ESPN Sprint Cup

No season better exemplifies how drastically the Chase format can alter the championship outcome than 2007.

Jeff Gordon dusted the field during the first 26 events, only to watch teammate Jimmie Johnson hoist the hardware for the second straight season.

Leaving Richmond, Gordon had a built a 312-point advantage over Tony Stewart, but following the Chase reset, Gordon entered New Hampshire 20 points behind Johnson. From there, Johnson scored eight top-10s in the final 10 events -- including four-straight wins -- and ran away with the title.

"The Chase does change everything," Johnson said. "What helps is knowing that it's this way from the start of the year, so no one should feel badly about it. Also, as the years go by, it becomes more of the norm."

In Honor: Bill France, Jr., the man who steered NASCAR from a regional sport into a mainstream phenomenon with a no-nonsense dictatorial approach, died at age 74. France grabbed his father's dream in 1972 and built it into a multibillion dollar empire.

Highs
Back-to-Back back: Johnson becomes the first driver to win consecutive championships since Gordon did it in 1997 and 1998.

Check, please: Dale Earnhardt Jr. shocks the world, leaving the company his father founded to find better performance -- and happiness.

Free-agent mania: Earnhardt Jr. headlines the Silliest Season in NASCAR history. Earnhardt departs DEI for Hendrick, thereby shipping Kyle Busch from Hendrick to Joe Gibbs Racing.

Passing the Intimidator: Gordon passes Dale Earnhardt on the all-time wins list. Gordon scored the 76th and 77th victories of his career at Phoenix and Talladega to move into sixth place all-time. He now has 81 victories. Gordon also set a record for most top-10 finishes in a season, logging 30 in 36 races.

Daytona drama: Kevin Harvick beat Mark Martin for the Daytona 500 championship by a finger nail -- .20 seconds -- then Jamie McMurray edged Kyle Busch in the Pepsi 400 by an even slimmer margin: .005 seconds.

Texas Three-Step: Johnson and Matt Kenseth staged the best race of the season when it counted most -- during the Chase, and with only three races to go. Johnson, though engaged in a tight title battle that suggested he should play it cautiously, tossed that strategy aside in the quest to win. Johnson ultimately defeated Kenseth for the third win in a string of four consecutive victories.

Boy Oh Bowyer: Clint Bowyer storms on the scene by first making the Chase, then winning its first race, in Loudon. He finished third overall for the season.

Formula Juan: Former F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya debuts in the Cup Series with Chip Ganassi Racing, winning the Sonoma road course en route to rookie of the year honors.

Lows
Fuel-Gate: Michael Waltrip's Toyota is found to have an illegal substance in the engine during pre-qualifying inspection for the Daytona 500. NASCAR suspended crew chief David Hyder and competition director Bobby Kennedy indefinitely. Hyder also was fined $100,000 and Waltrip was penalized 100 championship points.

8 or die!: Junior -- and a million tattooed fans -- wanted to take car No. 8 to Hendrick. DEI wouldn't let him. Never has a single digit created so much drama and so much speculation. Seriously, ESPN speculated his car number for like, two months. Every day. Ridiculous.

Ginn debacle: Vacation resort developer Bobby Ginn was here and gone in the blink of an eye, leaving frustrated employees and debts in his wake. Ginn bought MB2 Motorsports in the summer of 2006, brought in veteran Mark Martin and prepared to take over the world. By August '07 he was gone. Ginn sold the team to -- "merged with" -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. He was ultimately sued by drivers Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek, and crew chiefs Slugger Labbe and Peter Sospenzo for breach of contract.

Sayonoma: Hendrick Motorsports crew chiefs Chad Knaus and Stevie Letarte were fined $100,000 and suspended for six races because of unapproved body modifications found on the Nos. 24 and 48 Chevrolets prior to the road course event at Sonoma, Calif.

Odds and Ends
Bob Barker would be proud: The Cup Series got a Brand. New. Car! The Car of Tomorrow debuts at Bristol to mixed reviews -- BMS race winner Kyle Busch, in Victory Lane, on live national television, said the car "sucks." The new car required seven years of R&D work, and was raced 16 times in 2007.

5-shadowing: Earnhardt mans Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet for the final few laps at Texas Motor Speedway in the spring, raising eyebrows industry-wide. At the time, no one could have imagined he'd be driving for that very team 11 months later.

Toonces the driving cat: Tony Stewart, while chasing down Kevin Harvick, prior to winning the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard: "Here kitty, kitty, kitty …"

Marty Smith is a contributor to ESPN's NASCAR coverage. He can be reached at ESPNsider@aol.com.