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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Santa’s NASCAR Christmas List
It looks like Christmas will be a very happy time for many in NASCAR...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted December 25, 2009   Charlotte, NC
From all of us at SPEED to our loyal and passionate NASCAR fans, may this holiday season bring you and your families joy, happiness and abundant good fortune. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Santa Claus and his workers at the North Pole were very, very busy this year, as the Christmas wish list from those who race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was very, very long.

Sources close to Santa were able to supply a copy of this year’s list to SPEEDtv.com. Here’s what was on it:

• Brian France: Eight race victories by Dale Earnhardt Jr. — Ninety percent of what people complained about this year would magically vanish in 2010 if Earnhardt simply wins often enough to satisfy his millions of fans. Not surprisingly, this was also the No. 1 gift request by every track operator in NASCAR, because they know that when Junior wins, it sells tickets.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: For Danica Patrick to love NASCAR — Yes, obviously, Junior wants to recover from a miserable 2009 and find victory lane again. But he also wants the Danica Patrick experiment to be a huge success, since that would be a windfall for JR Motorsports on every conceivable level.

• Tony Stewart: Three extra hours every day. — The hardest working man in all of NASCAR — and that’s saying something — Smoke is a race-car driver, Sprint Cup team co-owner, USAC team owner, World of Outlaws team owner, dirt-track track owner/operator and star of a bunch of TV commercials. The only thing he lacks is enough time in each day.

• Carl Edwards: Many Sprint Cup back flips. — The Missouri driver with the Norman Rockwell good looks got used to winning Cup races in 2008, when he won nine times, most of anyone in the field. But he was shutout last year and none too happy about it. Come to think of it, his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle wasn’t the least bit pleased to go winless in 2009, either.

• Steve Addington: Thick skin. — The extremely good natured and low-key South Carolina crew chief spent 2008 and ’09 listening to Kyle Busch on the radio, which was great in the 12 Sprint Cup races he won in that stretch and miserable every other week. For 2010, Addington gets to try his luck as crew chief for Kurt Busch, who might even be louder and more abusive on the radio than his little brother when things aren’t going right.

• Kyle Busch: Patience — The younger of the Busch brothers is a prodigious talent, as fast a driver as there is in the entire Sprint Cup series. What he hasn’t always shown is the ability to cope with adversity. He’s hoping a change on that front will land him back in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

• Mark Martin: Nothing — About the only people who felt bad that Martin didn’t claim the 2009 Sprint Cup championship were Jimmie Johnson and Martin himself. Although all of us nasty folks in the media pestered Martin incessantly about the title all year long, there isn’t a single driver more comfortable in his own skin or happier with his season than Martin was.

• Juan Pablo Montoya: Bonus points — Having made the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the first time in 2009, the former open-wheel superstar quickly figured out that if you don’t win races in NASCAR’s regular season, you don’t earn bonus points and you start the Chase in the hole. He won’t make that mistake again.

• Jeff Gordon: A way to beat his teammate — You’d think with four championships Gordon would be the best driver at Hendrick Motorsports, but over the last seven years, he’s not finished ahead of Jimmie Johnson in the points a single time. He’ll be looking to fix that in 2010.

• Denny Hamlin: Reliability — Hamlin was the only driver with the speed to run with Jimmie Johnson race after race in the Chase. What he lacked was the reliability and consistency that Johnson’s shown over his four-year championship run.

• Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus: History — Don’t kid yourself: Johnson may come across as vanilla, but he is the most fiercely motivated person you will ever meet, and so is his brilliant crew chief, Knaus. These two want eight championships and a spot in the NASCAR record book as the best team ever. They just might get it.

• The rest of the title contenders: For Johnson to start each Chase race next to Sam Hornish Jr. — Sorry, Jimmie. Nothing personal. But your fellow racers don’t want to see you run away with the championship again in 2010.

• Race fans: Everything you ask for — To our loyal and passionate NASCAR fans, may this holiday season bring you and your families joy, happiness and abundant good fortune. See you soon at Daytona!

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED, and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com! Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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