Ironically the start of a Sprint Cup Series weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway that's supposed to be the coronation of one of NASCAR's greatest drivers started with a relative unknown taking the race's best starting spot.
Johnson carries a 141-point lead over Carl Edwards with only 400 miles left to go in the 36-race NASCAR season. Should Johnson manage a finish better than 36th Sunday, he'll be the first driver since Cale Yarborugh in 1978 to win three straight championships.
Edwards will start a much improved 4th.
On the outside of the front row and next to Reutimann, Red Bull Racing's Scott Speed will start the No. 83 Toyota after swapping rides this week with teammate Brian Vickers. Vickers, in Speed's normal No. 84, starts 20th.
Edwards can solely blame that one on Johnson for having the most dominating car at the Phoenix-area track, leading the most laps and taking home his third-straight win at PIR. All of that success for Johnson meant a hole of 141 points for Edwards as the series heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday for the final race.
In other words, the NASCAR world can ultimately turn next weekend's race into a salute to the incredible history Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team is making, because Edwards has next to zero chances of overcoming those odds.
Will Sunday afternoon's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500k be Jimmie Johnson's opportunity to shine? (Ha, get it? As in shine like the sun above his car in the photo? Funny? Right?) Or will Carl Edwards be able to pounce on a second straight week of misfortune for the No. 48?
The story is simple: Edwards is 106 points behind the two-time defending champion Johnson with two races left. A slip for Johnson today means Edwards can steal the championship. Join us to watch the plot unfold as we analyze all of the Phoenix International Raceway happenings and other musings at 3:30PM EST with a LIVE BLOG! CAPITAL LETTERS EQUAL EXCITEMENT! WOOT!
Johnson -- who had paced the prior practice session -- starts first thanks to a lap of 134.725mph that bested that guy who has been a having a pretty good go things lately, Jamie McMurray.
Johnson and McMurray will start on the front row while Kurt Busch, David Reutimann (man, where he has come from lately?) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. round out the grid's Top-5. Carl Edwards rolls off in a pretty unremarkable 15th spot that could pose a few problems at this track positon-heavy track that doesn't bode well for great amounts of passing in the new car.
All of that was riding on the mind of crew chief Bob Osbourne in final 100 miles of Sunday's race as he pondered two options: tell Carl to conserve fuel and hope for a miraculous win or bring Carl in for fuel and salvage a handful of points.
Osbourne bet on the former, and boy, did it pay off.
With just three races left in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the NASCAR Sprint Cup season is winding down faster than you can say the word "three-peat" for Carl Edwards and the other drivers still chasing Jimmie Johnson for the season title.
Sunday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway, that countdown moves closer to zero, but for the first time since Oct. 5 at Talladega, Johnson isn't starting on the pole. Edwards hopes that might bring a chink the armor for the No. 48, and Jeff Gordon hopes he can finally find victory lane after earning the first starting spot on Friday.
Can Johnson keep his sterling pace and move that much closer to a third championship? Can Edwards make up some ground? We'll only know 500 miles from now when one of the 43 starters stands in the TMS victory lane donning the traditional cowboy hat.
Follow all the action on ABC starting at 3pm/ET (green flag around 3:40pm/ET), and get in on the fun as we break down the race right here on the 'House, live blog style. Whether your a first time caller, a long time listener, or both, jump on in below as we break down the Dickies 500.
Pedal on the Right The 43-car Sprint Cup field takes the green flag for Sunday's Pep Boys 500 after the starting order was determined by owner points last Friday thanks to a rained out qualifying session.
"We were out to lunch there a long ways and made the most of a solid run. Happy with that I guess - a top five," Busch said.
After the race, NASCAR confiscated the rear end housing from Busch's No. 18 Toyota with plans to double check measurements at the research and development center in Concord, N.C.
Busch, who won the season's first race at AMS to take the first of many Toyota victories in 2008, left the track with just his second Top-5 finish (he turned in a 5th-place run) in the 2008 edition of the Chase for the Sprint Cup after coming in as the overriding favorite.
And you can bet that said whining is going to be pouring on heavily over the last three weeks of the NASCAR season from all sides of the catchfence as Johnson looks to wrap up his third-straight title before the season finale in Homestead, Fla.
"[...] that's what we want to go back and [remember] about 2008 – think about our championship run and what it meant," Roush said. "But, unfortunately, I think it will come down to thinking about the broken engine parts, the ignition and the other frustrations we've had, but it would be my suggestion as NASCAR looks at how to make this [Chase] more exciting, [that] every team had an opportunity to throw out one race and be able to just count nine of the 10.
"That means you could have a mulligan, and you could be able to come back from it."
What about that makes you a more legitmate NASCAR champion than the current format that shortchanges past Winston Cup champions?
But when the Sprint Cup point leader already has a huge lead in the standings and is finishing a spot behind after a tremendous rally in the race's final eight laps, well, settling for the second place points check at the end of the season doesn't seem too bad.
Ironically the start of a Sprint Cup Series weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway that's supposed to be the coronation of one of NASCAR's greatest drivers started with a relative unknown taking the race's best starting spot.
Chase for the Sprint Cup
With just three races left in the 
Don't you just love it when a headline has a humorous double entendre? I do.
Sprint Cup
