Johnson dominated down the stretch to repeat at champ

~ Jeff Gordon finished in the top 10 a record 30 times this season.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- From Junior to Jeff and Jimmie, the 2007 Nextel Cup season belonged to three different drivers for very different reasons.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. waged a public battle with his stepmother for control of his late father's company, and when his coup failed, he became the hottest free agent in NASCAR history. His decisions started a domino effect, and the winners and losers won't be known for years.

Junior eventually settled on mighty Hendrick Motorsports, where he'll join a team that won 18 of 36 races this season and its seventh Nextel Cup title. The move has put pressure on NASCAR's most popular driver to finally deliver his first championship, and on Rick Hendrick to make sure it happens without disrupting the balance of the most powerful team ever assembled.

"I think the pressure's on me because of his fan base expecting him to do well," Hendrick said. "If he does well, it's because of his talent. If he doesn't, it's going to be my fault. That's kind of the way it works when you have multiple cars ... and I'm looking forward to the challenge."

Jimmie Johnson, left, poured champagne on crew chief Chad Knaus as they celebrated after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series championship Sunday. (TERRY RENNA ~ Associated Press)

Junior will get support from Hendrick drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who dominated this season like no duo ever had.

Johnson led the way with 10 victories and an incredible performance during the Chase for the championship that culminated in his second straight championship. Gordon finished second, with six wins and a record 30 top-10 finishes.

"We knew we couldn't put our guards down. We knew who we were racing and the team and the track are better than anyone else out there, and they had an amazing year," Johnson said. "And we knew we had to fight to the very end to get this thing done."

Although he came up just short, Gordon proved he's still among the best after 16 seasons in NASCAR's top series. He also showed class in defeat, celebrating Johnson's success -- even though it spoiled what should have been a career year for the four-time series champion.

In addition to passing Dale Earnhardt on NASCAR's career victories list this season, Gordon found off-track happiness with the June birth of his daughter. It gave him a balance he had been missing during the heyday of his career.

"When you go through becoming a first-time father, there is nothing that's going to top that. It is the ultimate," Gordon said. "I've won championships before ... [and] I know that even that can't top becoming a dad and that whole experience."

While Junior, Jeff and Jimmie certainly dominated the headlines, they hardly stole the show:

• The season opened with a cheating scandal at the Daytona 500 -- five teams were caught with unapproved modifications on their cars -- including Michael Waltrip, who had an illegal substance in his engine. It set the tone for a strict NASCAR crackdown on cheating, and the sanctioning body showed little mercy when it came to its Car of Tomorrow.

NASCAR phased in its CoT this season, and it's unclear if the car will indeed reduce costs, foster better racing and improve safety. The only thing that's certain is that NASCAR won't tolerate modifications to it, as many crew chiefs learned this season through lengthy suspensions and stiff fines.

• Waltrip never recovered from the Daytona scandal, and it started a long and troubling year for Toyota in its first season in NASCAR's top series. The two-time Daytona 500 winner struggled to make races -- he qualified for just 14 of 36 -- and the other Camry pilots struggled, too.

Of the seven full-time teams, Dave Blaney's 31st-place finish was the best. But the Japanese automaker should crack the winner's circle next season with the addition of Joe Gibbs Racing and drivers Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.

• Busch, despite tremendous talent and a long future ahead of him, found himself out of a job at Hendrick Motorsports when Junior became available. Almost every team in the garage wanted the temperamental 22-year-old, and he picked Gibbs, where the driver stable can be a bit emotionally unstable.

Team president J.D. Gibbs is confident the dynamic between Busch, Hamlin and Stewart will be just fine, and Busch has the potential to prove that JGR got the better end of the deal.

• The driver movement left Dale Earnhardt Inc. in a lurch, as the NASCAR community wondered if the company could survive without its star driver. But team president Max Siegel made a series of moves, including acquiring cash-strapped Ginn Racing, to form a four-car team that will use Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard, Regan Smith and the combination of Mark Martin and Aric Almirola.

Still, the team is constantly battling perception that it will be nothing without Junior.

"Everything we hear, everything we read is all about how DEI is done. We're shutting down. It's just ridiculous," Siegel said. "Quite frankly, we're sick of hearing it. DEI is here to stay. We're not going anywhere."

• The DEI-Ginn merger was one of many partnerships formed this season, as existing car owners looked for outside investors to alleviate rising costs in NASCAR.

Boston Red Sox owner John Henry bought part of Roush Racing, and Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett Jr. became primary owner of Evernham Motorsports. Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel of the Arizona Diamondbacks bought out Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman at Hall of Fame Racing, and Robert Kaufmann purchased half of Michael Waltrip Racing.

DEI and Richard Childress Racing also formed an engine-building partnership, and longtime team owner Robert Yates retired and handed over control of his team to son, Doug, who promptly formed a partnership with Roush Fenway Racing.

• Juan Pablo Montoya capped a successful first season in NASCAR, winning a Cup and Busch Series race and rookie of the year honors. His presence has opened the door for other open-wheel drivers, as Jacques Villeneuve, Dario Franchitti and Patrick Carpentier are all scheduled to run full seasons next year.

"I didn't come here to open the doors for open-wheelers in NASCAR, I came here because I wanted to do this," Montoya said.

• The sport also said goodbye to several important people, including longtime former chairman Bill France Jr., who died in June.

The man responsible for pushing NASCAR beyond its Southern roots, France had turned over the reins to his son, Brian, long before his death.

But his presence was always felt, in the television contracts and the expensive sponsorship deals he brought into the sport. Brian France continues to make tweaks and changes that aren't always popular, but the new chairman insists he's in it for the long haul.

"I'm committed to my job for the foreseeable future, and that's years, not months," France said.

The sport also lost former Cup champion Benny Parsons in January after a battle with cancer, and former Truck Series champion Bobby Hamilton Jr. lost a similar fight weeks later.