The 2012 NASCAR season review

How it was won

Before NASCAR's Chase for the Championship started, Brad Keselowski had been carrying great momentum, scoring more points than any other driver in the 10 weeks leading up to it. It seemed far-fetched that he would be able to keep such a streak going for another 10 races, but that's exactly what he did.

Chicagoland, the Chase opener, provided a glimpse of what was set to unfold as Keselowski beat Jimmie Johnson to victory, his first ever in a play-off event, and grabbed the points lead for the first time in his short Cup career.

A second win two weeks later at Dover, one of Johnson's best tracks, underlined Keselowski's status as championship contender. The Penske Dodge driver held the points lead for three more weeks until Johnson delivered his usual best at Martinsville, then categorically beat his rival at Texas. It seemed a sixth Cup trophy was looming for him...

But Phoenix, the penultimate Chase round, was the breaking point for Johnson, whose title chances were virtually crushed against the SAFER barrier at the exit of Turn 4 due to a deflating right-front tyre. He surrendered the championship lead and Keselowski held control heading into the finale.

Johnson was Keselowski's main rival in the Chase © LAT

For a while Keselowski held the shortest side of the stick, but terminal transmission failure for Johnson's Hendrick Chevrolet meant that all his rival needed was a top-15 finish to win the title.

In the end he wrote a unique page in the record books, winning Penske's maiden Cup title in only his third full season at NASCAR's top level.

Keselowski and Johnson both won five points-paying races in 2012 (Johnson also won the All-Star event in May), and both won twice in the Chase. But Johnson's bad days were more and worse than those of Keselowski, who had only one non-finish in 36 races.

Standout Performers

Brad Keselowski won at almost every type of track in the schedule, just missing out on a road-course victory at Watkins Glen, where Marcos Ambrose denied him. His consistency when it counted was unmatched, his racecraft impressive.

He's a sharp thinker, and has the ability to plot the race in his mind from a strategic and competitive standpoint while sitting behind the wheel. He can race hard too, aggressively and instinctively.

Crew chief Paul Wolfe is his right hand, and together they both make Penske's winning package, the same duo delivering a Nationwide title in 2010. Wolfe took risks with strategy and proved to be right more often than not with calls that sometimes looked to be a gamble.

Johnson and Chad Knaus were able to make the magic happen often and some of their best races saw textbook performances. But the couple they faced was more than a match.

Bowyer was a strong contender in the Toyota © LAT

Worth a bow was Michael Waltrip Racing, which made a quantum leap this year to become a regular contender at the front of the 43-car field.

Driver Clint Bowyer and competitions director Scott Miller, both of them former Richard Childress Racing employees, were among the key additions for 2012 and they gelled immediately under their new roof, along with former Chip Ganassi Racing crew chief Brian Pattie.

Three wins and runner-up in the championship as the leading Toyota team were proof of that.

Denny Hamlin seemed to be in position to be a contender come the finale, but his bid ran out of fuel just as the Chase started at Chicagoland, where he lost a top-five finish due to a few litres of Sunoco Green E15 he was unable to save.

His hopes then suffered a terminal short-circuit at Martinsville a few weeks later, where electrical glitches sidelined him from title contention.

Kasey Kahne also shone with his speed and consistency as a quarter of Hendrick's Chase army, the squad placing all its drivers in the play-off.

Something to Remember

The two road-course races of the season usually provide some of the most entertaining shows during the year, and the final lap of 90 scheduled for the Watkins Glen round in August was remarkable and full of drama.

Kyle Busch led at the white flag, but oil on the asphalt spiced things up. Keselowski then turned him around and a mad final dash followed between the Penske driver and Ambrose, both redefining the track's limits, pushing each other hard but fair.

The Australian eventually got his second consecutive win at the venue and, although Keselowski lost, he was overjoyed with the battle for victory. Busch was not...

The closing laps at Texas's Chase round also provided some of the best racing between the two title contenders and showed how far Keselowski was willing to push it when racing Johnson.

Ambrose won a wild race at the Glen © LAT

The pair made some contact and Johnson - who held the upper hand in the end - later admitted it was hard, aggressive racing from his rival.

Worth remembering was Hendrick Motorsports' 200th win, which looked set to happen at Martinsville until a late restart where Johnson and Jeff Gordon got collected by Bowyer.

After the team's April Fools Day loss, commemorative hats for the milestone victory made five more trips before Johnson finally wore one of them in Victory Lane at Darlington.

Something to Forget

The Cup season started off with a bang, literally. After rain forced the Daytona 500 to be postponed until Monday, the race was marked by an outrageous incident that could have had the worst of outcomes.

Luckily, Juan Pablo Montoya was able to escape with just a sore ankle from a massive impact with a jet drier after a trailing arm on his car failed while he was catching up to the pack during a late caution. It was a tough start to an even tougher season for the Colombian and his Earnhardt Ganassi team.

Four months later at the same venue, it was AJ Allmendinger's indefinite suspension that made the headlines. NASCAR's substance-abuse policy had got tougher in recent years and the former Champ Car winner, now a Penske driver, was in the eye of the storm.

It must have been even harder to take for Allmendinger to see that his team-mate went on to claim the title. Although he was able to go through the Road to Recovery rehabilitation programme in record time and eventually returned to the Cup field at the end of the season, he may well have lost his best shot in NASCAR.

Montoya hit the jet drier at Daytona © LAT

Kurt Busch, who Allmendinger replaced at Penske, was at it once again this year when he verbally abused Sporting News' respected reporter Bob Pockrass in a media scrum following a Nationwide Series race at Dover.

It was a season of struggles for the 2004 champion driving for Phoenix Racing, before being offered a more competitive ride at Furniture Row, his new home for '13.

He excelled in an uncompetitive car at Sonoma, finishing third, and gave brother Kyle his maiden Nationwide win as a team owner at Richmond, but besides that there was little else to celebrate for him.

Dodge's announcement that it was leaving NASCAR for a second time didn't come as shocking news, as it seemed clear it didn't have a top-notch partner to replace Penske, but at least it closed a cycle started in 2001 by winning the Cup title.

Back in March, Dodge unveiled its 2013 car, which was developed in collaboration with Penske. Many believe it will be on the track at some point.

Any other business

Keselowski was a headline maker all year long and his tweeting became a must-follow since he uploaded a picture with the word "Fire" from his car as the Daytona 500 was halted following Montoya's jet-drier incident.

Later in the year he was part of NASCAR's announcement of the #NASCAR twitter page initiative, but then he was fined for carrying his iPhone on his car at Phoenix when he once again tweeted during a red-flag period. No such thing happened after Daytona, where NASCAR made good free press out of his in-race tweet.

As usual, feuds were part of the Cup show, notably at Bristol when Tony Stewart scored big with the crowd with his helmet-throwing at Matt Kenseth's car in retaliation for previous on-track incidents.

The Gordon-Bowyer clash at Phoenix, which has yet to be settled by the pair, was also trending online and somewhat got attention away from how decisive that race turned out to be in the championship.

Where next?

New cars will make their debut in 2013 © LAT

The Cup series will enjoy a new face thanks to the sixth-generation cars that will make their racing debut at Daytona in February.

The bodyworks have closer resemblance to the street versions of the three models the manufacturers will run, but they have marked differences between them behind the nose.

Actually, the rear-deck lid is the only common part on the new Chevy SS, Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry.

NASCAR is still in the process of figuring out what the final rules package will be, especially for intermediate tracks where the aim is to make the cars more driveable in dirty air to generate more overtaking.

So far driver feedback has been positive, although there hasn't been a night-to-day difference in how the car runs in traffic relative to the previous one.

The 2013 season will also be Danica Patrick's first full season at NASCAR's top level, driving for Stewart-Haas Racing. Judging from her 10 starts in Cup this year, and her Nationwide Series record in 58 starts, it looks set to be an uphill struggle.