In January of 2006, Stewart flipped a car while qualifying for a midget race and broke his wrist and bruised his ribs. In December of that year, Johnson fell out of a golf cart during a celebrity golf tournament and broke his wrist.

In August of last year, Edwards sustained a broken foot while playing Frisbee with friends. At the time, Edwards said:

I know this probably sounds ridiculous to a lot of people and I could hardly believe it myself. I was playing Frisbee with a couple of buddies and we both went for the Frisbee at the same time. I put my foot on it, my friend dove for it, and the next thing you know … we all heard a pop.

Last Friday, Hamlin tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing basketball with some friends. Hamlin said:

I planted my foot to make a move toward the basket, and my knee just shot directly out to the left.

This isn’t the first knee injury Hamlin had that was related to basketball. On December 16th, Hamlin had surgery on his right knee to repair his meniscus. His recent injury is said to be unrelated to the previous injury.

While none of the drivers missed any seat-time – and Hamlin isn’t expected to miss any time – these injuries have to concern team owners and sponsors who have a lot invested in these drivers and their ability to perform on the track.

I’ve never seen a NASCAR driver’s contract, so I am not sure if there are clauses that attempt to prevent drivers from engaging in activities that may involve a significant risk of personal injury. If such clauses do not exist, I would think that team owners and sponsors will start considering them soon, in light of these two recent injuries. If they do exist, it’s only a matter of time before owners and sponsors do more to ensure that they are followed.

While I don’t think you can realistically expect an athlete in any sport to refrain from participating in recreational activities that pose a risk of injury; I do think team owners and sponsors have to protect their investments. And, while they may be unwilling to do it now, it’s only a matter of time before one of these types of injuries forces a driver to miss a few races.
 
Then, owners and sponsors will have little choice but to give this matter attention.

Team owner Rick Hendrick said:

Chad and I have talked about what he would like to do down the road. Chad and I are looking at other things to secure his future and investments. He likes his role as crew chief right now … but down the road when he’s tired of being a crew chief he can make a big impact on the whole company and he’s already doing that. If he gets tired of it in three years we’ll do something else, but he tells me he wants to do it [for at least five more years].

Knaus has been Johnson’s crew chief since he entered the Sprint Cup Series in 2002. Johnson and Knaus have teamed up to post 47 wins in that time. Johnson has never finished lower in points than fifth. In addition to winning four championships, Johnson has also finished second in the points twice.

Mark Martin, the only man who had a chance of beating Johnson for the championship, finished 12th.

As Johnson crossed the finish line, he said:

How ’bout some history?! History, boys. No one ever — ever! I don’t know how to thank you guys. Thank you so much.

Rick Hendrick was not at the track to celebrate Johnson’s championship or the Hendrick Motorsports’ sweep of the top three positions in the final standings, as he was attending to a family medical matter.

Mark Martin, who finished second in the points, said:

Heavy hearts and prayers with the boss man and the family. That sort of takes a little bit of the shine off of it. But congratulations to Hendrick Motorsports, to Jimmie Johnson — Superman — and to my team.

Jeff Gordon added:

I never thought in my career, in my lifetime, I’d see somebody win four in a row. To see it happening right in front of your eyes makes it even more extraordinary.

Top 5: Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Johnson.

Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr, and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Clint Bowyer (11th), Mark Martin (12th), Matt Kenseth (13th), Greg Biffle (14th), Kasey Kahne (17th), Brian Vickers (20th), Tony Stewart (22nd), Ryan Newman (23rd), Dale Earnhardt Jr (28th), and Juan Montoya (38th).

Tony Stewart and Juan Montoya mixed up on the track, letting their tempers get the best of them. On lap 114, Montoya was running high and appeared to have a run on Stewart. Stewart drifted up in front of Montoya, leading to contact.

I assume Stewart thought Montoya should have given him room, but Montoya didn’t lift, so he hit Stewart in the rear. Montoya then drove under Stewart to make the pass. Stewart, then turned into Montoya to show his displeasure.

The contact cut Montoya’s tire, sending him into the wall. Montoya had to go to the garage. When he returned to the track, he went right after Stewart, spinning him nearly 50 laps after the intial incident. Both finished outside the top 20. Montoya was penalized two laps for aggressive driving.

See part one of the incident:

See part 2 of the incident:

They unloaded fast. They were in the top 10 in all three practices, including leading the final practice. They qualified 12th, which is farther back then they would have liked, but still a good starting spot, considering.

But, on lap 3, what looked to be a locked-up, fourth consecutive championship came to a crashing halt off the fender of Sam Hornish Jr’s No. 77 Dodge.  Johnson got a run to the outside of Hornish. As he passed him, David Reutimann got into the back of Hornish. Hornish got loose as a result of the contact, and he got into Johnson.
 
