Team UT put down another very successful year in the sports world. We take a look back on what happened during 2008 to Scott Dixon, Danica Patrick, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Duke Men’s Basketball, and David Beckham.

Scott Dixon - www.ScottDixon.com
Scott started the year off in a big way by marrying his lovely wife Emma. It only got better has he went on to win the 92nd Indianapolis 500, capture five other wins, and take the 2008 Indy Car Championship. His six victories tied an IRL record for one season, and he added 14 top-5 finishes and six poles. Scott also became the series leader for laps led in a season with 889, and became the fifth series driver to lead more than 2,000 laps.

Danica – www.DanicaRacing.com
Danica started the year off setting many hearts racing by being featured in the 2008 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. On April 19th at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, Danica became the first female to win a major closed-course auto race. She went onto record ten top-10 finishes and finish sixth in the overall points standings. She was AOL’s most searched on athlete, and Yahoo’s 3rd most searched on athlete during 2008.

Martin Truex Jr. – www.MartinTruexJr.com
It was an up and down year for Martin on the track with three top-5’s and eleven top-10’s and average finish of 18th. Martin finished 15th in the overall points and collected $4,663,450 in winnings.

Kyle Busch – www.KyleBusch.com
Kyle’s first year in the #18 M&M’s Gibbs Toyota turned out to be a match made for success.  In the three major series under NASCAR he posted a record for most wins with 21. He won three Truck Series races. He won 10 Nationwide races tying Sam Ard’s mark set in 1983 (Kyle also donated $100K to Sam to mark the accomplishment). He won 8 Sprint Cup races and was 1st in points for 21 weeks, before finishing 10th in the Chase and winning $6,617,590 in earnings.

Dale Jr. – www.DaleJr.com
Dale Jr. started the year with a new team (Hendrick) and a new # (88) and sponsors (AMP Energy and National Guard). He started the year off with a bang at Daytona winning the Bud Shootout and Gatorade Duel qualifying race. He broke a 76 race winless streak by taking the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Michigan and had ten top-5 and 16 top-10 finishes on his way to 12th place overall standing. He was voted the Chex Most Popular Driver for the 6th consecutive year. Off the track he debuted a new reality show “Shifting Gears” on ESPN2. In a Jan – Nov poll on ESPN he was voted 6th for Favorite Athlete. In an eight category study on motorsports drivers by the Davie-Brown Index, Dale Jr. rated across the top of the charts in all attributes.

Duke Basketball – www.DukeBluePlanet.com
Duke finished of the 07-08 campaign with a 28-6 record going 13-3 in the ACC. The made it to the 2nd Round of the NCAA’s and a final ranking of #9. So far in the 08-09 campaign they are 10-1 and ranked 5th.

David Beckham – www.DavidBeckham.com
David scored 5 goals in 25 appearances for the LA Galaxy this year. Against Kansas City on May 24th he scored an empty net goal from 70 yards out. He earned his 100th cap for the English National Team vs. France on March 26th. He picked up his 107th cap on October 15th in a 3-1 victory over Belarus. He will join AC Milan on a two-month loan in January.