Anyone who says Johnson hasn't locked it up is crazy

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- As Jimmie Johnson launched into yet another burnout, followed by yet another Victory Lane celebration, his closest pursuers in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship insisted this isn't over.

History says otherwise. In the wake of Sunday's victory at Martinsville Speedway, history says that Johnson is certain to make NASCAR history while reducing the rest of the season to little more than a Jimmie Watch.

As in Watch Jimmie Make Laps ... Watch Jimmie to make sure his No. 48 Chevrolet doesn't blow up ... And Watch Jimmie methodically work his way to a third consecutive championship when the No. 48 doesn't.

Of course, there are those who differ with this opinion -- and they deserve their say.

Driver Greg Biffle, for instance, climbed out of his No. 16 Ford following a 12th-place finish Sunday and thrust his arms triumphantly into the air as if he -- and not Johnson -- had won the race. Curiously, he almost acted as if that was indeed the case.

Asked if Johnson's latest victory was the proverbial nail in the coffin for the rest of the Sprint Cup field, Biffle bristled and replied brusquely: "I don't think so. We can catch 'em."

Fellow drivers Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards, sitting third and fourth in the points standings, said the same. And they not only seemed to mean it, they seemed to believe it.

What are they smoking?

Did these guys not realize Johnson just dominated yet another race at Martinsville, leading 339 of the event's 500 laps and winning for the fifth time in his career at the track? Do they not realize that Johnson, with his sixth win of the season, increased his point advantage on Biffle, now his closest pursuer, to 149 points with just four races remaining in the season?

As amazingly as it seemed, one after another seemed to shrug all that off.

"We totally expected them to gain some points here," said Biffle, who finished 12th and dropped 63 points to Johnson despite moving from third to second in the standings. "We're leaving here with almost exactly what we expected. We wanted to get a top-10, and we were hoping they wouldn't win -- so if he got a top-five we wouldn't worry about it or care so much about it. He won and we finished 12th, so it's not exactly what we wanted. I guess that was almost the worst-case scenario for what we were trying to do -- but he's not going to have 10 flawless races [in the Chase]. I promise you." (Continued)