Daily NASCAR

Stacked up against the rest of the field—present and past alike–Jimmie Johnson’s accomplishments are pretty damn impressive.

AVONDALE, Ariz. - What’s impressive about Kyle Busch is that he’s so adept at "saving" a car. What’s impressive about Jimmie Johnson is that he so seldom has to.

What’s impressive about Tony Stewart is that he’s been so successful competing with his own team. What’s impressive about Johnson is that he already drives for the best one.

What’s impressive about Jeff Gordon are his career accomplishments. What’s impressive about Johnson is that he’s mirroring the statistics of Gordon’s greatest years.

What’s impressive about Mark Martin is that he’s as good as he ever was. What’s impressive about Johnson is that he’s the latest to relegate Martin to second place in the point standings.

What was impressive about Cale Yarborough is that he won three championships in a row. What’s impressive about Johnson is that he’s about to become the first to win four straight.

What was impressive about Dale Earnhardt is that he won seven championships. What’s impressive about Johnson is that he seems capable of reaching that mark.

What was impressive about Ray Evernham is that he served as a cool father figure to the young Gordon. What’s impressive about Chad Knaus is his singleminded attention to detail.

What’s impressive about Carl Edwards is that he once won four races in the 10-race Chase. What’s impressive about Johnson is that he’s done it three times.

What was impressive about Richard Petty is that he won 200 career races. What’s impressive about Johnson is his 18 Chase victories.

What was impressive about Petty Enterprises is that eight drivers combined to win 268 races. What’s impressive about Hendrick Motorsports is that 14 drivers have combined to win 188.

Is it any wonder that Johnson is on the verge of winning another Sprint Cup championship?

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Mark Martin was able to keep pace with Jimmie Johnson for most of the day, finishing fourth in the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. Martin trails Johnson by 108 points heading into the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

AVONDALE, Ariz. - The guy who raced Jimmie Johnson hardest on Sunday was Joey Logano.

It was the rookie Logano who, as the end of the Checker O’Reilly 500 neared, held Johnson up for a handful of laps, thus briefly enabling Logano’s teammate, Denny Hamlin, to catch Johnson’s Chevrolet.

But, alas, eventually Johnson slipped under Logano, and away he went, vanquishing Hamlin’s Toyota and winning for the seventh time this season and fourth time in his career at Phoenix International Raceway.

"I was trying to be smooth," said Johnson, "and I’m not sure whether the ‘20′ car was trying to stay just one lap down or help his teammate, but the ‘20′ car wasn’t being very friendly."

By failing to stem the Johnson tide, Logano fell two laps down while Johnson was crashing through yet another barrier on his way to a fourth straight Sprint Cup championship. Not too long afterwards, Jeff Burton slipped past Hamlin to take second place.

After the first 50 of the 312 laps, Johnson’s superiority was crystal clear.

"The first run the car was real loose, but after that, it was good all day," he said.

Burton closed in on Johnson near the end, but the runner-up was a realist when asked the inevitable "could you catch him?"

"I don’t know," said Burton. "We were catching him, but Johnson has a way of finding a little extra when he needs it. I’m sure the final three or four laps that he knew the margin he had."

As he crossed the line, Johnson’s edge was a comfortable 1.033 seconds.

A week after Johnson became an unwitting victim of a third-lap crash at Texas Motor Speedway, he moved quickly to the lead, taking it for the first time by passing Kurt Busch on the 53rd lap. Busch then led the 54th before surrendering to Johnson, basically, for good. From lap 53 on, Johnson led 238 of the remaining 260.

Johnson, who normally errs on the side of the cautious, allowed himself a bit of candor, admitting "we dominated this race" (as if there were some doubt).

"We don’t need to get too excited about things, but 100-something (with only one race remaining, Johnson’s point lead is 108) is better than 73 (the margin when the race began)," he said.

The wide-eyed amazement on the part of Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and owner Rick Hendrick is achingly familiar to everyone chasing them for the past four years, even teammate Jeff Gordon, who once won four championships himself.

"It’s no surprise," he said. "We’ve seen them do it before. That’s why they’re three-time champs, soon to be four."

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Team owner Rick Hendrick hugs Jimmie Johnson after his Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 victory at Phoenix International Raceway. Hendrick is on the verge of winning his ninth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

AVONDALE, Ariz. - At some point, the "anything can happen" tripe gets old. NASCAR’s best don’t actually have to deny it.

Yes, automobile racing is, at times, unpredictable, but not every week. Humility is nice, but it mustn’t be disingenuous.

Jimmie Johnson is astonishingly good, not astonishingly lucky. He’s winning all the championships, not all the state lotteries.

