Loop Data favors Johnson for a third consecutive title

The scary news for those closest to Jimmie Johnson in the Cup Series points standings: Even Johnson's subpar performances result in top-10 finishes.

At Talladega last Sunday, Johnson led only three laps, had an Average Running Position of 24.6 and a Driver Rating of 64.2. He finished ninth.

The finish made him four-for-four in top-10s during this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup. With it, Johnson has now scored more points in the first four races than any other driver in the Chase's five-year history:

Worse yet for his competitors -- Johnson is a notoriously strong closer. In three of the previous four Chases, Johnson scored the most points in the last six races (in 2005, he scored the fifth-most points):

What Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton -- all within 100 points of Johnson -- need is a stronger Lowe's Motor Speedway race than Johnson. Clearly, that could be a tough assignment.

With five wins and 11 top-10s in 14 races, Johnson is phenomenal at LMS. Since the inception of Loop Data in 2005, Johnson is the only driver with a Driver Rating higher than 100 and the only one with an Average Running Position better than 10.0. Below is his race log at LMS:

Johnson is the clear class of the LMS field, even with his 39th-place finish in this season's Coca-Cola 600. One driver who comes close is Kasey Kahne, who will attempt to become the first driver to win the Coca-Cola 600, the All-Star Race and the Bank of America 500 in the same season.

Kahne is strong at LMS, to say the least. He owns many track-best statistics since 2005: