HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The hard-core conspirators will think NASCAR scripted it. The reality is Jimmie Johnson was the fastest driver of the day.
Johnson will start his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet from the pole position in Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead Miami Speedway -- the ultimate beginning to the last chapter in his quest to become the first driver to win four consecutive championships.
Of all things Johnson knocked his Hendrick Motorsports teammate -- and only title challenger left -- Mark Martin off the top spot on the qualifying speed chart. Johnson leads Martin by 108 points and needs only to finish 25th or better to clinch his historic championship.
MIAMI -- NASCAR's Championship Weekend officially kicked off Thursday during a contenders press conference that couldn't have been less like boxing's version of a pre-bout showdown. This was more meet-and-greet than stare-and-glare.
The players here -- three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin -- like each other, so much so it was difficult to remember that they are actually competing against one another.
Johnson gushed about what a great driver Martin is. And Martin humbly insisted he was just happy to be in position to challenge Johnson. And their team owner Rick Hendrick maintained, "I'm just living the dream."
On one hand, it was a celebration for all that Johnson has done right in the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup as he marches towards an improbable fourth straight Sprint Cup championship in the season's final race next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
But on the other, it seemed to identify a brutal certainty for two of NASCAR's marquee drivers as once again Mark Martin's (2nd in points) and Jeff Gordon's (3rd) collective shots at NASCAR's biggest crown were figuratively going up in smoke.
Turns out everyone was a little ahead of themselves.
The wild-card race wasn't last week at Talladega, Ala., but Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. At least as far as NASCAR championship points leader Jimmie Johnson is concerned.
All week the three-time defending Sprint Cup Series champ refused to buy into everyone else's hype that he had a historic fourth consecutive title wrapped up. He cautioned, chastised and -- as it turned out, correctly predicted -- that the 184-point lead over the field he took into Sunday's race wasn't enough to seal the deal.
After being collected in a crash only three laps into the 334-lap Dickies 500, Johnson's nearly one-race points advantage has shrunk to only 73 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin with two races remaining.
Where: Martinsville Speedway Time: Sunday 1:30 p.m. EST TV/Radio: ABC, MRN Radio Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing Forecast: Mostly sunny, High 60s Distance: 500 laps (263 miles) Pole Winner: Ryan Newman 2008 Winner: Jimmie Johnson
The Storyline
Jeff Gordon's last, best hope to stay in Jimmie Johnson's zip code for the 2009 championship might just be Sunday at Martinsville Speedway for two reasons -- the perks from his second-place qualifying run and Jimmie Johnson's mediocre starting spot.
And for their teammate Mark Martin splitting the point difference between Johnson and Gordon in the standings, a fourth-place starting effort might also be critical to bridging the 90-point gap between the No. 48 and No. 5.
It took just 3 hours, 24 minutes and 20 seconds of racing action Sunday at Dover International Speedway to allow "Superman" to reassert his dominance over NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.
Jimmie Johnson pounded the field around the concrete one-mile oval for his fifth career win at Dover and fourth of the season to take home the AAA 400 trophy. Johnson led some 271 laps and never looked back despite late cautions that brought the competition back to his bumper three times in final 100 laps.
In doing so, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus served notice that they don't expect a change from recent years at the celebration following the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- When a young driver isn't sure how to approach an on-track situation, they often ask themselves "What would Mark Martin do?''
With a championship on the line, Martin fooled the competition and won.
The 50-year-old driver held off Juan Pablo Montoya on a three-lap sprint to the finish Sunday to win the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After, Montoya accused Martin of holding him up at the start of the second lap.
"What he did, not cool at all,'' Montoya radioed his crew. "I could have wrecked him.''
Ryan Newman is back where he's spent his entire career proving he belongs: contending for a season championship.
For the first time since 2006, last year's Daytona 500 winner Newman is part of NASCAR's Chase for the Championship, a 10-race playoff stretch that kicks off Sunday at New Hampshire International Raceway.
He enters the Sylvania 300 ranked 10th in the standings, only 40 points back from leader Mark Martin, and coming off three consecutive top-10 finishes in the No. 39 U.S. Army-sponsored Chevrolet.
Newman, 31, will be FanHouse's exclusive go-fast, go-to man for the Chase for the Championship partnering with FanHouse for weekly features and interviews every week throughout the next 10 races determining the 2009 Sprint Cup champion.
Tony Stewart has been ranked first or second in NASCAR's marquee Sprint Cup Series championship for the last 19 weeks. He's led the standings since May 31, building a comfy 100-point margin by late June and eventually an impressive 284-point edge over second place by August.
Stewart entered last Saturday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway with a 234-point advantage in the championship.
RICHMOND, Va. -- Fifty-year old Mark Martin continues to make a strong case for his emotional NASCAR championship run, winning the pole position for Saturday night's Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
It's Martin's sixth pole of the year, tying him with Brian Vickers for the most in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. His four wins is also tied for most of the season -- a victory total that equals his wins from 2000-2008 combined.
"This year, I've been getting some nice laps,'' Martin said in the ultimate understatement.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The hard-core conspirators will think NASCAR scripted it. The reality is Jimmie Johnson was the fastest driver of the day.
MIAMI -- NASCAR's Championship Weekend officially kicked off Thursday during a contenders press conference that couldn't have been less like boxing's version of a pre-bout showdown. This was more meet-and-greet than stare-and-glare.
The cloudy white smoke from 
Turns out everyone was a little ahead of themselves.
Race: Tums 500
It took just 3 hours, 24 minutes and 20 seconds of racing action Sunday at Dover International Speedway to allow "Superman" to reassert his dominance over NASCAR 
LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- When a young driver isn't sure how to approach an on-track situation, they often ask themselves "What would 
RICHMOND, Va. -- Fifty-year old 
