Racin' with Russ: 2011 NASCAR Champions Celebrate at Awards Banquets

The final curtain closed on the 2011 NASCAR season on Saturday night, after Tony Stewart gave his final thanks for accolades received from being crowned Sprint Cup champion.

The over four-hour made-for-television affair was about an hour too long, especially for race fans on the East Coast who watched the credits roll at 1 a.m. It was entirely live, except with a few parts taped to expedite the big show.

The first hour was filled with silly recaps and sillier awards for various driver situations such as "bad boy of the series." No surprises there, just a waste of time.

There were numerous red-carpet driver (and date) interviews, most with expected results, except for the final one, Dale Earnhardt Jr. The driver, usually somewhat reserved in his private life, had a gorgeous blonde, Amy Reimann, on his arm, something rarely seen over the past 10 years. Seems that these two have been an item, albeit a very quiet one, until Saturday night.

Speaking of surprises, the new champ Stewart proclaimed his date for the night was the elderly mother of team co-owner Gene Haas. Stewart's had numerous female "acquaintances" over the years, but not on this night.

It’s always refreshing to see the drivers in fancy street clothes, not tuxedos of course, but mostly nice suits. Most of the drivers gave the usual thank-you speeches to crews, sponsors and friends, yet Carl Edwards' and Stewart’s had to be the standouts.

Edwards' heartfelt words expressed the team's desires to bounce back and grab next year’s title, while thanking the many team owners for giving him a shot back in his dirt-track driving days.

The Roush-Fenway runner-up thanked his family, congratulated Stewart on his fine run and showed his overall class act in being the first loser.

Stewart smiled through all of the drivers' speeches, then stepped up to the plate for a lengthy speech to thank his crew, family and friends for helping him towards his third title.

I’m still scratching my head over his firing Darien Grubb as crew chief after the talented leader led the team to five wins and the title.

Ideas? Drop me a line.

Nationwide

Unlike the Sprint Cup event, the Nationwide and truck awards banquets took place two weeks ago without live TV coverage, yet they were aired just before the Cup affair.

I believe these two series get the short end of the stick when it comes to celebrations, with both events taking place on the same night and, adding insult to injury, only inviting the top five drivers.

They use a very brief method of interviewing each driver on the stage, taking less than a minute each to capture a year's worth of effort.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was awarded this year’s Nationwide title, while runner-up Elliott Sadler was given the Most Popular Driver award.

The rest of the top five were interviewed in a heartbeat, making way for the Rookie of the Year recipients, Timmy Hill in Nationwide and Joey Coulter in Truck.

They further expedited time by having both of these recipients up at the desk at the same time for the briefest of interviews, before being shuffled off for the next.

Truckin’

On the truck side, newly crowned champion Austin Dillon picked up not only the top prize, but Most Popular Driver as well, quite a feat for the young age of 21!

There was a nice chat with runner-up Johnny Sauter, but again, too short to capture any true feelings after a yearlong effort.

Could they really not afford to have the top 10 from each series celebrate a long year’s worth of work? And a co-event…really?

It should be two different events with the top 10 at each.

From Rumorville

Looks like Clint Bowyer will have ex-Juan Montoya crew chief Brian Pattie calling the shots from atop the MWR pit box this season. Good choice, but still a move down the resource ladder for Bowyer after leaving Childress.

The gala awards affair in Las Vegas wrapped up their first three-year agreement, with no definite plans for the future. Obviously, Las Vegas officials would like to see it stay there. What do you think?

Carl Edwards may have lost the title by a tiebreaker, but his talented crew won the Mechanix Wear Best Pit Crew Award, which includes a $100,000 prize.

Coming Up...

That’s it for this week. Next week, RWR will begin its annual look at the complicated lineup changes for next season, entitled "NASCAR’s Sprint Cup: Who’s Where for 2012." It’s a multi-part series involving the many driver, crew chief, sponsor and branding changes, along with my opinion as to how each combo will fare in the big picture.

We’ll still leave some room for the racing news from around the globe.