Lest we forget, Jimmie Johnson wasn't the only winner on Sunday night. Denny Hamlin ran away with the Ford 400, and if he hadn't had a couple misfires earlier in the Chase, this could've been a lot more interesting from a championship standpoint. So before we continue with the JJ love, let's spare a thought for Denny Hamlin:

Could Denny Hamlin take over the Memorial Carl Edwards "Dude Who's Going To Unseat Jimmie" role for 2010? We shall see, friends, we shall see...

In news that surprised exactly no one, Joey Logano has taken the Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year award, knocking off Max Papis and Scott Speed. Stiff competition there, huh?

Since rookies tend to have about as much success in NASCAR as turkeys on Thanksgiving, the rookie of the year award isn't quite the big deal it is in some other sports. Even so, the award is a harbinger of future success; in the last ten years, only two winners -- Regan Smith last year and Jamie McMurray in 2003 -- have not made the Chase at one point. Winners have included Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin. (Not winners: Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr.)

Logano had a strong rookie season, notching one win  -- a rain-shortened one, but still -- along with three top-5s, seven top-10s and about 250,000 jokes about shaving and voice-cracking, half of which were made right here. He finished the year in 20th place, ahead of Casey Mears, McMurray, Earnhardt and many others.

Congratulations, Joey! And to honor your win, we promise not to make any more "little kid" jokes. Go ahead, have a chocolate milk to celebrate! (Whoops.)

NASCAR fans have a lot to say about everything in the sport. Sometimes it's positive, and sometimes it veers into foot-stomping, tantrum-throwing complaining. But are the fans legitimately mad, or are they just griping because it's not their guy holding up the trophy? Tough question, and that's where we come in. In the tradition of the great Urban Legends Reference Pages, we'll take on some of NASCAR fandom's most pervasive whines and decide whether there's any merit to them. First up: one of the many knocks on the four-time champ.

The complaint: Jimmie Johnson wouldn't have won four championships if we were under the old points system.

The reason behind the complaint: NASCAR fans worship at the altar of Earnhardt and Petty -- justifiably so, I might add -- but now that Jimmie Johnson is edging into their territory, many are getting nervous. The "new" championship format, with its end-of-regular-season points reset, provides an easy out. The thinking goes like this: the old guys won their championships under the equivalent of a full-season playoff, but Jimmie Johnson has won all his championships under the new, 10-race system. Therefore he only wins because of the new system, right? Not so fast.

The truth:  First off, it's called the "old" system for a reason -- it's old and it's done with. So on one level, the complaint is irrelevant. You race under the system you've got; we don't hear many people complaining that they should take away many of Richard Petty's wins because they came against less-than-full fields or against cars with far less technological muscle than his. Times change, like it or not.

But more importantly, this is something that can be easily disproven just by looking at statistics. Let's illustrate, for Johnson's four championships, the breakdown of points under both systems.

2009
Chase format: Johnson, Mark Martin (-141), Jeff Gordon (-179)
Old system: Johnson, Jeff Gordon (-66), Tony Stewart (-71)

2008
Chase format: Johnson, Carl Edwards (-69), Greg Biffle (-217)
Old system: Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson (-16), Kyle Busch (-252)

2007
Chase format: Johnson, Jeff Gordon (-77), Clint Bowyer (-346)
Old system: Jeff Gordon, Johnson (-353), Tony Stewart (-706)

2006
Chase format: Johnson, Matt Kenseth (-56), Denny Hamlin (-68)
Old system: Johnson, Matt Kenseth (-4), Kevin Harvick (-320)

So there you go. Johnson would have won two of his four championships outright, and he obviously wouldn't have raced the same way at Homestead last year (he casually cruised to a 15th-place finish while Edwards won) had the points been as tight under the old system. (Of course, the reverse holds true for 2006, where Kenseth was only four points back under the old system.) Only in 2007 did the Chase really benefit Johnson.

What you need to look at, though, isn't just the numbers, it's the names. Note that while there are twelve drivers named above, only one shows up in the top three -- heck, top two -- every year under both systems. After Johnson, only Gordon and Stewart even show up twice on those lists. And with the exception of this year, look how far back the third-place guy is under the old points scenario. It's been a two-man race every year since 2005, and Johnson's always been one of those two.

Whine verdict: Almost baseless. The Chase may have shuffled the competitors, but it doesn't change the fact that Johnson dominates under any scenario. At least two, and probably three, of the last four championships would still have been his under the season-long system.

Okay, your turn. Post your take below. Got a whine you want us to break down? Add  it below or email me at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. 

Time to put the 2009 season on the shelf once and for all. Were you ready for it to be done, or do you want a year-round schedule? (Bite your tongue, year-rounders. We need a breather!)

