ORLANDO, Fla. -- For the second consecutive season, NASCAR celebrated a split championship in its No. 2 national tour when Clint Bowyer and Joe Gibbs Racing were honored as the driver and owner champion Saturday night during the Nationwide Series awards banquet in the Tuscan Ballroom at the Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando.

It was Nationwide Insurance's first event as series sponsor, after a 26-year run by Anheuser-Busch's Busch brand.

One unique season

Clint Bowyer won the championship, JGR won the owners' title with four drivers, and the best rookie is unsure what's next. What a season.

• Bowyer hung tough for title
• JGR uses unique approach
• Cassill: No guarantees yet

And while the Gibbs organization has a multiple championship pedigree in the Cup Series, this was a first -- and the moment of a lifetime -- for Bowyer, 29. He earned the evening's only standing ovation from a packed house of his competitors, Richard Childress Racing teammates, family and something more when he was introduced as champion near the end of the four-hour production.

"Unbelievable," Bowyer said 45 minutes later, awash in the hubbub of the Gibbs-Childress co-hosted afterparty. "To know that I was up there in front of, just, all my friends was just incredible."

The soiree rewarded two organizations for seasons that featured brutal consistency on the part of Bowyer, his No. 2 Chevrolet crew and chief mechanic Dan Deeringhoff, via 29 top-10 finishes in 35 races and a spectacular, nine-win season by four drivers in JGR's No. 20 Toyota.

It led to NASCAR's second-best championship finale, behind the Craftsman Truck Series that was decided by seven points. Bowyer beat Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards, the defending series champion, by 21 points for the drivers' championship. JGR beat RCR by 12 points for the owners' title.

"There is no one in the sport I'd rather share this with than the Gibbs organization," Childress said after the ceremony, before raising a glass of his vineyard's wine to toast the respective operations.

Childress, who won six Cup Series driver and owner championships with Dale Earnhardt, beat Gibbs' No. 20 team for the 2007 owners' title and previously won this series' owners' championship in 2003, the first time it was split. RCR swept both championships with driver Kevin Harvick in 2006.

Nationwide's chief marketing officer Jim Lyski presented Bowyer with a point fund check for $1,327,754, the bulk of Bowyer's $2,428,824 in season winnings, which included $1,041,070 in race purses. Bowyer received $60,000 in contingency awards Saturday night, including the Sunoco Diamond Performance Award and the Goodyear Award, which included the traditional silver replica of the champion's race vehicle.

When NASCAR president Mike Helton introduced Bowyer, he said "In these tough times, I think one of the greatest assets NASCAR has is its character; and its character comes from the people who make up the sport, like the Gibbs [family] and Richard and Judy [Childress] and so many others.

"Clint, as people get to know you, they're going to see NASCAR's character in you, and the longer you participate in this sport, you're going to contribute greatly to the character of NASCAR. We're honored to have you as our 2008 Nationwide Series driver champion, and with that I get to give you your [champion's] ring, which I don't think is gonna be the last one of these you get in your career -- at least I hope not."

Bowyer congratulated Gibbs' table and thanked everyone in Childress' organization, particularly his crew chief that was in his third season as a team head at RCR.

"After coming up short in 2005 and 2006, I felt as though I had some unfinished business," Bowyer said. "So in the offseason, Richard and I sat down and decided that we would take another crack at winning the Nationwide Series championship.

"Now Richard knows a thing or 12 about winning championships, and pairing me up with Dan Deeringhoff and everyone on the BB&T Chevrolet was exactly what we needed to make a run at the big trophy."

JGR president J.D. Gibbs left his seat at one of two head tables fingering his notes, put them in his pants pocket and promptly forgot they were there, choosing to ad lib when he got to the podium.

"Richard, great job, and Clint, a phenomenal year -- and thank you, Clint, for springing for the party tonight, that's awesome," Gibbs said. "Knock yourselves out -- and Kyle [Busch], don't laugh, because you're springing for it next year, man. These drivers have that kind of cash."

