I know I'm a slacker, but the postrace wrap-up is better late than never, right?  By now, I'm sure you've all heard the outcome of both the race and the championship, but if you haven't, here is the recap to the season finale for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

David Reutimann and Scott Speed, a shocking front row, led the field to the green flag.  Reutimann led the first lap, but Matt Kenseth, the defending winner of the race, got the lead before the end of lap 2.  On lap 12, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth worked a little team magic, as Edwards led a couple laps to get his 5 bonus points, but Kenseth drove back by.  3 laps later, Edwards looked to have a much better car, and took the lead again, a lead he would keep for most of the night.  We knew the scenario, lead the most laps, win the race, and pray to God that the 48 blows up before 7 cars fall out of the race.  Meanwhile, Johnson is marching towards the front, up 10 spots to 20th position after a dozen laps.  Scott Speed was sliding back just a bit, but he would end the day on the lead lap in 16th position, not bad for a guy who hardly has any experience in the Cup Series!

No cautions were thrown early in the race, which led to green flag pit stops just after lap 50.  Jimmie Johnson is running in 18th when he makes his pit stop, Edwards gives up the lead on the next lap.  That gives Kevin Harvick the lead, which he yields to Juan Montoya.  Once everything cycles through, Edwards is back to the lead while Matt Kenseth overshoots his pit stall...ooooooops!  That wasn't the only mistake though during this round of green flag pit stops, as Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle both got speeding tickets.

By lap 56, pit stops are completed, and Edwards leads while Jimmie Johnson is halfway through the field to 15th.  David Reutimann is still running 4th at this point, and still looks like he could contend for the win.  Aric Almirola finally brings out the first caution of the day with a spin off turn 4.  He manages to keep the car from hitting the inside wall and drives away.  This leads to a round of pit stops while A.J. Allmendinger gets the lucky dog.  Allmendinger would juuust miss the top 10, coming home on the lead lap in 11th.  Edwards maintains the lead off pit road.

The race stays green for a long time once again, with the 2 Davids (Ragan and Reutimann) eventually getting up to 2nd and 3rd.  Reutimann said that the spring that returns the throttle back in place has broken off...uhh, that could spell big trouble!  Another round of green flag pit stops ensues, Edwards is still in the lead when they're completed, but this time it's Brian Vickers with a speeding ticket.  A few laps later, caution is thrown for debris.  Bill Elliott gets the free pass, and Dale Jr. stalls the car leaving the pits thanks to a misunderstanding.  He thought he was getting 4 tires, but the crew stopped after just putting 2 tires on the car.  For being family, Dale Jr. and Tony Jr. sometimes miss the boat!  So the next time around, he comes back in for left side tires.

Just after this restart, Carl Edwards clinches the most laps led, but Jimmie Johnson is still doing what he needs to do.  He's not worrying about leading, he just has to keep the car off the wall for the rest of the race and hope that the motor doesn't go kaboom.  As Edwards clinches the extra 5 bonus points for leading the most laps, caution #3 comes out for car #2.  Kurt Busch has a flat tire and spins up into the wall.  After this comes the most hilarious penalty of the day.  He gets penalized for pitting too soon, too fast entering the pits, too fast exiting the pits, and a commitment cone violation.  I can't remember the last time someone got 4 penalties on one pit stop!  After this restart, Jimmie Johnson is passing a couple more cars, and is up to 8th before the next caution waves for the Tazmanian Devil, Marcos Ambrose, who smacks the wall pretty hard.

Jeff Gordon stays out under the caution to lead while everyone else hits pit road.  David Reutimann wins the race off pit road, and Carl Edwards will restart 6th.  5 laps after the restart, Jeff Burton caps off a lousy weekend when he spins off turn 2 again, but this time it was with help from Joe Nemechek.  After this restart, Jeff Gordon becomes the sitting duck he was expected to be by staying out.  Matt Kenseth takes the lead away from him, and that would be the first and only time Gordon would lead all day.  Less than 10 laps later, Reed Sorenson smacks the wall and brings out the caution.

Under this caution, Jimmie Johnson decides to stay out and lead.  He gets his 5 bonus points.  Matt Kenseth passes his a couple laps after the restart, and the 48 would not lead again, but that didn't matter.  However, at this point, there were still no cars out of the race, so he still wasn't out of the woods just yet.  A lap later, Kurt Busch hits the wall again, bringing out the 7th and final caution of the race, and this time, he would be done for the day.  Matt Kenseth gets the race back underway after the caution for the #2.  Jimmie Johnson starts losing some positions, but he's still in control.  Kurt Busch officially calls it quits with 41 laps to go, and he's the first car out of the race.  With 23 laps to go, Tony Stewart takes the lead away from Matt Kenseth after steadily closing in from 5th position on the last restart.  Smoke would've loved nothing more than to go out on top, but it wasn't meant to be.

On the next lap, Dale Jr. comes into the pits thinking he has a flat tire.  A few laps later, he would be back in the pits, and that would be the end of his night.  Something broke on the #88, "wheel bearing" is what NASCAR.com calls it in the final results.  So he's out, and will finish 41st.  Marcos Ambrose finished the race, but was 45 laps down by the end of the race in 42nd.  Jeff Burton also finished 40th, 8 laps behind when the checkered flag fell.

Jimmie Johnson pits with 13 laps to go for a splash of fuel.  A lap later, Tony Stewart has to give up the lead to pit for some fuel, yielding the lead to Matt Kenseth.  Right now, Johnson STILL is not guaranteed to win this championship because of the low attrition.  With 4 laps to go, Matt Kenseth leads his teammate Carl Edwards.  Let's freeze it right here to show you just how much Johnson and Chad Knaus were on pins and needles.  Chad McCumbee finished 4 laps down in 39th.  3 drivers finished 3 laps down.  So, if Johnson would've wrecked or blown up right here, he would've finished 38th and lost the championship.  That's how close it came, folks!

So back to the finish of this season finale.  With 3 laps to go, Matt Kenseth has to pit for fuel, handing the lead over to Carl Edwards.  Kevin Harvick is second, and a long way behind him.  Remember what Edwards did at Texas?  Well he held on like that again, and said "I'm running out right now" as he was about 100 feet from the checkered flag.  He did everything in his power to win the championship, but Jimmie Johnson finished 15th.  Edwards won 9 races, but came up 69 points short of the championship.  They say history repeats itself, but winning 3 consecutive championships is very hard to do, let alone win one title!

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson on doing something that had only been done once before.  Also, congratulations are in order for Carl Edwards, who did everything he had to do in order to win the championship, and winning 9 races, the most of any driver this year, is nothing to hang your head about.  Kyle Busch may have been phenomenal in the regular season, but Johnson and Edwards ran strong nearly all year.  There's absolutely no question that these two drivers deserved to be the last 2 standing heading into the season finale.

One final note, Brian Vickers and Scott Speed switched rides for this final race.  Since Vickers was well into the top 35 in the #83, he drove the #84 for Red Bull in this race.  While he finished 2 laps down in 32nd, he accomplished his mission, which was to get the #84 into the top 35 in owner's points.  He did it thanks to Ambrose smacking the wall and finishing 45 laps down.

Keep a lookout for some final coverage from the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season this week.  There will be a 2008 year-in-review, some awards handed out, and a final Silly Season update with all the changes for 2009 with both drivers and sponsors.