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Hendrick Motorsports star Jimmie Johnson virtually sealed a third Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship by scoring a dominating victory at Phoenix International Raceway yesterday. The two-time and defending series champion led a race-best 217 of 313 laps and held an average race position of 1.5 before driving his No. 48 machine across the finish line 0.295 of a second in front of Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch.
Johnson will enter the 36th and final event of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway Nov. 16 with a 141-point lead over second-place championship contender Carl Edwards. Johnson’s third straight Phoenix win places him in position to clinch a third championship with a 36th-place Homestead finish. He also can clinch the title with a 37th-place effort if he leads one race lap or a 39th-place run if he leads the most race laps.
He sealed the 2007 championship with a seventh-place Homestead-Miami Speedway finish after starting from the pole position and has scored a total of two top-five and five top-10 finishes at the track in seven career starts. His best finish on the 1.5-mile oval was second in 2004 and his worst was 40th in 2005 after he completed only 124 of 267 race laps following his involvement in an accident.
Johnson’s seventh win of the season marked the 40th of his seven-year Sprint Cup Series career. He has now taken top-two finishes in three of the past four events and seven of the past 11 events. His season record is comprised of seven wins, 15 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes. Edwards placed fourth in the Phoenix race and posted his 18th top-five and 26th top-10 finish of the season. He nailed down his track-best fifth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway last season.
He owns an average finish of 7.75 through four races at the Florida facility including a career-worst 14th–place finish in 2004. Jamie McMurray placed third in Phoenix and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin captured fifth. Kurt Busch captured his second top-five and third top-10 finish in his past five starts while moving from 19th to 18th in the series standings. McMurray wheeled to his second straight third-place series finish and jumped from 18th to 16th in the points chase.
He has posted three top-five and four top-10 finishes in the past five series outings. Hamlin moved from 12th to ninth in the championship standings by taking his third top-five finish in past four starts.