Earlier in the weekend, JGR officials announced Busch would race for the 2009 Nationwide championship in the organization's No. 18 Toyota. But in 2008 Gibbs' four drivers won 20 of the season's 35 races, including one that Busch scored in a Braun Racing Toyota. Nine came from the No. 20 Camry as Tony Stewart won five races, Denny Hamlin two and Busch and Joey Logano, who both attended the banquet, a single win apiece.

"Our season has really been phenomenal," Gibbs said. "I was talking to my dad [former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs] and in his second year as a head coach he wins the Super Bowl. It took nine years for us to win a Cup championship [in 2000, with Bobby Labonte] and it took 11 years for us to win a Nationwide championship. Richard does it every year, and we just say, 'How does he do that?'"

During the weekend, both Bowyer and Edwards had recalled their dirt track backgrounds, as did Childress in his opening remarks.

"Clint, what can I say about you with a straight face?" Childress said, evoking a raucous burst of applause and laughter from the crowd. "I knew you could do it. Congratulations and thanks for all you've done for RCR. Only in America can these young guys like Clint Bowyer and Carl be racing the dirt tracks all over the country and having the dream to be racing in NASCAR some day."

Edwards, who won seven times in 2008, also recalled the two men's dirt track roots and shared some light moments.

"It was a great season," Edwards said of second-place finishes in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup drivers' championships. "But it sucks, though. If I'd known it was gonna be this close, I would've driven it in just a little bit deeper in Milwaukee, Clint."

Edwards and Bowyer got together late in the Milwaukee race as Edwards went on to win.

"I'm just kidding," he said. "It's awesome racing with Clint, and Richard's getting mad at me again. But we're ready for 2009."

Following an opening video that reviewed highlights from the first half of the season, the balance of Saturday night's event was a tribute to Bowyer, his team and the RCR organization that celebrated its fifth series championship in the last six season. JGR, which celebrated its first championship after 11 years in the series, also received honors, as well as the rest of the top-10 finishers in the season standings.

Tenth-place Marcos Ambrose was in his native Australia for a family situation, but in a video thanked, along with his team owners and sponsors, Ford Racing, which has supported Ambrose in most of his racing career and enabled him to race in NASCAR.

In 2009, Ambrose will drive Sprint Cup Toyotas in a partnership between Michael Waltrip Racing and his current JTG Daugherty Racing team.

Nationwide received high praise from most banquet speakers.

Toyota was honored for winning its first Bill France Performance Cup, signifying the series' manufacturers' champion.

JR Motorsports' second-year driver Brad Keselowski, who won his first series pole and first two series events this season and finished third in the championship, was revealed as the winner of the series' Most Popular Driver Award, which was established in part via a fan vote on NASCAR.COM.

"Well, they pulled a surprise on me -- I didn't see that coming," said Keselowski, who ironically works for Dale Earnhardt Jr. "This [third place] is obviously one of the highlights of my career and I'm looking forward to another great year in 2009 and hopefully getting two spots higher."

Keselowski, who received a $20,000 check for winning the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award and promptly forgot it on stage, adroitly deflected a question from emcee Allen Bestwick about whether or not his ascension to the series' upper level had increased his luck with the ladies this season, one of the night's more oddly humorous moments.

Most of the rest of those were provided in two segments by stand-up comedienne Kathleen Madigan, a regular on HBO and Comedy Central who was bookended around a two-song performance by O.A.R., one of Earnhardt's and fellow Sprint Cup driver Brian Vickers' favorite musical groups.

ESPN pit reporter Shannon Spake served as co-host with Bestwick and, following the recent tradition, executed two-on-one interviews with the eight of the top 10 drivers, besides Bowyer and Ambrose.

A video was shown of Bowyer's Tuesday visit to Nationwide Insurance headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, which included visiting Nationwide Children's Hospital, meeting company executives, a question and answer/autograph session with company associates and attending the Columbus Blue Jackets-Edmonton Oilers hockey game at Nationwide Arena, where he participated in mid-period activities on the ice.

Landon Cassill received the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award, JGR's head engine builder Mark Cronquist the Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Year Award, ninth-place Jason Leffler the Featherlite Most Improved Driver Award and fifth-place Mike Bliss the Mobil 1 Command Performance Award.