Johnson in driver's seat after Talladega 'survival'

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Jimmie Johnson has to have a stable-full of horseshoes, a crate of lucky charms and rabbits by the foot.

How else can you explain Sunday's Amp Energy 500?

He went from being so far off the pace during the early stages of the race -- getting lapped by the field after just 25 laps -- to somehow dodging a major wreck that wiped out half of the Chase field, finishing ninth and putting himself securely in the driver's seat for a possible Sprint Cup three-peat.

And nobody was breathing a bigger sigh of relief at the checkered flag than Johnson, who saw Talladega as a major hurdle (watch video). Instead, it was Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards who loaded wrecked racecars -- and perhaps wrecked championship hopes -- on their haulers after a Lap 174 incident that took out a total of 12 cars, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.

"When you look at the trouble that Chasers had [Sunday], that's what we all feared," Johnson said. "And the two cars, the No. 16 and the No. 99 rode in the back all day long until it was time to go. You still get all these guys together at once racing for the win and stuff happens. And it certainly did. And you wouldn't think it would between two teammates, but it did. I don't know how I got through, too, to be honest with you. But it was a solid day and an awesome finish."

Not to say that Johnson's day wasn't without misfortune. In fact, it started with Johnson's team deciding to inspect the engine's cylinder walls, to figure out why the No. 48 Chevrolet didn't seem quite right in Saturday's qualifying. That put Johnson at the tail end of the field at the start, and he promptly lost the draft right off the bat (watch video).

"I'm mentally drained after [Sunday's] performance," Johnson said. "It started [Saturday] with qualifying. We weren't sure what was going on and [Sunday], the car was pretty flat still. I lost the draft at the start of the race because I couldn't hang on and then from there we got our lap back and dodged wrecks and raced really hard." (Continued)