Anyway, even though the racing is done for the year, we're not going anywhere. We'll be posting plenty every single day, and we'll continue with our regular weekly chats throughout the offseason. We'll also be continuing the podcasts -- remember to call in and you too can get on the show. We'll also be kicking off a couple new features starting today, including our "Best of the Decade" series (one guess as to what that will focus on) and "Stale Whines," in which we take on the different complaints about NASCAR and its drivers and, one by one, put stakes through their hearts. (The complaints, not the drivers.) It's going to be just like the regular season, except without the races -- and considering the quality of some of the races this year, that might be a good thing. 

We'll do a complete season recap after Thanksgiving, but for now, post your thoughts below -- favorite moments of 2009? Least favorite? Best storylines? Have your say ... and then get ready. After all, it's less than three months to Daytona.

On Sunday night, Jimmie Johnson clinched his fourth straight Sprint Cup championship, and in so doing cemented his place among the greats of the sport. But he's done more than that; he's now propelled himself above and beyond NASCAR. He's the most successful athlete currently competing right now, and it's not even close. 

Were this Tiger Woods snagging his fourth straight Masters, or Kobe Bryant clinching his fourth straight ring, or Tom Brady capturing his fourth straight Super Bowl, you'd be getting their greatness rammed down your throat 24/7. But this is NASCAR; the sports fan public knows they can't throw a pass 50 yards or hit a golf ball 300, but they figure they know how to drive fast and turn left. How hard could it be for Johnson to win some of those little races, huh?

Answer: plenty. Put aside the physical demands -- the intense heat of the car's interior, the physical strength needed to wheel a car for 500 miles. Even running a race -- to say nothing of winning one, or winning an entire season -- requires the mental discipline, ultrafast-twitch reflexes and utter, stone-cold fearlessness that only the best athletes possess. (And don't even start the whole "the car's the star, not the driver" nonsense. Equipment is a key element of every sport. When's the last time you saw a baseball player succeed without a bat, or a football player succeed without pads?) 

So, with the playing field leveled, let's break down why Johnson is the top athlete at work today. For starters, you could argue that the level of competition in every single sport right now is the highest it's ever been. Kids train practically from birth to play one sport; sophisticated training techniques make today's marginal athletes the equivalent of yesterday's All-Stars.

Even so, Johnson has established a four-year gap between himself and his nearest competitors that's greater than any other athlete in any other sport. Nobody in any league is a prohibitive favorite; even Tiger is vulnerable these days.

Plenty of people both inside and outside NASCAR are dismissing Johnson's accomplishments, and that's too bad. They're missing out on history here. Nobody else is riding as high these days, in any sport, anywhere. And anybody who thinks it's certain to end in 2010 ... well, didn't we think that coming into 2007, 2008 and 2009?

Bandwagoners, here's a heads-up: push aside your Yankees caps, Patriots jerseys and Cowboys jackets and make room for some of Jimmie Johnson's gear. (He's the 48.) If you're the type of person who wants to jump on board a proven winning train, you've got one right here waiting for you, ready to roll.

For everyone else, take a moment -- just a moment, that's all -- to applaud what Johnson's doing here. You're not going to see anything like this again anytime soon. 

_______

For more daily NASCAR news & opinion, click here to bookmark Yahoo! Sports' From The Marbles, and follow us on Twitter. 

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One of the bigger surprises of the 2009 Chase came when Pat Tryson, crew chief for Kurt Busch, announced in October that he would be leaving the No. 2 Dodge team to go crew Martin Truex Jr.'s new team. Sure, it was an unfortunately-timed split, but the team looked like it was going to make the best of an awkward situation, and even managed to win the Dickies 500 in Texas. The split was looking almost amicable.

And then came Sunday night.

After a race in which he was leading but lost ground on the final pit -- a stop where he took two tires where everyone else took four -- Kurt took time to offer congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and tipped his cap to all his sponsors. And then he smiled, the kind of grin which has a name that we can't repeat or describe here but the word "eating" is in the name -- stared straight in the camera, and unloaded more dirty laundry than a college freshman home for Thanksgiving break.

"Maybe this is my best opportunity to throw my crew chief under the bus for giving me two tires at the end instead of four," he said. "We probably had a shot at  winning, and I told him he had to keep an eye on the other guys ... Hey, I'm throwing him under the bus because we don't have him anymore and we're looking for a new crew chief."

Boy, with that guy in your ear every Sunday, the candidates have got to be just lining up out the door, right? Busch did throw some thanks Tryson's way -- "we worked great together" -- but finished by saying, "We'll find somebody great, somebody better, and we'll beat the 56 next year."

Between this and all the other little fights starting to break out around the track, it's almost a shame the season has to end, isn't it?

For those of you distraught at the accounting-firm state of much of NASCAR lately, you've got to love what's gone on this weekend at Homestead. First it was Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski throwing down at Saturday night's Nationwide race, bringing to an end -- for now -- 18 months of brawling and yapping, both on and off the track.

And Sunday night, Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart decided to get a little froggy with each other. First, Smoke turned into JPM, knocking him off the track and prompting Montoya to scream that NASCAR should kick Smoke out of the race altogether. But JPM's crew diligently worked to get their driver back on the track, and when they did, this happened:

Montoya got tagged with a two-lap penalty, but since he was dozens of laps down already, that was about as effective as tossing ice cubes in the ocean. Neither Stewart nor Montoya spoke immediately after the race, and chances are both are heading home to cool out. Any chance this will spill over into next season? Probably not, but the fact that drivers are getting saucy is a good way to close out the year, yes?

Last week at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin promised he'd be the first one to Brad Keselowski's "pay window," and sure enough he was. Thirty-four laps into Saturday's Nationwide race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hamlin dumped Keselowski, who was running eighth at the time, as they came off Turn 4. Keselowski spun twice, but was able to save his car before hitting the wall. Take a look at what happened:

Keselowski's crew actually got a laugh out of it. And you have to love the spotter's take: "That boy will never learn. He didn't do it good enough."

Hamlin is a man of his word, though in the end he actually got the worst of it. Keselowski stayed on the lead lap, while NASCAR, very aware of the growing tension between the two that stems from at least four previous incidents this season, penalized Hamlin a lap for aggressive driving.

After the race, Keselowski, who finished 12th, said he was over it, only to set the stage for a new chapter with his comments.

"I have a feeling when he wakes up in the morning he's not going to feel any better about himself," Keselowski said. "He's got a lot of problems – on and off the race track – and I don't think spinning me's gonna make him happy. So, that's my take on it. I've moved on. I'm okay. I'm not going to go out and wreck him or anything like that. I'm just going to go out and do my own thing.".

When told of Keselowski's comment, Hamlin, who rallied to finish fifth, responded, "I feel great right now. It was well worth it. … The fact is, I wasn't going to give him an inch. After I went down pit road [for the penalty], I thought I had won the race. I've never seen so many crews applaud and give the thumbs up on the way by. It just shows you all the cars that he's torn up in the past, you know. All the teams, they feel a little redemption anyway. But, we'll never be even in that sense.

"You have to look at the stands," he continued. "I've never seen so much applause in my entire life. I just think everyone understands this is a self-policing sport. NASCAR did what they had to do. Spinning out someone deliberate like that, they gotta penalize me, there's no doubt about it. So, I wasn't mad about that at all. My objective today was to try to win the race first, take care of him second. And yeah, there's gonna be other days when we're racing and he's still gonna think about it when I'm in his rearview mirror, because obviously the scales are tipped a little bit more in my favor, but still tipped a little bit too much."

[Editor's note: Carol Fitzgerald continues her analysis of all things NASCAR. She's a fan, and she's not particularly pleased with how fans are being treated. -- JB]

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, just when you thought the good old days of real racing were over, we learn that NASCAR is receiving not just one, but TWO awards for listening to its fans! They have won -- get this -- the "Forrester Groundswell Award" in the "Business-to-Consumer Listening" category, and the "Vision Critical 2009 Panel of the Year" award.

Sounds like corporate crapola appropriate recognition for the racing that I have sacrificed enjoyed the past months of my life supporting.

Anybody remember last year (yeah, I know, that was a long time ago!), hearing about a NASCAR Fan Council being created? And we all encouraged each other to join? And nobody could because it was "already full"? Well, somehow they managed to sign up some 12,000 loyal NASCAR fans before the likes of you and I even heard of the thing, and are polling them regularly for input on how to make NASCAR better! That's right, and these lucky 12,000 are responsible for double-file restarts and more consistent start times being added to our NASCAR goodness!

And who indeed might Forrester (the guys giving out this no-doubt prestigious award) be? When you take out all the corporate-speak, they're a company who helps its customers figure out how to talk to their own customers by "social networking" means like teh interwebs. And then they pat them on the back for doing a good job. The circle of life!

Just think of it! Brian France can walk up on that stage, and the audience can begin pelting him with random items of standard banquet dinner that haven't been devoured yet (oops, my fantasy is showing. I personally would pay money just to see this, to say nothing of participating.) Sadly, I'm sure the reality will be much more polite. Now all we need to do is find out who the hallowed 12,000 are, and ask them to lobby NASCAR to let the boys race!

Your turn, happy peoples. Anybody on the NASCAR Fan Council? Can I get a "hell yeah"?

Special Saturday Nationwide version of Running Wide Open today, as we've got a fine little showdown later this afternoon in the season-ending Nationwide race. Sure, Kyle Busch has already locked up the championship, but that's not what everyone wants to see -- we're waiting to see what happens between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski. There's a bit of bad blood between them, as you may have heard. So, hang out here, place your bets, chat about the race. Have at it!