Johnson finally wins it all after many obstacles
His ninth-place finish was enough to corral the title.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Hard though he tried, Jimmie Johnson just couldn't give another Nextel Cup championship away.
Johnson completed his dream season by cruising over every speedbump in his path, overcoming debris in his grill, a missing roll of tape, a loose lug nut, treacherous traffic and his own nerves to finally win the NASCAR championship that had taunted him the past two years.
On Sunday, the little things that used to sink him turned out to be nothing more than mere annoyances.
Not this time
Johnson, the perpetual points leader for the past three regular seasons who always found a way to collapse in the Chase, finally put it all together, wrapping up his title with a ninth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He finished with a 56-point lead over Matt Kenseth.
"It's going to take a little bit of time for this to soak in, just to think what this team has accomplished and the year we've had," Johnson said. "Being a champion, it's the only thing I ever wanted to be."
Greg Biffle won the Ford 400 for the third straight season, beating rookies Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin to the finish line. Kasey Kahne was fourth and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five. Kenseth was sixth.
Juan Pablo Montoya, making the first Nextel Cup start of his budding NASCAR career, ran as high as 13th, but his race ended in a fiery wreck 16 laps from the finish.
The race was delayed nearly eight minutes to clean the track, briefly postponing Johnson's long-awaited celebration. No matter for Johnson, who finished lower than second for the first time in six races.
Had cushion
But he didn't need to be flawless to win this one: He started the day with a cushy margin that required him to only stay out of trouble and finish 12th or better to wrap up the title.
Unfortunately for Johnson, nothing is ever that easy.
His troubles started a mere 15 laps into the race, when flying debris punched a gaping hole in the grill of the No. 48 Chevrolet. When he went in for repairs, his crew couldn't find any tape to patch it.
Later, he nearly pulled away from a pit stop with a loose lug nut. Then he had to avoid Robby Gordon's spinning car.
"We've been ducking them all day," crew chief Chad Knaus sighed after Johnson scooted by Gordon.
But he still had heavy traffic to deal with and, of course, his own nerves. When caution came out with 62 laps to go, Knaus wanted to change all four tires and stretch it to the end. But Johnson wasn't convinced, and demanded his crew copy whatever Kenseth did.
With his spotter keeping a close eye on Kenseth, who took only two tires, Knaus quickly adjusted and ordered the same service. It put Johnson in ninth place on the restart with 58 laps to go, but a stack of traffic behind him on four fresh tires.
Encouragement
"Drive it like you stole it, homie," Knaus encouraged him.
Johnson held his position, then copied Kenseth again on a final round of pit stops. Kenseth was in fifth and Johnson was in sixth on the re-start with 16 laps to go, and it would take only a catastrophe at that point to deny Johnson the title.
But two late cautions -- Montoya's wreck, followed by good buddy Casey Mears blowing an engine -- again prolonged the celebration.
Finally, the race was restarted for a two-lap shootout to the end.
When it was over, Johnson, a two-time championship runner-up, had his elusive title.
"It was such a long day to get here," he said in Victory Lane. "There were times when we were down, and out and in the back and had to come back through. This just means the world to me, it's the most amazing day of my life."