Stuffed wildlife, monster-like statues, gold-encrusted weight belts, guitars, grandfather clocks ... sounds like the site of last summer's yard sale.

But actually it's a list of some of NASCAR's most unique and impressive trophies handed out in Victory Lane celebrations across the circuit.

Unlike other sports where the trophies can grow stale and start to look like something you'd win in a bowling league, several NASCAR track promoters have managed to create personality and mystique behind the special awards they bestow to race winners.

No doubt Texas Motor Speedway fits this description by creating some of the most recognizable Victory Lane celebrations of the season as drivers are handed a Charlie 1 Horse cowboy hat and then able to fire off two six-shooters into the air.

"When the wire photo runs across the country the next day, there is no question that the driver who won the race on Sunday was in Texas," said Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway.

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When the wire photo runs across the country the next day, there is no question that the driver who won the race on Sunday was in Texas.

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EDDIE GOSSAGE, TMS

"By far my favorite most unique trophy is from Texas Motor Speedway," 2006 winner Kasey Kahne said. "I have it at my sprint car shop in Mooresville. That was the most fun I've ever had in Victory Lane."

The hat and guns are just pomp and circumstance. The actual spring race trophy is a pair of cowboy boots, and the fall race winners are given a sterling silver cowboy hat.

However, it's the cowboy hat the drivers are most after, Gossage said.

"Jeff Gordon has never won at Texas," he said. "Every time I see him he tells me, 'Eddie, I need a cowboy hat.' And I tell him, 'Jeff, I've got your size, just come see me one Sunday afternoon."

Well Gordon may not have a hat, but the man is not without clocks, which brings me to likely the most talked about trophy on the circuit: the grandfather clock made in Martinsville, Va.

No driver can spend a race weekend at Martinsville Speedway without being asked about the famous Ridgeway Clock Company's grandfather clock delivered to race winners the following week. Clay Campbell, grandson of the track's founder, Clay Earles, said his grandfather wanted a "different" type of trophy, so in 1964 he chose a grandfather clock. Earles awarded the first Ridgeway clock to Fred Lorenzen.

Kurt Busch got his hands on one in October 2002. But this clock -- estimated at $11,000 -- was no ordinary trophy. It would become a member of the Busch's family and be given a name.

"I think I won [Martinsville] a bit too early in my career, because I had no idea that they gave away grandfather clocks when you won," Busch said. "And one day they're wheeling this thing into the front door of my house and I'm like, what are you guys doing? Who bought this? It was the most gorgeous grandfather clock I had ever seen.

"My grandfather passed the week before that and so my grandfather clock, his name is Al and he's right in my foyer. He's the best present I could've ever received, especially after wining a race and loosing my grandfather." (Continued)