Tony Stewart, the 11th-place finisher, jokes with host Jay Mohr. (Henny Ray Abrams / Associated Press)

Life went on and so did the season, but this season and tonight is really about Jimmie and Chad and Jeff and Rick and everyone on the 48 team. Congratulations, you guys, you did an awesome job. You showed what a true champion is all about. Coming back from Loudon after having a disappointing day and coming back to win this championship showed the determination that it takes to win championships. I'm really proud to be a friend.

I also want to congratulate Rick and Linda Hendrick on becoming grandparents again last night. Congratulations. I think that's pretty cool.

I also want to thank everybody at SprintNextel and especially Tim Donahue. We know you're moving on to bigger and better things next year, but just thanks for everything that you've done for this sport and the friendships you've created along the way.

Also, Joe Gibbs and J.D. Gibbs, thank you for everything. Jimmy Makar, our team manager, thank you for your leadership this year. My adopted big brother Greg Zipadelli, who's my crew chief, thank you for everything and actually keeping me out of trouble this year. It's the first time since my rookie year that I think I made it without being on probation at the end of the year so I'm pretty happy about that.

I want to thank everybody on the No. 20 car, obviously all my crew. They're like brothers to me. And everybody else at Joe Gibbs Racing that works hard. I also want to thank my teammates Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley. You guys are both a lot of fun to work with, and I have a lot of fun being with you guys this year. I think Denny is going to get in just as much trouble as I am at the rate he's going. I won't talk about anything with McDonald's. Congratulations also Denny on your rookie of the year championship this year. I'm really proud of you for that.

I also want to thank everyone else at Joe Gibbs Racing and True Speed for all the hard work they did for us this year. I want to thank the Home Depot and their over 355,000 associates that root for us every week. It means a lot having a fan base like that right off the bat. Probably the head cheerleader of the organization is our CEO Bob Nardelli. You make all of us at the 20 car feel like we're part of your huge family. We also want thank you for teaching us the value of giving back to our communities and doing that with the Racing to Play program that we did again this year. Thank you for that, Bob.

I also thank Chevrolet, Coca Cola, Johnny Morris and everybody at the Bass Pro Shops, Old Spice, everybody at Goody's Headache Powder and our new friends at Sirius Satellite Radio. We did our radio show last night so we had a lot of fun doing that. I don't think we're going to share Lincoln Logs with Dale Jr., but we've at least got a radio show like he has.

I also want to congratulate Terry Labonte on a great career and an awesome job. You're a great leader in our sport. I also want to congratulate Mark Martin, and I most of all want to congratulate you, Mark, for finally signing a contract and doing it on your terms finally. So I'm really proud of you for that, buddy.

I'm just excited about next year. Obviously this year wasn't exactly what we wanted, but I'm the one that probably tried to set the media straight and say that this Chase is fine the way it is. Just give them their own point structure. Hopefully we'll be back in it next year, and I think the way we finished the Chase showed that we're more than determined next year to make sure we're in the Chase again so we appreciate it.

Have a good holiday.