After nearly 30 years of holding the season end NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, NASCAR held its annual celebration at the Wynn Las Vegas.

The broadcast began with red carpet style introductions and many video series recapping the season and the featuring the Chase drivers.

The banquet itself began with a performance by Escala, an all female electric-string quartet followed by Brooks & Dunn’s performance of “Only In America”. Four military members took the stage during the country duo’s performance, one Airman, one Marine, one Soldier and one Sailor.

Other performers during the ceremony included singer/songwriter David Gray, comedian John Pinette and the host of the show, comedian/impressionist Frank Caliendo.

There were multiple videos played during the banquet, some recapping the season again, others featuring the individual top-10 Chase drivers who took the stage for their speeches, and one that highlighted some of the best moments of previous awards banquets like Jeff Gordon’s championship when he drank milk and toasted Dale Earnhardt, the 2001 banquet with all of the Earnhardt tributes and Kyle Busch’s big mistake of saying the wrong name when trying to thank his girlfriend a couple of years ago.

Only the top-10 drivers gave speeches, so Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers did not take the stage even though they were in the Chase. Some drivers read straight from the teleprompter, others had written speeches they glanced at and some, like Juan Pablo Montoya, went off the cuff.

Other awards were given throughout the night including the Bill France Award of Excellence that was presented by Betty Jane France, certainly the surprise of the evening. The prestigious award went to Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports who is now credited with 9 Sprint Cup championships. Hendrick was choked up by the honor and even mentioned that he might not be able to do his speech because of the emotions.

All in all, the banquet was a true success and the 4-time consecutive champion Jimmie Johnson was, as always, the gallant star of the show.

 MORE NASCAR NEWS