Johnson's chase almost complete

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor


NEEDS TO PLACE 12TH IN FINAL RACE TO WIN NEXTEL CUP TITLE

Mercury News Wire Services

The Nextel Cup title is Jimmie Johnson's to lose.
For anyone else, it would be a perfect position. But Johnson has been here before.
Johnson lost two of these titles before, and nothing is guaranteed -- even after his second-place finish Sunday behind Kevin Harvick at Phoenix International Raceway gave him a firm hold atop the Chase for the championship leader board.
Johnson needs to finish only 12th or better next week in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to win the championship.
``I seriously don't have any clue what to expect,'' Johnson said. ``I don't have any strategy other than go down and finish ahead of (the other Chase drivers). It's just that simple. That's all we've done so far, through these last few months, and we're just going to go down there and do the same thing we've been doing.''
Johnson has put together a nearly flawless five-race stretch to rescue his season. After leading the points for all but four of the first 26 weeks of the regular season, he saw his title hopes crippled in Round 1 of the Chase when he crashed and finished 39th.
That dropped him to ninth in the standings, and few believed Johnson could mount yet another one of his amazing comebacks. He did it the previous two seasons, when he dominated the regular season only to fall apart at the start of the Chase and have to frantically work his way back into contention.
Doing it a third time seemed a little too much to ask.
So he didn't try to. Johnson instead decided to attack the remaining Chase races one at a time and let the points fall where they may. In doing so, he has racked up five finishes of second or better in a row to move back into the points lead and put a healthy margin on the competition.
He leads Matt Kenseth by 63 points, and only three other drivers -- Denny Hamlin, Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- are mathematically eligible to catch him.
• Sebastien Bourdais capped his third consecutive Champ Car season championship with a victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix, the season finale. Bourdais edged Justin Wilson by 3.528 seconds after passing him in the final lap on the 2.786-mile course.
• Tony Schumacher completed the biggest comeback in NHRA history, winning his third consecutive Top Fuel season title with a world-record final-round run in the season finale in Pomona.
Entering the final round in the Auto Club NHRA Finals needing to win the race with a performance quicker than 4.437 seconds, Schumacher and crew chief Alan Johnson delivered with a stunning 4.428 at 327.98 mph to edge Doug Kalitta by 14 points.
 
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