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The 2009 Sprint Cup season came to a close on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Jimmie Johnson, for those of you who have been without access to ESPN or the Internet the last 24 hours, took home the title. Of course, the Miss Sprint Cups were there. Anne-Marie Rhodes and Monica Palumbo posed in the background, raising our awareness of, uh, Sprint products. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Miss Sprint Cups, and was very happy when Andrew Day of Andrew Day Photography passed along these photos of Anne-Marie Rhodes modeling clothes away from the track. And I thought she looked good in a fire suit.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s season of unrelenting misery and inexplicable failure came to a merciful close on Sunday at the Ford 400. After starting 32nd and charging into the top 10, he ... well, by now you know what happened next. It's what always happens next. Earnhardt finished 28th. The sport's most snakebit driver paid the price for running the high line, hitting the wall multiple times before eventually pitting with a flat tire. It was his 57th consecutive loss. Earnhardt finished 2009 with two top-fives and five top-10s. (By comparison, Sam "The Human Wrecking Ball" Hornish Jr. had two top-fives and seven top-10s.) Earnhardt closed out the season 25th in the standings, sandwiched between A.J. Allmendinger and Elliott Sadler. For some strange reason, Junior did not want this season to end.

Denny Hamlin needs to work on his revenge skills. All he did on Saturday was make Brad Keselowski look awesome, which is generally not the desired outcome of a vengeful act. Hamlin (video below) was driving the godspeaks.com Toyota. Apparently the Lord said, "Take Brad out, but don't be a total dick about it."

Yo, NASCAR. You're doing it wrong. Where was this weekend in April, when the sport needed it? On Saturday the Denny Hamlin-Brad Keselowski feud came to a head in the Nationwide Series race, with Hamlin exacting revenge by spinning out Keselowski. And in the Ford 400 Sunday, two of the Sprint Cup's most loathsome biggest personalities, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya, tangled at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hey, actual rivalries! And they were fun to watch. Stewart was black-flagged for his on-track mugging of Stewart. Video below.