I'm thinking the guy in red is closest to the trophy with good cause.

This weekend, the 2010 NASCAR season ends with all three major series running at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Homestead isn’t the most thrilling track on the circuit, but it’s not bad as far as longer tracks go. You occasionally get some decent action there other than when the canasta tournament at the nearby retirement center goes wild.

The track race today will conclude with Todd Bodine holding his second champions trophy in one hand and a “your name here” sign for potential sponsors on his truck in the other. It’s sad that a now two-time champion and his team have no idea whether they can afford to defend their title in 2011. But that’s the truck series, the unloved save by a small core of action-loving fans redheaded stepchild of NASCAR.

The Nationwide race tomorrow will feature Brad Keselowski hoisting what may well be the final trophy won by a Sprint Cup regular in the series. It’ll also be the last opportunity this year for sufferers of DDS (Danica Derangement Syndrome) to get their hatin’ on in-between sessions of hanging out in the chat rooms of teenagers online talk shows. Meanwhile back in the real world, being that it’s a bigger track, a top twenty finish for Danica isn’t out of the question, as she gains more of the stock car experience she’ll need a lot more of if she wants to progress in the sport.

And then there’s Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Can Jimmie Johnson run well at a track where in recent years he’s had nothing to do but loaf around? Will Denny Hamlin beat the competition or only himself? Will Kevin Harvick channel the man who he succeeded via winning by any means necessary? Or will we all take a nap as the whole thing plays out as a snoozefest? Hopefully not, but racing is weird that way. Intense excitement can neither be forced nor suppressed. In either case, it’s must see TV. As the cap’n says, stay tuned.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone.

You know who these guys are, right?

Among the major sports, NASCAR is the one most void of that phenomenon known as talking trash. Oh, drivers will rip each other from time to time. However, it has little to do with the usual reasons for spreading the smack.

Athletes talk trash for three primary reasons: conning themselves, psyching out the opponent, and self-motivation. Some speak in the hope braggadocio will somehow compensate for their weaknesses. Others do so with the intent of either so aggravating the opposition their anger will throw them off their game, or preying on their insecurities which will lead to in essence giving up by giving in. The third reason is the one most often overlooked: pumping yourself up by throwing down a gauntlet you need to overcome lest you be exposed as all talk and no action.

One suspects it’s a combination of the second and third that has propelled Jimmie Johnson to throw a few jabs Denny Hamlin’s way this week. Certainly Hamlin’s whipped puppy moment following this past Sunday’s Phoenix race made it clear he is at least potentially vulnerable to the psych out, as have his team-aimed meltdowns in seasons past. Johnson on the other hand has never lacked in confidence regardless of the situation. This can be mistaken for overconfidence and/or arrogance. It’s advisable to member Babe Ruth’s thoughts on the matter: “Ain’t bragging if you can back it up.” Four straight championships? That’s a whole slab of back. And not baby ribs, either.

Hamlin certainly has the skill to triumph at Homestead. JGR has on average been turning out better cars than Hendrick. But do he and crew chief Mike Ford have it in them to best Johnson and Chad Knaus? The inclination is to say no. In fact, it would not be surprising to see Kevin Harvick finish the year in second place.

But that’s why they run the races, now isn’t it. To determine such things on the track.

As the cap’n says, stay tuned.

(Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Copied over from my Examiner column.

There’s no pleasing some people.

In the case of NASCAR, a lot of people.

The last time someone in any major sport won four or more championships in a row was when Roger Federer won five straight at Wimbledon from 2003 through 2007. He lost in 2008, then won again this year. For this and his other accomplishments Federer is considered to be the greatest men’s tennis player of all time.

Jimmie Johnson has now won four straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championships, the first driver in the sport’s history to do so. Ever. Not Richard Petty. Not David Pearson. Not Cale Yarborough. Not Dale Earnhardt. Not Jeff Gordon. Only Johnson.

For this and his other accomplishments Johnson is considered to be a putz.

Why? Why?

Is he faulted for being a genuinely nice guy? Blamed for driving hard but not stupid à la Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya yesterday? Criticized for being demonstrably better than everyone else in the sport today?

Okay, hit it with that one.

As is the case with Dale Earnhardt Jr., far too many dinosaurs in the lamestream media love to slag on Johnson because he… well… has this habit of stinking up the show by stomping everyone and everything in his path. Remember, had it not been for the Texas misstep yesterday’s race at Homestead would have been a complete instead of de facto formality. When most everyone else in the Chase stepped off the curb without looking, Johnson along with crew chief without peer Chad Knaus and the rest of the #48 team stepped up. Some nerve, huh.

Seriously, people. Isn’t it high time all y’all got over it? Waiting for Johnson to slip down to the level of his competition is like waiting for Godot. Neither is showing up. Instead, the other drivers and teams need to come up to the rarefied atmosphere Johnson alone breathes. That would be the assorted oxygen and other molecules in a gaseous form swirling around the top of the mountain. You know, the place where Johnson has made his abode four years running?

Get over it, NASCAR nation. Jimmie Johnson is arguably the greatest driver in the sport’s history. He has the hardware to prove it. And he’s just getting started.

It was also on sale.

This symbolizes as well as anything the relationship between NASCAR and Johnson.  In any other sport, a team or individual winning the championship three straight times would be hailed as legend and immediately assigned a prime location in the pantheon of the gods.  Johnson?  Were the points standings not so clear there’d probably be a recount to see if someone’s math is off and it’s actually supposed to be Carl Edwards or Jeff Burton or Joe the Plumber at the championship awards banquet head table next month.  Oh, it’s still Johnson?  Drat.  Well, let’s get this over with.  Johnson is the least enthusiastically welcomed Cup winner since Chick Hicks in Cars.

Exactly what it is about Johnson that gives so many grand indifference seizures is a mystery.  Certainly the early association with Jeff Gordon as a mentor at a time when Gordon was still Earnhardt Nation Enemy #1 didn’t help.  But what’s the excuse now?  His unperturbed nature no matter the situation?  His envelope pushing — make that shoving, he goes at it so hard — crew chief?  His drop-dead gorgeous wife?  His secret stash of Bay City Rollers albums?  (Okay, I made that one up.  It’s actually Nick Carter.)

‘Tis suspected the fundamental reason Johnson’s popularity is lower than GM’s profits is how he can win seemingly at will.  This is especially true come Chase time, during which if NASCAR was a reality show it’d be titled Jimmie Johnson and the Forty-Two Dwarfs.  Oh, he might allow a smidgen of excitement somewhere along the line, dangling a carrot in front of the masses as a method of fooling people into believing someone else has a chance.  He will then proceed to stomp on the carrot.  Not to mention the rest of the field.  When it’s winning time, it’s Johnson.  No others need apply as the position is filled and its holder has no intention of moving on anytime soon.

Cheering for Johnson — which I freely admit I do — is the motorsports equivalent of forming a pep squad on behalf of Godzilla as he’s paying Tokyo a social call.  He is the standard by which all drivers must measure not only their skill but also their raw desire to win.  For the past three years they’ve all come up short.  There is no indication of this changing anytime soon.  Jimmie Johnson is already one of the greatest drivers in the history of NASCAR.  What should frighten everyone trying to overtake him is his thorough disinterest in anything save continuing to feed his insatiable desire to be even greater.

I wouldn’t bet against him pulling it off.

And he's not done yet.