own version of "Catch Me If You Can" Sunday -- and nobody could -- in
the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 and in the Chase for the NASCAR
Sprint Cup.
Though it took a green-white-checkered-flag finish to decide the race,
the outcome was hardly in doubt, as Johnson dominated the race,
leading 217 of 313 laps. Kurt Busch finished second, .295 seconds
behind the two-time defending Cup champion.
With the victory, his seventh of the season, his third straight at
Phoenix and the 40th of his career, Johnson widened his lead in the
Chase to 141 points over fourth-place finisher Carl Edwards. If
Johnson finishes 36th or better in next Sunday's season finale at
Homestead-Miami Speedway, he will join a club that currently has only
Cale Yarborough as a member: drivers to win three straight Cup titles.
After a lackluster final practice session Saturday, Johnson and his
crew chief, Chad Knaus, traded phones calls and messages on their
laptop computers, trying to improve the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports
Chevrolet.
"Those guys (the crew) were working for every little thing they could
find to make this car better, and they made it the dominant car," said
Johnson, whose win also clinched Chevrolet's 32nd manufacturers'
championship.
Of the 12 drivers who started the Chase, only Edwards has an outside
chance to catch Johnson.
"I'm excited," Johnson said. "I wish we could have left here and all
we have to do is start (at Homestead), but Carl put up a great fight.
They've been a strong, championship-caliber team all year. But as long
as something doesn't go crazy for us down in Homestead, we're going to
tie Cale -- and I can't wait to start celebrating."
Edwards knows his title hopes depend on major disaster for Johnson's team.
"He (Johnson) did a great job," said Edwards, who finished one
position behind Roush Fenway Racing teammate Jamie McMurray. "It's
still possible, just not probable. We'll just have to go there and
hope that something happens. You saw it with the 24 today." (Johnson's
teammate Jeff Gordon blew his engine Sunday and finished 41st.)
Denny Hamlin finished fifth, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin
Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and David Ragan.
For the first 273 laps, the race looked more like a coronation than a
competition. Johnson easily put distance between his No. 48 Chevrolet
and whatever car happened to be running second. After a restart on Lap
267, following a caution for debris in Turn 3, Johnson pulled away
steadily from Kurt Busch until a massive crash in Turn 3 stopped the
action on Lap 273.
The wreck left the No. 38 Ford of David Gilliland on top of the roof
and hood of Scott Speed's No. 84 Toyota, and NASCAR red-flagged the
race for more than 17 minutes while the safety crew winched the cars
apart. Gilliland and Speed were examined in the infield care center
and released.
By then, Johnson already had locked up a five-point bonus for most
laps led, as Edwards continued his slow, methodical climb from his
15th-place starting position, a run that must have seemed like a swim
through molasses for the driver of the No. 99 Ford.
A succession of excellent pit stops, coupled with positions gained on
the racetrack, left Edwards in the fourth position for a restart on
Lap 267, but he was unable to gain another spot. Though there were
four more cautions and four more restarts in the final 40 laps,
Johnson, who led the final 95 laps, finished the event without a
serious challenge.
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