; M. Waltrip 219; Kurt Busch 220-221; Kyle Busch 222; D. Hamlin 223-267

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

Finishing 5th, Jimmie Johnson won a 4th consecutive and history making Sprint Cup series championship! No driver has ever won 4 consecutive series championships in NASCAR’s 61-year history!

Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

“History, boys!” Johnson said over the team radio as the race ended at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “How about some history!”

Highlights over the past 4 “championship years” of 2006-2009:
- scored his 47th career win at Phoenix International Speedway (November 15th), ranks 13th on the all-time win list
- 16.2% winning percentage ranks sixth-best all-time
- is the only driver to have qualified for all six Chases
- in those 60 Chase races, Johnson has posted 18 chase wins
- in 144 total races since Johnson won his first championship, he has scored 29 wins including: Daytona 500 (2006), NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (2006), Brickyard 400 (2006, 2008, 2009)
- in those 144 races, Johnson has put up 64 top-5 and 94 top-10 finishes with an average finish of 10.5
- the only driver to win 4 races during the 10-race Chase (three times: 2004, 2007, 2009)
- in this year’s Chase, Johnson won the maximum of points a driver can win per race -- 4 times
- Johnson has finished in the top-5 in the point standings every year since his full-time debut in 2002

“I am just blown away by the things we’ve been able to accomplish over the last eight years in the sport,” Johnson said. “Obviously the last four years have been just unbelievable.  To love the sport like I do and respect it like I do, and the history, the pioneers of this sport from Bill France, Sr., to the Petty family, you go through many eras up to Mr. Hendrick and what he’s done over the last 25, to look at all of that and to have done something that’s never been done in the sport before is so, so amazing and something I am so proud of. I’ve always set my marks high and really wanted to try to set high marks and all those kinds of things, but I had no clue this stuff would happen.  Just so honored, so happy, so fortunate. At the same time I’ve worked my entire life to be in this position.  So has Chad, so has Rick.  So it’s not that we backed into any of this.  It’s not that it just happened.  We’ve gone out and worked really, really hard and have dedicated our lives to it, and it’s paid off.  It’s extremely rewarding to have that pay off, and we’re really going to enjoy this.”

“Obviously, the big thing is the dominance of Jimmie Johnson, the 48 team, what they’ve been able to accomplish. I don’t think even historians in the past that were looking at different things in any particular season could have predicted how successful they are, how good they are.  Everyone at NASCAR certainly congratulates them.” -- NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France

“Jimmie is an incredible, incredible talent. He is the most underrated driver in this garage. That guy can do things in a race car that I’ve never seen before. I hope this proves it to everybody.” -- crew chief Chad Knaus

“If you would have told me four years ago that someone would win four championships in a row, I would have told you you were crazy.” -- Jeff Burton

“As a competitor, that Johnson ticks me off. As a friend, teammate, fellow car owner, they’re amazing,” Gordon said. “I never thought in my career, in my lifetime, I’d see somebody win four in a row. To see it happening right in front of your eyes makes it even more extraordinary.” -- Jeff Gordon

Johnson joins a very elite group of drivers that have won 4 or more championships: Richard Petty (7), Dale Earnhardt (7) and Hendrick teammate, Jeff Gordon (4).

“The cool thing is, we’re not done yet,” Johnson said. “To do something that’s never been done in the sport, and love the sport like I do and respect it like I do and the greats— Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon—to do something they have never done is so awesome. And to win four championships in eight years, what this team has done— this is unbelievable.”

Mark Martin finished 2nd for the 5th time in his cup career.

“There’s no frustration, man,” Martin said. “I’m very proud of what we accomplished, and 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. We got beat, and we got beat under any scenario that might have happened.  I didn’t leave anything out there. My race team dug as hard as they could dig, and we accomplished more than anybody else in the garage this year except for the 48.  That ought to be enough to make you proud.”

Jeff Gordon finished the season 3rd. For the first time in history, a team owner has swept the top-3 spots in the standings. Rick Hendrick had to miss Sunday’s festivities. He flew home to North Carolina to be with his family while his niece was in the hospital awaiting an emergency liver transplant.

Joey Logano won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award. At 19 years, 5 months and 28 days, he became the youngest driver to do so.

“Yeah, it’s really cool to get the Raybestos Rookie of the Year,” Logano said. “It’s obviously one of our big goals.  I’ve got to thank the Home Depot for sticking behind me throughout the year.  We had a real rough start and finished 20th in the points.  You know, I guess it’s okay.”

The 2009 (unofficial) Driver Standings:

1. Jimmie Johnson 6652
2. Mark Martin 6511
3. Jeff Gordon 6473
4. Kurt Busch 6446
5. Denny Hamlin 6335
6. Tony Stewart 6309
7. Greg Biffle 6292
8. Juan Pablo Montoya 6252
9. Ryan Newman 6175
10. Kasey Kahne 6128
11. Carl Edwards 6118
12. Brian Vickers 5929

For the entire list, click here.

NASCAR Preseason Thunder Fan Fest will be held January 15-16 at Daytona International Speedway, in advance of Speedweeks 2010.

Daytona 500 Qualifying is February 6th, prior to the Budweiser Shootout. The Gatorade Duels will be held on February 11th leading up to the 52nd Running of the Daytona 500 on February 14th.