It looked almost as if Johnson was going to get it saved when he turned back into Hornish, then bounced off the inside wall. The contact destroyed both sides of the car, and Johnson headed to the garage.
 
Mark Martin was able to capitalize on Johnson’s misfortune with his fourth place finish. Johnson finished 38th. Johnson saw his points lead cut from 184 to 73. With two races to go, that is no longer an insurmountable lead. Martin needs to gain 37 points per race more than Johnson to overcome that lead. That translates to about 13 positions, if neither is in the top 10; or about eight positions if both are inside the top 10.

The problem is that Johnson is so good at the two remaining races. He has a fifth-place average finish at Phoenix International Raceway, with two wins in the last three races there, and he has finished in the top 7 the last seven races there; the last five of those were top 5s.
 
Martin isn’t bad at Phoenix. Since 2002 (when Johnson entered Sprint Cup competition full time), Martin has never finished worse than 16th at Phoenix. But, he only has an average finish of 10th (compared to Johnson’s fifth). He did win the spring race there this season, but he’s finished outside the top 10 in six of the 11 races he competed in since 2002. (He only raced a partial schedule in 2008.)
    
At Homestead-Miami Speedway, he has an average finish of 13th, compared to Johnson’s 12th-place average finish. Neither has won at the track since 2002, and both Johnson (40th) and Martin (33rd) have one finish of 30th or worse since 2002.
 
Martin should feel confident heading into this race, as he won and led the most laps here earlier this year. But, Johnson finished that race in fourth. Still, if the finishes were exactly the same, Johnson would go into Homestead with a 43-point lead.

Assuming that were to happen, Johnson would need to finish fifth or better (sixth, if he leads a lap) to win the championship no matter what Martin does.
 
But, as Texas proved, anything can and will happen in NASCAR. So, at this point, it’s anybody’s race.

Jimmy Johnson had trouble early, getting clipped by Sam Hornish Jr on lap 3. Johnson almost corrected, but then spun into Hornish again and hit the inside wall. He went to the garage for over an hour (115 laps) for repairs. He finished 38th. His points lead was cut from 184 to 73.

Top 5: Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, and Kevin Harvick.

Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Kyle Busch (11th), Ryan Newman (12th), Jeff Gordon (13th), Martin Truex Jr (14th), Dale Earnhardt Jr (25th), Brian Vickers (26th), Kasey Kahne (33rd), Juan Montoya (37th), Jimmy Johnson (38th), and Carl Edwards (39th).

Juan Montoya got into the back of Carl Edwards. The contact sent both of them into the wall. Edwards slid down and hit the right front of Brad Keselowski, who had nowhere to go as he was trying to avoid Montoya’s car. Jeff Gordon also spun to avoid the wreck. He did not hit anything. Edwards and Montoya suffered heavy damage. Montoya finished 37th, Edwards finished 39th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr had a good run spoiled by fuel mileage. He ran out of gas in the closing laps, then the car stalled on pit road and took a while to re-fire. He finished 26th, 3 laps down.

Johnson crash:

Top 5: Hamlin, Johnson, Juan Montoya, Kyle Busch, and Jeff Gordon.

Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Brian Vickers (11th), Joey Logano (12th), Bobby Labonte (13th), Matt Kenseth (14th), Jeff Burton (15th), David Reutimann (16th), Kurt Busch (17th), Clint Bowyer (19th), Carl Edwards (20th), Greg Biffle (25th), Dale Earnhardt Jr (29th), and Kasey Kahne (32nd).

On a green-white-checker finish, John Andretti spun at the start finish line. He was unable to drive away, yet NASCAR did not throw the caution the right way, allowing the leaders to race back to the line.

As the cars came off of turn four, Andretti started to move towards the center of the track, in an effort to get going again. At that point, NASCAR displayed the checkered flag and the yellow flag. Chad Knaus looked confused and surprised that NASCAR did not display the caution, thus ending the race, right after Andretti spun.

Busch has been on fire of late, sitting third in points and coming off his dominating win at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend.

The older Busch brother is seeing a resurgence. He’s got one win, two top fives, and three top 10s in four races this season. He hasn’t finished worse than 23rd, no small feat considering that some of NASCAR’s bigger names have seen their share of misfortune (see Mark Martin, Jimmy Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Kyle Busch).

Busch has got to be exciting going into Bristol, a track he’s won at five times. Seven of his 19 career victories in the Cup series have come at short tracks. And, no one can argue that he seems much more comfortable in the car, and with his team than he ever has before.

The rest of Sprint Cup garage has to be taking notice, and rightfully so.

It’s still early, but perhaps Kurt Busch is returning to championship form.