Johnson gets third title in a row

Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson both came up winners yesterday.

Edwards pulled off another gas-mileage thriller yesterday, winning the Ford 400 for car owner Jack Roush when teammate Matt Kenseth ran out of fuel while leading with three laps to go and Johnson clinched his third straight NASCAR Sprint Cup series championship.

Johnson finished 15th and all three of his championships have come with crew chief Chad Knaus.

"What a special year. We got off to a slow start and really had to work hard to get back into championship form," Johnson, 33, said.

"There were times this year when things were dark, and we had to buckle down. I can't believe we're part of history."

Three-time champs: Lee Petty, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson and now Johnson. "That's elite company," Johnson said. "Those are names I worshipped when I was a kid.

"From the first lap, I knew we had a car we could drive to the front. I felt in control of this car all night. But I have to question some of the hard racing that went on with some of the lapped cars, the slow cars. I can't believe how dumb some of those guys are, with what was on the line here. But maybe it was my fault for expecting some respect."

Johnson logged seven wins during the season, 15 top-fives and 22 top-10s, with one DNF. Three of his wins came in the 10-race Chase.

"I just don't have words to express how impressed I am with this race team," Johnson, who qualified 30th and had to play it cautiously, said. "It's a great honor to drive Chad's cars."

"This has been an incredible ride we've been on since 2002," Knaus said. "I don't know what this feels like yet, but once we get these cameras and microphones out of our faces, we'll have time to reflect on what it's all about.

"Jimmie ... what can you say about the talent that man has. I am fortunate to have him as a best friend, a brother and a driver."

With his eighth championship in his 25 years on the tour as a team owner, Rick Hendrick needs one more to tie Petty Enterprises on the all-time list (although Jeff Gordon is listed as the official owner of record for Johnson's team).

"These guys have just been phenomenal," Hendrick said. "I'm amazed with how they refuse to get down when things don't go right.

"And it's not without a lot of sacrifice and a lot of talent.

"I never thought I'd get one of these things ... and now to celebrate three straight with these guys...."

Johnson, the best driver ever? "I don't think he's gotten the respect he's deserved, and this shows what he can do," Hendrick said.

So Knaus, at 37, becomes the first crew chief in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships:

"It's amazing, absolutely amazing," he said.

"That is just absolutely awesome. All 500 people we have at Hendrick Motorsports put their hearts and souls into these cars and making them go fast.

"I just have to sit back and let it all soak in."

Johnson finished 69 points ahead of tour runner-up Edwards. Johnson came into the race needing to finish 36th or better to clinch the title.

Yarborough is the only other NASCAR driver to win three straight titles, in 1976, 1977 and 1978.

"They've been fun, these last few weeks. We knew we were at a disadvantage after we lost points in those two races (Talladega and Concord)," Edwards said.

"But we got beat by a true champion."

"I was sure Bob Osborne was going to run him out of gas and make up for Texas, but he didn't," Roush said.

"We closed a big gap on Jimmie this season," Edwards said. "We won more races than he did. I'm sure they'll enjoy this championship ... but they know we were here."

"Nine wins this year, I'm happy about that, and hat's off to Jimmie and Chad," Bob Osborne, Edwards' crew chief, said.

Down the stretch, Roush had the top three runners, and Kenseth appeared on target for his first win of the year, but he slowed with three laps to go, out of gas. And moments later teammate David Ragan, running second to Edwards, also ran out. And then Kyle Busch too ran out, coming to the white flag of the three-hour race in front of 80,000 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Gordon said that this year's championship run by Johnson was much more impressive than last year's: "Yes, because I saw him struggle for the first time. Last year we were just the dominant cars all season. This season they really had to get it turned around; and they weren't just a little off, they were off a lot at times.

"And, boom, they got it turned around. Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch were just dominating and it was like it didn't even faze them."

Kevin Harvick pulled off a second: "We just try to wear them out with consistency," Harvick said after winding up fourth in the Sprint Cup standings. "Our pit crew is ready to win a championship. We just have to figure out how to lead more laps.

"The last 10 weeks this year -- compared to last year, when we weren't even really involved in the Chase -- we were really consistent."

Jamie McMurray, also a Roush driver, finished third, and said he and his teammates would have to start figuring out how Edwards does so well conserving fuel. "It's not like he's got a bigger tank or a leaner engine, so we've got to start studying how they're doing it," McMurray said. "I'm just amazed Carl was able to get that kind of fuel mileage. That's incredible -- to have one of the fastest cars and get the best fuel mileage."

Edwards' ninth tour win is the best effort by a Ford driver since Bill Elliott's 11-win season in 1985.

"We just decided to try and make it on fuel," Kenseth, who finished 25th, said. "It doesn't matter which way we roll it; it just doesn't seem like we can do anything right. The car performed really well ... but we just can't seem to get anything to go our way.

"Carl can't do anything wrong ... and we can't do anything right.

"I don't understand how he can make power and still get that much better fuel mileage."

Stewart conceded that leaving Zipadelli and Gibbs, after two championships and 33 wins, wasn't that easy after all: "It's hard. These guys are my family. When you've been with a group of guys for 10 years, that's a long time. When you like the group of guys you're working with, it makes nights like this even harder."

Stewart, though, isn't friends with everyone in the garage, and he decided to stay in his car a few moments longer after the race to avoid them: "I was frustrated ... and there were a couple of media members that I don't trust with anything, that I don't trust with a penny much less a quote of mine. I was trying to take care of myself and make for an easier offseason."

Rookie Scott Speed started on the front and finished 16th. "We finished every lap, stayed out of trouble, and came home with a good finish," Speed said. "I felt like I had a really good feel for the car and learned a lot, so it was nice to end the season on a high note."

Kyle Busch's crew chief, Steve Addington, was reconsidering the season's stretch, after dominating the first seven months of the season: "What did I learn? Not to show your hand too early in the season and let these guys go to work and get better than you.

"But my hat's off to Jimmie -- He played his cards right-on trying stuff, and when the Chase came around they were awesome."