I think I can speak towards this because in 1981, when our Junior Johnson No. 11 Mountain Dew team won the championship, we were the first to ever go to New York for the awards dinner. There have been a lot of things done in our sport in the last 30 years to elevate it and make it more mainstream. One of the goals is to make it less regional and make it more accessible to the stick and ball community. It was Bill France Jr.'s vision to take the awards dinner to New York. Bill felt, as did our sponsor at the time RJ Reynolds, that it would elevate our sport by going to the biggest city in the country to have a special night to honor our champion. That's what that whole night is about: honoring the champion. As a team and a driver, you spend about 300 days trying to get to this point where you are sitting at the head table in the Grand Ballroom on that night.

What Bill saw was that we needed to honor the champion at the famous Waldorf Astoria along with all the sponsors. Trust me, there weren't that many sponsors in 1981. His vision was that this thing would grow and it would be become something special.

It has become that.

The Big Apple

Back in 1981, all of us traveled to New York and were so excited. I guarantee you some of those boys had never even been to New York, including yours truly. Most of them didn't own a tuxedo and come to think about it, I am not sure all of us even wore them that night. For our sponsor, Mountain Dew, it was a very big deal because as you know, they are part of the PepsiCo family. PepsiCo's headquarters is located in Purchase, N.Y., which is just a few miles outside of New York City so it was a very big deal for them. Naturally, they had all the right connections to maximize the exposure.

So there Stevie and I were in New York with Junior Johnson and Flossie. Tim Brewer was there and so was Hammond and all the boys. I had never been to New York. I had never seen the Statue of Liberty. I had never been down to Wall Street or any other street there for that matter. Most figured we would show up with dirt on our shoes and grease under our finger nails. They figured we probably wanted wine for dinner and never thought we might actually want wine with dinner.

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So the sport has grown and changed from that first time in 1981. Back then it was family, friends and a few media folks in the little StarLight Room. That's where the first dinner was at the Waldorf, not the Grand Ballroom where it is today. Trust me though, it was still the biggest thing our sport had ever done. It was just a huge week, but it's even bigger today than in 1981.

Jimmie Johnson got to New York on Monday. He is being taken all over town doing media events, photo shoots, personal appearances plus interviews of all kinds from folks across the globe. He does anything and everything that's asked of him before he finally gets to sit at the head table Friday night. Whether you like it or not, it does make a huge statement for our sport for us to be in New York City. It's hard for a sport to basically take over the entire city of New York for a week, but NASCAR does.

I have read and listened to folks who say the banquet needs to be opened up to the fans. I politely disagree. I think this is the one night where it should be just you and your peers and all can reflect on the year they've had.

Friday night is a long night for the champ. As I mentioned earlier, Jimmie has been in New York since Monday doing everything asked of him. Then he has to sit there at the head table for hours until it's finally his time to step up to the microphone. It can be grueling, but it is important because it makes such a huge statement for our sport. Oh and let's not forget that once he does get to the microphone, they will hand him a check of over $5 million.

It's easy to be critical. It's easy to fuss about how they do the show and why it's in New York and on and on, but this night is for the champion. This is to honor Jimmie Johnson and the entire #48 team. Those guys have put their heart and soul into this entire 2008 season and come out the other side as the best of the best. For a brief moment in time, they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor, because it's been long and hard.

I think it is appropriate to have this dinner in New York City, in the Waldorf Astoria, in the Grand Ballroom with all your peers looking on and pretty much every Fortune 500 company in attendance. Again, this is very big for our sport to be there. If Bill France Jr. were alive today, he would be just as proud Friday night as he was 28 years ago