Johnson clinches another Nextel Cup championship

Jimmie Johnson won the 2007 Nextel Cup championship.

Homestead, FL  - Jimmie Johnson won the 2007 Nextel Cup championship successfully defending the crown he won last year. The No.48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver finished seventh which was good enough to hold off teammate Jeff Gordon for the title by 77 points. It is the seventh title for owner Rick Hendrick.

Matt Kenseth won the season finale Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, the second win of the season for the No.17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and the 16th of his “Cup” career. It was also the final race as crew chief for Robbie Reiser.

Johnson, who won the pole of Friday, brought the 43-car field to the green flag for the final time in 2007. The No.48 Chevy led the first lap, collected a five-point bonus, making his goal just a 19th place to guarantee a title.

After the first lap, Johnson relaxed a little bit, letting both Ryan Newman and Kenseth get around him. Both the No.12 Dodge and the No.17 Ford took turns leading the race before 10 laps were completed.

On the move was Gordon, who started 11th, but knew if he was to have any chance for a fifth championship would have to lead the most laps and win the race. He cracked the top-five by lap 15. But he stalled there and was not able to get around Johnson or up to any of the leaders.

The long green-flag run saw Kenseth put 13 cars down a lap as he opened up a one-second lead on Kurt Busch after 50 laps. Then Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch got together heading towards pit lane to bring out the first caution flag of the day. On the restart, “Junior” got spun around again to bring out another caution flag.

Still more caution flags, this one for a Paul Menard spin on lap 76, sent everyone down pit lane for the second pit stop of the afternoon.

Gordon got out very quickly (changed just two tires) to grab third place on the restart while Johnson took four tires and came out 14th. He hoped to get to the lead and earn five bonus points, but the strategy backfired and he went backwards instead of forward.

Also of note was Greg Biffle cracking the top-10. He was the winner of the four previous races at Homestead.

By lap 100, Gordon had fallen to seventh, while Johnson was back up to 10th place. On lap 116 Johnson flew around the outside of Gordon to take the position away.

Meanwhile, Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Newman were still one-two-three on the track. But neither Stewart, Newman, or Martin Truex Jr. could keep up with Kenseth who opened up the margin to more than five seconds at lap 125.

Another round of pit stops began at lap 130 with leader Kenseth in first. It was a gamble to come in so early, but no caution flags interrupted the cycle of pit stops and by lap 134 Kenseth returned to the top spot.

It was still the “Kenseth Show,” as he built the lead to 10 seconds by lap 145. But caution flag No.4, on lap 148 for a spin by Newman, erased the lead.

Then even worse news for Kenseth as he reported his battery was dead and he was going to have to go to the backup battery with still 120 laps to run.

Maybe it was the battery problem or maybe the other cars were just getting faster, but Denny Hamlin caught and passed Kenseth on lap 159. And Truex Jr. along with Gordon were looking pretty fast as well. Still Kenseth regrouped and charged past Hamlin on lap 177 to retake the lead.

Again Kenseth and the No.17 team asserted itself, building the lead to one and-a-half seconds with 75 laps remaining. Then Sam Hornish Jr. spun on the next laps to bring out a caution flag and send the field down pit lane for fuel and tires.

A 12.5-second stop from the No.17 Roush Fenway Racing team kept Kenseth at the top of the charts. Truex Jr. came out second and he was doing his best to run down Kenseth. They were side-by-side with 67 laps to go, but he couldn’t complete the pass.

Meanwhile in the “Chase,” Gordon was third and Johnson sixth.

Kurt Busch joined the lead group after a long time outside the top-10 because of a lugnut problem early in the race. By lap 225 Busch climbed to second place behind only Kenseth.

There was still one more pit stop and a short run to the checkered flag to determine the championship and the race winner.

Kenseth’s lead was two seconds with 32 laps remaining. No one could keep up with him so Truex Jr. crew decided to “short-pit” in hopes that the new tires would help him make up the lost ground. The No.1 Chevy came in on lap 238 about 10 laps early. Gordon pitted with 24 laps remaining. Kenseth saw it and came in one lap later as did Johnson.

All the stops were clean and Johnson was now just 22 laps from the title.

Kenseth was in complete control of the race - a one-second lead, a full tank of fuel and four new tires. He cruised to the checkered flag and a 0.852- second win over Kurt Busch.

Johnson was sitting in seventh place and he too cruised to the win - the 2007 Nextel Cup championship.

“It’s an honor to be the Nextel Cup champion,” said Johnson. “To come back this year and not lose anything over the off-season, for my guys to work as hard as they have to give me this opportunity to win this championship again…I can’t thank them enough.”

Hamlin, Gordon and Edwards completed the top-five.

“It’s hard to do much more than we did,” said Gordon. “That just shows you how awesome those guys were.”

“It’s just been an unbelievable season, I’m so proud of both of these guys,” said owner Rick Hendrick. “It’s a shame they couldn’t share it.”

The first race of the 2008 Sprint Cup (formerly known as the Nextel Cup) is the Budweiser Shootout exhibition set for Saturday night, February 9th at the Daytona International Speedway.

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