Some stories stand out for their disappointing endings
JIM PELTZ / ON MOTOR RACING
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick are two of the big names who failed to live up to the hype in 2008.
The crowning of champions in NASCAR and the NHRA last weekend closed the book on motor racing's major series for 2008.
There were several momentous feats during the year: Jimmie Johnson winning his third consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup title, Lewis Hamilton becoming the youngest Formula One champion in history at 23, and Cruz Pedregon's second funny car drag racing title 16 years after his first.
But there also were the disappointments and shortcomings that mark every season in racing. And here are a few that stood out:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick
They're arguably the two most popular drivers in American auto racing and each scored a win that was meaningful for themselves, their legions of fans and their series.
But the drivers also gave fodder to those questioning whether Earnhardt and Patrick would ever lift their performances closer to the level of their enormous popularity.
Patrick, for instance, used a fuel-mileage gamble in Motegi, Japan, early in the season to finally notch her initial victory and become the first woman to win an IndyCar Series race.
But the exuberance surrounding the historic win later faded as Patrick and her Andretti Green Racing team struggled. In the last nine races of the season, Patrick, 26, finished in the top 10 only three times, leaving her a distant sixth in points behind series champ Scott Dixon.
As for Earnhardt, it appeared early in the season that his dramatic switch from his family team to Hendrick Motorsports would pay off in spades. He, too, used a fuel gamble to score his first win with Hendrick, at Michigan, in June.
Then he gradually lost steam. Although Earnhardt, 34, qualified as one of the dozen drivers for NASCAR's Chase for the Cup title playoff, he finished last in the Chase, 557 points behind his teammate Johnson.
Juan Pablo Montoya
After spending 2007 getting accustomed to stock car racing, the former open-wheel racing star was expected to show marked improvement in his second full year in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.
It never happened.
A Colombian who won the Indianapolis 500 and drove in Formula One before switching -- amid great hype -- to NASCAR, Montoya never mounted a charge with his team of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
Montoya, 33, never reached Victory Lane and had a mere three top-10 finishes in 36 races. He also failed to complete nine races and finished 25th in the point standings, worse than the 20th position he earned in his rookie year in 2007.
