In seven more races, you might be able to call driver Jimmie Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and their No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team two-time Nextel Cup champions.

But for right now, just three events into the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup -- and on the eve of what's sure to be one of the Chase's wilder outings, Sunday's UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway -- Knaus won't take the favorite's role.

"Absolutely not," Knaus said. "There isn't a favorite right now."

This, despite the fact that after two of the crazier Chase races in the event's four-year history, Johnson -- who last year won the title by 56 points over Matt Kenseth -- has a six-point lead over Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon and a 14-point edge over third-place Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driver Clint Bowyer.

And the fact that the next driver in the 12-man field is former two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, who's 117 points behind. Maybe it's because after last year's Talladega event, Johnson actually gained points on the leader despite getting spun out of second place on the last lap and finishing 24th, one lap down.

And after that he made the greatest comeback in the Chase's short history to win.

Despite Knaus' hesitation, so far in the 2007 Chase, Johnson's made a pretty stout case for consideration as a favorite to defend, which hasn't been done since Gordon did it in the pre-Chase era of 1997-98.

After opening the Chase with a typical sixth-place finish at New Hampshire International Speedway, Johnson went to Dover, got a flat tire early that cost him two laps to the leaders and was never able to make up the deficit. But after a major backstretch pig-pile late in the race, Johnson held on to finish 14th.

"Jimmie's awesome -- just a phenomenal racecar driver," Knaus said. "He's more mature than he's ever been, obviously, and he knows how to drive a racecar and keep it within his limits."

Last weekend at Kansas, Johnson started shotgun on the field after wrecking his Bud Pole-winning primary car in practice and then pitted before a rain shower and was locked deep in the field, a lap down -- as were many of the Chase contenders. But the race resumed and Johnson finished third.

It gave him and his team a chance to take a deep breath, but that's about it.

"It's been crazy, that's for sure," Knaus said. "The competition is really tough right now and everybody, when they go out on the racetrack is going for blood. That's kind of what the Chase was put out there for.

"Obviously it stirs a lot of interest with the fans and the media and everything else. So it's crazy."

But what's been stable in all the hysteria is the Hendrick Motorsports ensemble, and they proved it at Kansas, particularly Johnson.

"That mishap [crash] that we had on Saturday, I really think the wind contributed to that more than anything," Knaus said. "[Johnson's] really smart and very good at describing to me what the racecar is doing, and that helps myself and my engineers to be able to get to work on the racecar and try to get it dialed in for him."

At Kansas, non-Chase HMS teammate Casey Mears, who is gamely vying to gain the first non-Chase position, 13th, in the standings, finished fourth in his No. 25 Chevy, right in front of Gordon's No. 24 Monte Carlo SS.

Even their fourth teammate, No. 5 Chevrolet driver Kyle Busch, had a very good car at the end of the day despite finishing 41st after it got wrecked in the opening miles of the race, which knocked him from fourth to sixth in the standings, 136 points out of first.

"There's no magic -- the magic is the team and what we're able to do at HMS," Knaus said. "This Lowe's team is awesome. We were able to drive from 43rd up into the top 10 [at Kansas] by Lap 40 or 45, and that's not magic -- that's just speed.

"Jimmie's doing a great job, he's got his head on straight -- the car doesn't have a mark on it and we could take it to the race [this] weekend if we were racing the same car. It's not magic, it's just desire and really trying to do the best you can every single weekend."

What tempts you to insert the favorite's label next to Johnson's name is that after Stewart's disastrous day last week in Kansas City, the rest of the field is anywhere from fifth place Kevin Harvick's fourth, 126 points behind, to Kurt Busch in ninth, 177 points behind.

Busch is in a critical "cutoff" position because Johnson himself, after being 165 points behind at the identical point of the 2006 Chase, came back to grab the point lead for the first time five races later, after finishing second to non-Chaser Stewart at Texas.

Even considering Jeff Burton (186 points back), Matt Kenseth (219) and Denny Hamlin (248) are further yet outside Johnson's incredible comeback window from a year ago, which he achieved with five consecutive finishes of either first or second, Knaus won't waver in his estimation of the competition.

"You've got to go out and go for top-fives and wins every race," Knaus said. "When you're battling for the championship against guys like Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer and those guys -- they're awesome and they're fast and you can't sit back and start to get on the defense, because if we do they're going to blow by us."

But this is all before Sunday's event, which has even the calmly but intensely focused Johnson wavering a bit.

"The test session [at Talladega in September] was more hair-raising than we hoped, to be honest with you," Johnson said. "There's no telling how it's going to come out and I think that's what all the excitement is right now -- from the driver's standpoint and the crew's, we just don't know what to expect. (read more)

"Typically we see some crazy things happen here, at the same time we've seen a lot of crazy stuff going on the last few weeks, so we're prepared for anything and looking forward to it."