Jimmie Johnson won a third consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship, but 2008 could still be considered a year of change for NASCAR.

Johnson joined Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to win three consecutive titles by posting seven wins, 15 top fives and 22 top 10s in 2008 to finish 69 points ahead of a hard-charging Carl Edwards.

Three of Johnson's victories and eight of his top 10s came during the 10-race "Chase for the Championship" as he all but locked up his "threepeat" with four races left in the season.

Edwards won the season finale at Homestead, but Johnson entered the race needing only to finish 36th or better to claim the title. Johnson did even better than that, cruising home with a 15th-place finish to match Yarborough, who won three straight titles from 1976-78.

But other than Johnson's historical campaign, NASCAR saw many changes in 2008.

It was the first full year of the Car of Tomorrow, which made its debut in 2007 at the Bristol race in March and was run in 16 races last season.

Kyle Busch, despite winning the inaugural COT race at Bristol, said that the car "sucked" during his Victory Lane interview.

The criticism of the new car continued in 2008, especially at the Brickyard 400 as the longest run under green flag conditions was 12 laps due to extreme wear of right-side tires.

Speaking of Busch, he moved from Hendrick Motorsports to Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2008 season and shocked the sport by winning eight of the first 26 races and building a huge points lead which was reset to 80 points per Chase seedings.

But Busch's title hopes went up in smoke early in the Chase with two consecutive DNF's at New Hampshire and Dover, wiping out his lead.

Busch was let go by Hendrick in order to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who left his father's Dale Earnhardt Inc. to drive for NASCAR's top team.

As a result, Earnhardt fared much better this past season, winning at Michigan to snap a 76-race winless streak. He even qualified for the Chase based on his consistent numbers, but struggled down the stretch and finished 12th in the final standings.

Earnhardt's new teammate at Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, also saw a big change in 2008.

The four-time series champion went without a win for the first time since his rookie season of 1993. Since that debut campaign, Gordon won at least two races every season, but will enter 2009 with a 41-race winless skid.

One driver who avoided a winless 2008 was Tony Stewart, who won the second Talladega race in October.

It was also his Stewart's first win at the superspeedway in 20 tries, but did not come without controversy.

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Rookie Regan Smith actually passed Stewart on the final lap and crossed the finish line first. But he went under the yellow line to make the pass, which is illegal, giving Stewart the win.

Stewart also announced a big change during the 2008 season, revealing that he would leave Joe Gibbs Racing to drive for the newly-formed Stewart Haas Racing which he partly owns.

The Chase also kicked off with a change as Greg Biffle became the first driver to win the first two of the 10-race playoff when he claimed back-to-back victories at New Hampshire and Dover.

Despite those consecutive wins, Biffle never took over the top spot in the Chase and finished third overall - 217 points behind Johnson.

Now, Johnson heads into 2009 in search of a fourth straight title with several more changes ahead for NASCAR.

Due to the flagging economy, the sport has already banned testing for at least the 2009 season.

And with teams like DEI and Chip Ganassi Racing merging and a few others expected to follow suit because of the tough economy, next season could be also another year of huge changes for NASCAR.

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