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.
NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series championship got a little more interesting only three laps into Sunday's Dickie's 500 at Texas Motor Speedway when points leader Jimmie Johnson was collected in a crash, his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet suffering major damage.
Johnson was able to continue but lengthy repairs were necessary in the garage resulting in a potentially substantial change in his hefty points lead. Entering the race, Johnson held a 184-point lead over second place Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin, nearly the equivalent of one full race.
To hear Jimmie Johnson describe it, the most challenging part of wrapping up a historic fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship is not getting wrapped up in winning it. No matter how hard everyone else tries to convince him the trophy's been engraved.
He holds a 184-point advantage -- nearly a full race lead -- on second place Mark Martin and only needs to finish 10th place or better in the remaining three Chase for the Championship races to secure the trophy. That's even if Martin wins all three races and leads the most laps in each.
But Johnson insists his approach in the No. 48 Lowe's Chevy will be the same as if he was trailing by 184 points and promised he wasn't about to start being conservative.
"We're showing up to win races,'' Johnson said. "Finishing 10th isn't as easy as it sounds. It is a tough field of cars out there and we need to be on our game. With three to go, we need to race these next two as if we're behind in the points and get every point we can.''
A car length here, a lane change there and one incredible pit call.
No matter what it was, Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team seemed to do it right on a mild then wild Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway -- even when it looked like holding par in the point standings wasn't going to happen as the laps clicked off and the drama kept rising around the 2.66-mile wildcard.
But when the cars stopped flipping and the smoke stopped rising, Johnson -- to the chagrin of plenty -- stood alone in his pursuit of the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup with what amounts to be an insurmountable lead with an unstoppable team.
Is there another sport that turns on its winners so?
And cheering against the New York Yankees doesn't count.
Another superb run in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship has put Jimmie Johnson in position for a historic fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title. He's on the verge of accomplishing something Richard Petty, the late Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon never did.
And for all his hard work and performance under pressure here's the thanks he gets: people are accusing him of stinking up the show.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Denny Hamlin didn't need to do anything funny to exact his revenge from Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville Speedway. He just drove right by him.
And then he drove away with ease on three restarts over the final 52 laps, ending the three-time defending series champion's remarkable run of five trips to Victory Lane in the previous six races at the shortest circuit in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.
Hamlin used an out-of-sequence pit stops after about 160 laps to move to the front, then held on up there until the entire leaderboard headed for pit road about 20 laps later.
"Once we got that track position, our car just kind of took off," he said.
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.
CONCORD, N.C. -- For the past two days, one driver after another took the podium in the press room at Lowe's Motor Speedway and made his case that NASCAR's Chase for the Championship was far from over. Sure, Jimmie Johnson had taken the points lead last week and looked every bit the postseason form that won him the previous three Sprint Cup championships.
But the Chase wasn't even halfway over yet, we were reminded. And no way could anyone maintain a finishing average less than five in the most pressure-packed time of the year.
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Jimmie Johnson completed the perfect weekend with a win at Lowe's Motor Speedway to take control of the championship standings.
The three-time defending series champion raced to his third victory in the Chase for the Sprint Cup on Saturday night, extending his lead to 90 points over teammate Mark Martin.
NASCAR has warned the teams of championship leaders Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson that their Chevrolets were dangerously close to failing post-race inspection last week at Dover, Del., where the three-time defending series champion Johnson won the race and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Martin finished runner-up.
Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus cautioned that there was no wrong-doing, no intent to do wrong and that the attention this is receiving is mostly media sensationalism.
"The cars were legal, that's the thing everybody has to understand,'' Knaus said Friday from this week's Sprint Cup Series venue, Kansas Speedway. "It's turned into a bigger issue than what it really should."
Turns out everyone was a little ahead of themselves.
NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series championship got a little more interesting only three laps into Sunday's Dickie's 500 at Texas Motor Speedway when points leader 
To hear 
A car length here, a lane change there and one incredible pit call.
Is there another sport that turns on its winners so?
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Denny Hamlin didn't need to do anything funny to exact his revenge from Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville Speedway. He just drove right by him.
Race: Tums 500-1255844684.jpg)
CONCORD, N.C. -- For the past two days, one driver after another took the podium in the press room at Lowe's Motor Speedway and made his case that NASCAR's Chase for the Championship was far from over. Sure, 
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- 
NASCAR has warned the teams of championship leaders 
