Phoenix brings renewed confidence for Johnson (cont'd)

"I think last weekend showed, you can't just defend," said Johnson, driving a car at Phoenix that won races at Martinsville and Richmond earlier in the year. "You can't be comfortable with any size points lead. You need to attack. You don't know what's going to take place. You don't know what's going to go on. So I'm still in attack mode. Certainly, with a 106-point lead, I don't need to take as much risk. There's a little bit different feel to it from what I had chasing Jeff last year. But the more I can look at what our team has been successful with, and how we've acted, the better we're going to do. That's staying aggressive. That's where we perform our best."

The same could be said of Edwards, who in the last two weekends has won back-to-back races, climbed from fourth to second in the Chase standings, and cut the difference between him and Johnson from 198 after Martinsville to the current 106. The Roush Fenway Racing driver has never won at Phoenix, but he does have five top-10 finishes in eight career starts. There's no real strategy, except to do what he's been doing -- lead laps, run up front, and keep the pressure on Johnson.

"As long as we maintain or gain some ground, I feel like we have a great chance at Miami, just based on the probability that anything can happen," said Edwards, driving a car that finished third at New Hampshire. "If we run well enough, we could theoretically run down Jimmie and still have a chance to beat him without anything going wrong with their car or their race. You add in the variables that could go wrong, as long we're within 130 or 140 points at Homestead, we're still mathematically in it. I guess the best thing would be to lead a bunch of laps, win the race, and do what we've been doing and gain a ton of points. But all we can do is the best that we can do. Just like we've said the last couple of weeks, go out there and be aggressive and race hard."

If Johnson leaves Phoenix with a 162-point lead -- 56 more than he has now -- he'll only have to start the finale at Homestead to secure the championship. But with a gambler like Edwards, who attempted a banzai move to beat Johnson at Kansas and won at Texas with a 69-lap fuel run, no one is taking anything for granted.

"I know Jimmie's not sitting absolutely comfortable at this point," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnson's teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, "and that's because of Carl and his ability to really make anything happen at anytime."

For Johnson, Friday brought good omens: first in opening practice with a top speed of 132.871 mph, and first in pole qualifying with a lap of 134.725 mph. What a difference that was from the last time the No. 48 car was on the racetrack, a lap down and struggling to make up ground at Texas. Crew chief Chad Knaus and his group came to Phoenix ready to put that experience -- their worst finish since the August Bristol race, and their worst showing in the Chase in more than two years -- behind them.

"We look at last week and think, we gave some points away," Johnson said. "We got caught behind, we couldn't recover over the course of the race, the way the race worked out, and we lost some points. So that side of it still sticks around and is in my head and Chad's head, because we're racers. We feel like we're much better than where we finished, and that's a problem in my eyes. We can't have those days, regardless of where the points are. Again, though, that's behind us. That's last week. We're at one of our better tracks. We have a great points lead. It's just time to get out there and do it again."

Edwards placed 10th in opening practice, but his engine appeared to bog down in qualifying. He'll start 15th, well behind Johnson. "Looks like we're going to have to get on it [Saturday] in race trim," Edwards said. "We're going to have to pass Jimmie."

How big an advantage is that difference in starting position? "If he gets through there clean and has no problems and is on our bumper, it's no big deal," Johnson said. "It's just kind of how it is. But if that throws off their rhythm, there can be things that come from it. I'm just going to plan on the worst-case scenario for myself, which is that he has the fastest car and he's coming."

Oh, he's coming, all right. Given the risks Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne have taken to get this point, no one is counting them out.

"Definitely Jimmie and those guys are aware of where we're at, and that we've been closing in points," Edwards said. "I can't speak for them, but if I were in their position, I'd be nervous, because everybody sees how this sport can go. In a matter of a week or two weeks things can change drastically. I hope they're worried about us. I think they are."