The 2009 NASCAR Season is in the history books and what a historic year in NASCAR history 2009 was. Jimmie Johnson became the first in the history of the sport to capture four consecutive Sprint Cup championships. Kyle Busch won the Nationwide Series championship with a huge lead over Carl Edwards. Then, there is Ron Hornaday Jr. who clinched the Camping World Truck Series championship at Phoenix with his truck owner, Kevin Harvick winning there and also the season finale at Homestead.

It took Jimmie Johnson four years of trying to win the championship before he got it right in year number five, but ever since he figured it out they can't seem to stop him from winning the championship. Johnson is now one of four drivers to have won the championship four or more times and the only one to win the championship four consecutive times. He joins the group of four or more with Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.

At the same time we honor Jimmie Johnson we have to look at Chad Knaus as crew chief of the 48 Lowe's Chevrolet driven by Jimmie Johnson as the first crew chief to win four consecutive championships as well. Sure, Knaus hasn't always played by the rules, but he has taken his penalties and dealt with the consequences along the way, but his quick actions to keep the team focused and ready for emergencies much like Texas in the 2009 Chase for the Championship. During that race, Knaus really stepped it up and focused his crew to get the car back out on the track to minimize the point troubles.

Kyle Busch captured the Nationwide Series championship with a series leading nine victories, 25 top five finishes and 30 top ten finishes in 35 races where he led over 41 percent of the laps he completed. He held off Carl Edwards for the championship by 210 points, but he did have to start the race at Homestead to clinch the title.

Kyle finished the 2008 season just over 600 points behind Clint Bowyer, but started only 30 of the 35 races on the schedule. This year he started all the races and went to the awards banquet as the honored guest. Had he run the full season in 2008, who knows, he could be the repeat champion. That's not to say Clint didn't deserve it in 2008.

Ron Hornaday Jr. finished the season with six victories, which was one behind the series leader and N'wide champion, Kyle Busch, 15 top five finishes and 20 top ten finishes during the 25 race season. Hornaday had to hold off Matt Crafton for most of the season, but locked up the championship at Phoenix and finished the season with a 187 point lead over Crafton.

The championship is Hornaday's fourth in the Truck Series and despite having the driver's title locked up at Phoenix he still had to race Homestead to capture the owner's championship for Harvick and he did so by 73 points over Billy Ballew who had Kyle Busch behind the wheel of the 51 for most races in the season, where they scored seven victories, but had troubles at Homestead and couldn't take the owner's championship away from the Harvick 33 team driven by Hornaday.