Did Jimmie Johnson wrap things up this week?

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that Jimmie Johnson has won again. With his fourth straight win, it’s been roughly a month since another driver has driven under the checkers first, did a burnout on the front stretch, or played the “hat dance” in Victory Lane. Adding his newest win in the mix, Jimmie Johnson has become the driver with the most wins in the 2007 season, with an impressive ten first-place finishes. 

Early in the Checker Auto Parts 500, in Phoenix, Arizona, Carl Edwards seemed to be the man to beat. He occupied the pole position and lead ninety laps until a round of yellow flag pits stops passed the lead along to Martin Truex Jr. Sixteen laps later, Edwards found himself on pit road with engine troubles.

Truex Jr. lead the field through a series of caution flag periods, including one caused by DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who smacked the wall after becoming too loose.  Earnhardt’s day concluded on lap 118 after his accident. With one race left in the season, Dale and his fans are all hoping for him to walk away with one solid finish before the year and his ride with DEI is through.

Matt Kenseth took to lead over from Truex Jr., while Johnson snaked his way through the field. After a round on green flag pit stops, which ended on lap 224 Kenseth was still the leading car, closely followed by Greg Biffle and Johnson. Johnson was able to slide past Biffle for second until the eighth caution of the day brought the leads down pit road. Ryan Newman became the new leader after only taking fuel, but Kenseth would pass by again once the green flag dropped.

With twenty-three laps to go, Jimmie Johnson passed Martin Truex Jr. for the lead, and did not look back. After finishing tenth, Hendrick Motorsports teammate and fellow Chase contender Jeff Gordon has thrown in the white towel. Gordon is not technically out of contention of the Cup, sitting a mere eighty-six points out of first. But with his ten wins, three poles, twenty top-five and twenty-three top-ten finishes, the Championship is Johnson’s to loose.

"Even if they have trouble and we still win it and we accept the check and the trophy, that's not the way you want to win a championship,” Gordon admitted after the conclusion of the race. “We've gotten beat, bottom line. They've done the job to deserve to be champions, and we haven't.”

Gordon and his team mad an early push for the Cup in the beginning of the season, but the fire faded fast. “Right now I'm just frustrated with the way we're running, when we've run well all year long and had gotten ourselves in a great position -- and it just hasn't worked out for us…. I really thought we did, but it just wasn't meant to be this year."

Johnson on the other hand is trying to keep things simple. “We're just going to go out there and run the race and do our thing. I just heard that no one has won five in a row [in a long time], so let's go try to get that."

With the way Johnson has been running recently, getting his fifth win in a row sounds like a walk in the park, but what about getting back-to-back championships?

"This is kind of where we were last year,” Johnson commented. “We just have to go down [to Homestead] and be smart and see how it shakes out."

Thirty-five weeks has passed, and with less than a week left in the 2007 Nextel Cup season, everything rests on Homestead. Come back next week to see if Johnson was able to get his record setting fifth consecutive win, to bring his season total up to eleven. Be sure to come back next week and find out the season’s winners and looses under the Checkered Flag!