CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler hardly needs assistance when it comes to entertaining the media.

So it should come as no surprise that while he had a "world-renowned mental illusionist" on hand in Lawrence Gregory at a news conference Tuesday at Bobcats Arena, Wheeler didn't really rely on Gregory for any help in making his annual predictions for NASCAR's upcoming Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

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Wheeler's pick to win this Saturday night's All-Star Challenge came as no surprise, either. He says it will be Jimmie Johnson, who has driven his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports car to victory in four of the first 11 Nextel Cups points races this season.

"This race is Jimmie Johnson's to lose," Wheeler proclaimed.

If Johnson can avoid losing it and fulfill Wheeler's prognostication in the process, he will join Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon as the only three-time winners of NASCAR's annual All-Star event, having also won it last year and in 2003. He also would take home the top prize of $1 million.

Wheeler said he made his choice after recently watching Johnson and 52 other teams run through two days -- and evenings -- of practices at the LMS track he runs as its general manager and president. Wheeler added that he avoided comparing overall lap times "because people were playing too many games," concentrating instead on how cars would get off the Turn 2 corner and head down the backstretch into Turn 3.

"The guy was absolutely blazing in the practices, particularly down the straightaway," Wheeler said. "He has got some horsepower, and I think these Hendrick cars -- as everybody knows because they're hotter than a firecracker this year -- have just a teeny, teeny bit extra torque coming out of the corners. I say that because I've talked to a lot of guys who have been running behind them in the corners. And that's the best way to find out about a racecar -- by talking to the guys who are following it.

"Jimmie Johnson also is a master -- an absolute master -- at driving a loose racecar. That comes, really, from his early beginnings as an off-road racer out in the West, where you have to drive with the rear end. And nobody can win the All-Star race without runnin' loose. You just can't do it."

Wheeler said that he expects Johnson to receive strong competition from his two Hendrick teammates, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch, as well as strong opposition from a pair of drivers for Richard Childress Racing in Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, and from his "dark-horse selection," Mark Martin.

But in the end, he said he expects Johnson to prevail.

Wheeler also predicted that the pit-crew team of Martin Truex Jr. will win Wednesday's Pit Crew Challenge at Bobcats Area and that rookie Juan Montoya will capture the Nextel Open "in a duel with Carl Edwards."

To believe Wheeler knows more than the rest of the racing world when it comes to who's going to win the All-Star race requires the touch of at least an amateur illusionist.

Wheeler claims to have correctly predicted the victor in the All-Star race in 10 of the past 18 events. But he gives himself credit if the winner is his top pick or his "dark-horse" pick, and arguably has not directly pegged the winner of the race since the last time he picked Johnson -- in 2003.

In 2005, he picked Jeff Gordon to win and Mark Martin/Rusty Wallace as his dark horses, claiming credit for a correct prediction when Martin found his way to Victory Lane.

Wheeler began making his predictions in 1989 and built his legend as an All-Star prognosticator by correctly predicting the first five winners of the event. He gives himself credit for keeping his streak alive in 1994, when winner Geoff Bodine was his dark-horse selection -- even though his actual pick to win the race, Ernie Irvan, placed 15th.

Since correctly tabbing Gordon to win it in 1995, he's actually been right about picking the winner only twice in the past 11 years -- correctly tabbing Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2000 and Johnson in 2003. He admitted the recent cold streak has made him a bit more reticent about making his annual selections.

"Ten of 18 is what it is," Wheeler insisted. "But when it gets to 50 percent, I'm quittin.'"

Gregory's best illusion Tuesday came when he made one of Johnson's cars "disappear" at the end of the news conference.

"A lot of people would like to see that 48 car disappear like it did [Tuesday]. But I don't think that's going to happen. They've got their act together. He could win eight races this year, or more. He's strong and he's hit his sweet spot in time, so to speak," Wheeler said.

"But you never know about the All-Star race. Anything can happen, and it has."