After Johnson polished off the field, leaving nothing else to polish but another Sprint Cup trophy, he seemed as superstitious as a nine-year-old afraid of the dark. Most people who are superstitious have enjoyed no majestic success. Most feel somehow ill-fated. Johnson isn’t ill-fated. The cavalry wasn’t ill-fated; the Indians were ill-fated.

Johnson whips everyone else fair and square. He’s clearly the best driver on the best team … who has the best crew chief, Chad Knaus … and the best owner, Rick Hendrick.

But that trio doesn’t have to rub everyone else’s nose in their success with absurd, self-aggrandizing remarks issued in the guise of humility.

As an owner, Hendrick has won 188 races, and he’s probably said roughly the same thing after every one of them.

"I don’t know how good these two guys can get," he said, referring in this case to Johnson and Knaus, just as once it referred to Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham.

"They’re two of the best I’ve ever worked with and the best I’ve ever seen, at a time when this sport is probably more competitive than it has been at any time that I’ve been racing."

Hendrick apparently doesn’t understand the definition of competition. It cannot be that competitive, by definition, when one entity is dominating so thoroughly. Football in the Atlantic Coast Conference is more competitive now than it was when Florida State was winning it every year. In baseball, the Yankees recently won their first World Series since 2000, which speaks well for the level of competitition.

When one car, one driver, one crew chief, one owner wins everything, year after year after year, it’s inaccurate for the rulers of this universe to call it competitive. If it was competitive, they wouldn’t be winning everything.

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Kurt Busch grabbed the lead on Lap 1, leading the first 52 laps of the race before being passed by Jimmie Johnson. Busch led three times for 69 laps and finished sixth. (Photo: Getty Images)

AVONDALE, Ariz. - The first 52 laps of the Checker O’Reilly 500 belonged to Kurt Busch. After that, the action got all too familiar.

Sprint Cup point leader Jimmie Johnson spent the early laps in third, then moved up to take second place from pole winner Martin Truex Jr., then patiently set his sights on Kurt Busch, passing him on the 56th of 312 laps.

Busch later regained the lead during green-flag pit stops, but Johnson made another pass prior to the 100-lap mark.

* * *

CAUTION TANDEM–No yellow flag waved at Phoenix International Raceway until the 116th lap, when debris induced NASCAR officials to slow down Johnson. That caution period led to another when the cars of Erik Darnell, Michael Waltrip, David Ragan, Robby Gordon, Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, David Gilliland and John Andretti tangled taking the green flag.

Most of the aforementioned cars suffered relatively minor damage.

* * *

SEATS WITHOUT SEATS–The grandstands were close to full, but the hill backing turn four was somewhat sparsely populated. Since the track’s "seating capacity" of 76,812 reportedly, or at least according to local sources, counts 20,000 of those seats as being on the hill, where there are actually none other than what fans bring there.

In other words, a liberal crowd estimate would probably be about 60,000.

* * *

PILE-UP–The race’s most noteworthy accident occurred on lap 171, when Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Chevrolet spun off turn four, creating a pileup that wound up including cars of Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, Scott Speed, Matt Kenseth, Matt Kenseth, Max Papis, Bobby Labonte, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers.

"The ‘88′ got on the apron and got loose," said Labonte, referring to Earnhardt. "It’s easy to do. I about did it a couple of times myself."

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Jimmie Johnson led a race-high 238 laps of the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway en route to winning his seventh race of the season. (Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500
Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, Ariz.

All over but the crying: Jimmie Johnson virtually locked up a record-setting fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with a dominating victory in the season’s penultimate race.

Ought to be able to manage: Johnson needs only finish 25th to win the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He won’t need to finish that high unless his closest pursuer, Mark Martin, wins.

Some suspects usual, some not: The top 10 had six drivers who are in the Chase (as if there were one at this point): Johnson, Denny Hamlin (third), Mark Martin (fourth), Kurt Busch (sixth), Juan Pablo Montoya (eighth) and Jeff Gordon (ninth). Outside the Chase, Jeff Burton was best in class (second), and the others were Martin Truex Jr. (fifth), Clint Bowyer (seventh) and David Reutimann (10th).

Notable numbers

.162 - Johnson’s career winning percentage.

47 - Johnson’s career victories, 13th best in NASCAR history, one ahead of Buck Baker, one behind Herb Thomas.

108 - Johnson’s almost insurmountable point lead.

238 - Laps led by the winner.

Quotable quotes

"We’re working hard. We’re getting there. We’re not 100 percent there, but we’re gaining." - Jeff Burton.

"Track position meant so much. You’ve got to push when you can. I got within a car length of him, but I used up my stuff getting there." - Denny Hamlin.

"Phoenix is one of my favorite tracks, and I really expected to have a good day. It’s been a tough year, but they did a great job today." - Martin Truex Jr.

"This was kind of a butt kicking, and I’m so thankful to Chad and the guys for giving me a car like this." - Jimmie Johnson.

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