Jimmie Johnson's dominant Phoenix performance was not what Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon were hoping to see. Last week Johnson granted them a glimmer of hope in Texas.  This week he again rained on their Chase dreams in Phoenix.  Johnson was clearly the best throughout the race and earned a convincing victory to extend his point lead.

Johnson just needs to finish 25th or better next week in Homestead to clinch his record-setting fourth consecutive Championship.

Kevin Harvick had a great night in the Camping World Truck Series on Friday in Phoenix.  As a driver Kevin Harvick survived a green-white-checkers finish to claim the win.    As a car owner Kevin Harvick's driver Ron Hornaday Jr's fourth place finish was good enough too clinch the 2009 Camping World Truck Series Championship.

Consistency wins Championships in NASCAR and Ron Hornaday Jr. has embodied that in 2009 with 19 top ten finishes in 24 races.   Hornaday also has six wins so far in 2009 including an amazing stretch of five in a row.

Congratulations to Ron Hornaday Jr. and car owner Kevin Harvick on clinching the 2009 Camping World Truck Series title.

A week ago all hope seemed hopeless for Mark Martin in the Championship battle but Jimmie Johnson's Texas trouble has opened the door.

Mark has to be excited to be headed to Phoenix for the 2009 O'Reilly Checker Auto Parts 300 within shouting distance of the point lead.  Mark Martin dominated at Phoenix International Raceway when the series visited in April.   Another strong run by Mark this week and we could have a real points battle on our hands in Homestead.

NASCAR announced this week that this year the Sprint Cup awards banquet will move from the ESPN family to SPEED. ESPN Classic was willing to cover the banquet but was not interested in a live broadcast.

SPEED will show the December 4th awards ceremony live from end-to-end.  The banquet is scheduled to be shown live on SPEED from 9pm - 1am Eastern time.  In case you miss it the banquet will be re-aired at 1pm on both the 5th and 6th.

Wow,  even the lowly ESPN Classic can't clear a spot for the  NASCAR awards ceremony?  Are there really so many fans of the World's Strongest Man competition from 1981 that they can't take a break to show a live sports banquet?

Clearly this is a great move for NASCAR. SPEED was created by race fans for race fans and I have no doubt that they will do a great job covering the festivities.