In light of Jimmie Johnson's broken wrist that resulted in him joyriding on top of a golf cart, FOXsports.com ranks the Top Five Most Bizarre NASCAR injuries, and #1 is a doozy. Readers, meet Cale Yarborough.

Throughout Yarborough's life, the three-time Cup champ has been bitten by a rattlesnake, struck by lightning, shot, and nearly attacked by his pet bear while flying an airplane…

Okay, the pet bear I can understand. Badasses like me and Cale often keep one for sparring. But what's it doing in the plane? Serving drinks?

But the single greatest and most bizarre NASCAR Injury happened in Jacksonville, Fla. in 1958. Yarborough was working with a traveling air show as a skydiver and leaped from a plane at 5,000 feet. At 2,000 feet he pulled the rip cord … and nothing happened. He pulled again … still nothing. At about 200 feet above the Earth, the chute weakly rolled out, providing a minimal amount of drag to slow him down. "Lucky for me, I landed on a patch of high grass and mud, which gave me a little bit of a cushion. I walked away with a chipped elbow."

My God, this man is like Bill Brasky and Rasputin rolled into one. NASCAR drivers just aren't as tough as they used to be.

I'm going to take a break from writing about things you might care about to congratulate Jimmie Johnson for not choking away NASCAR's championship yesterday. Johnson finished ninth in the season's final race to win his first Nextel Cup. But more importantly, McDreamy was there!

Patrick Dempsey, who stars as "Dr. McDreamy" in the popular ABC television series "Grey's Anatomy," was on hand for the race… And now, Dempsey said, he's open to buying into a NASCAR team.

The only thing that surprises me about "Grey's Anatomy" is how it wasn't created any sooner. It's such an obvious pitch. So, okay, it's like "Sex and the City"… except the women are doctors! And uglier! And bigger idiots! What's that smell? It's almost like a perfume of estrogen, with some top notes of indecision and a base of Dempsey's week-old stubble. Ah, must be an Emmy statuette.

Oh right. NASCAR. Anyway, the season's over and now we have to wait a whole two months for the next season to begin. We're in that weird part of the year where NASCAR's over, college football is in mothballs until the holidays, and we're all forced to give the long-overlooked NFL a little bit of attention.

UPDATE: Bonus NASCAR coverage — from The Big Lead, which is on fire today, here's why stereotypes exist.

Chase leader Jeff Burton suffered engine failure yesterday in the Subway 500 and left the race for the Nextel Cup wide open with only four races left. Jimmie Johnson won the race, putting him just 41 points of new Chase leader Matt Kenseth and five points behind Kevin Harvick in second.

You may be wondering why I'm covering NASCAR when pretty much no other blog will admit that driving cars in circles for hours on end is a sport. My response: well, somebody has to. Sure, the sport is entirely too white, and it's a waste of precious fossil fuels, and the corporate sponsorship has gotten entirely out of control, but… those good ol' boys are kind of endearing. I even watched a couple laps because the only 1 o'clock game in New York was Jets-Lions. Ugh, right?

So don't hate NASCAR. It can be pretty entertaining once you start to understand some of the tactics and the drivers' personalities. Except when it's a 500-mile race on a half-mile track, like it was yesterday. Good God, it was like watching go-carts on a slick track. Or paint drying. If paint drying had a running ticker with a corporate sponsorship.

Wow, when I started this post I really meant to say something positive. Sorry folks, this is just the kind of person I am.