Despite three Indy 500 victories and 25 open-wheel wins, Helio Castroneves is still chasing his first title. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

* Twenty-year-old Graham Rahal continued to show improvement in the highly competitive IndyCar Series, finishing seventh in the points in his second full season. He wasn’t able to reach Victory Circle in 2009, but the son of longtime racing star Bobby Rahal did managed a pair of poles and two third-place finishes for Newman/Haas/Lanigan.

Foreign drivers made an impact on stock car racing.

* Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who was a star in American open-wheel racing and Formula One before dipping his toes into NASCAR, found consistency in his third full season in Cup. The Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver had seven top fives, 18 top 10s and made the 12-man Chase for the Sprint Cup championship for the first time. He wound up eighth in the season points and placed his name squarely in the championship mix for 2010.

* Marcos Ambrose, driving for JTG-Daugherty Racing, finished 18th in his first full season in Cup, showing plenty of natural talent and winning a lot of fans with his friendly demeanor. The driver from Tasmania, an island off the coast of Australia, drew plenty of laughs at the Cup finale in Homestead when he passed Jimmie Johnson for the lead early in the race and let out a whoop of triumph on the radio. Unfortunately, a cut tire, a mechanical problem and a couple of spins made the day less than memorable for Ambrose, but he showed enough promise to stay excited through the offseason.

Speaking of having good reason to be thankful, another compelling story in 2009 centered around an IndyCar driver who faced more than some tough on-track competition.

* That old fence-climber Helio Castroneves was charged with income tax evasion and could have been sitting in a federal prison today instead of enjoying the good life at his home in Miami. But the former Dancing with the Stars champion was exonerated by a jury, jumped back into his Team Penske car after missing the start of the season and wound up winning the Indianapolis 500 for the third time. The emotional victory by the Brazilian was also the 15th for car owner Roger Penske.

Then there’s JJ.

* At the end of the 2008 season, Jimmie Johnson told Cale Yarborough he was honored beyond words to share the record of three straight Cup championships with him. Then he went out and completely erased Yarborough’s name from the record.

Johnson and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had a decent regular season, but their Chase was sensational – as usual. It seems like this format – with the title decided among 12 drivers over the final 10 races – is made to order for Gentleman Jimmie. Since the Chase was first run in 2004, Johnson has 18 wins and has finished out of the top 10 just five times in 60 races. Other than a very scary and motivating hiccup in Texas, where he was crashed out on the third lap and eventually finished 38th, Johnson was overpowering in the 2009 Chase and beat new teammate Martin for the title by 141 points. The scary part is that Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the 48 team will be back for a shot at No. 5 in a row in 2010. Don’t bet against them.

Have a happy holiday season and then let’s go racing again. There will be lots more interesting stories in 2010.

Mike Harris was the long-time auto racing beat writer for the Associated Press and is now a frequent contributor to RacinToday.com

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel