Edwards is Johnson's best competition for future titles

When he left Martinsville Speedway two Sundays ago, Carl Edwards insisted that he was not finished with his pursuit of Jimmie Johnson in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

"If we have to win the next four races in a row to catch him, well, then that's what we'll have to do," Edwards said.

The problem is, as Edwards learned after winning Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, that still may not be good enough. Edwards did his part by winning, but Johnson finished second and actually increased his overall advantage in the standings heading into the final three Chase races.

Johnson's lead is now 183 points over Edwards, his closest pursuer. But even though Edwards gained ground (he was 198 down and fourth in the standings prior to the race), Johnson actually increased his overall lead because Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton fell even further back after being 149 and 152 points, respectively, off the No. 48 team's pace coming in.

While Johnson showed again at Atlanta why he and crew chief Chad Knaus are closing in on their third consecutive championship, the victory by Edwards -- his seventh of the Cup season -- invites a closer look at the bigger picture.

This season, despite continued but increasingly muted protests from Edwards and one or two others, belongs to Johnson. But what about next season and beyond?

Edwards' win Sunday was his 14th since 2005. Only Johnson, with the amazing and admittedly intimidating total of 25 (six this season), has more over the same time span.

Is it time to anoint Cousin Carl as Jammin' Jimmie's greatest threat for the immediate future as it pertains to after this season?

There are others
Tony Stewart also has 14 Cup victories since 2005, but only one this season and just four in the last two seasons. Plus, at age 37, he'll be starting up his own team at Stewart-Haas Racing next season -- and the wins might come even slower than he has been reluctantly growing accustomed to this season.

The next greatest threat to Johnson's superiority -- in addition to Edwards, that is -- probably is Kyle Busch. Sure, his 2008 Chase has been miserable. But he still owns a series-high eight victories and has proven throughout the season on all three major NASCAR circuits that he knows how to consistently drive himself to Victory Lane.

Busch and aging lion Jeff Gordon (geez, who thought we would be calling him that after he won six races and finished second to Johnson only a year ago?) have each won 12 races since 2005. But Gordon has not won at all this season and, also at age 37, obviously does not have the comfort level with the current "new car" that younger drivers such as Johnson, Edwards and Busch do.

Johnson, by the way, is only 33. Edwards is 29 -- and Busch is a ridiculous 23. They very well could be going at it long after the likes of Gordon and Stewart decide to leave the driving to others (although the perception is that while Gordon may not drive much past 40, Stewart might just try to drive until he's about 70).

There are others, of course, who deserve mention. Biffle is next up in terms of most wins since 2005, with 11 overall and two -- the first two of the Chase -- this season. But he'll turn 40 in December of 2009. Even in a sport where age frequently is no more than a number, it's only human nature to wonder whether his best years are in the rear-view mirror rather than out on the frontstretch.

Victories since 2005

Driver	2008	Since 2005
Jimmie Johnson	6	25
Carl Edwards	7	14
Tony Stewart	1	14
Kyle Busch	8	12
Jeff Gordon	0	12
Greg Biffle	2	11

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is likely to make some noise as he continues to get more comfortable in the No. 88 car he drives for Hendrick Motorsports, and the likes of Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and David Ragan likely will have at least interspersing moments where they will shine, too.

But Edwards arguably is showing signs this season that he has what it takes to compete at the top with Johnson more consistently over a longer period of time than any of them.

The evidence
Critics will point to Edwards' sometimes emotional instability, evident so recently when he took out two of his teammates (Biffle and Kenseth) along with others in a colossal driving error at Talladega. He then followed that up by getting into a verbal war, accompanied by a little overpublicized shoving and choking match, with Harvick at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

When he looks back at this season, it is almost certain that Edwards will see that the two weeks that encompassed Talladega and Charlotte cost him the championship. He has been good enough everywhere else -- in the Chase and prior to it -- to at least be holding a slight advantage on Johnson at this point.

The difference is that Johnson makes fewer mistakes, and never seems to let his emotions run away with him. To Edwards' credit, he appears to realize his shortcomings in this regard and, as a strong sixth-place finish at Martinsville prior to the win in Atlanta will attest, he is proving able to put bad weeks out of sight and out of mind quickly -- when he works at it.

"It's frustrating when you have something bad happen, and you lose a whole bunch of points," Edwards said at Martinsville. "You start to think, man, you know, this is going to be a whole 'nother year. It's like if you have a bad game bowling, you think, 'OK, this game will be over in a couple of frames and you just start over.' You know that feeling: boy, it feels good to start over.

"But there is no starting over [in the Sprint Cup Series]. You have to dig until the end. It's interesting that way."

So Johnson finished second in Atlanta and tightened his stranglehold on the 2008 title. That surprises no one.

What is pleasantly surprising is that Edwards offered further evidence that he might be maturing to the point where at least one driver is prepared to step up and make a hard charge to push Johnson off the throne next season, lest Johnson's dominance begin to bore the paying public into submission.

"We came here and did what we had to do," Edwards said after Sunday's race. "We won the race and, man, that's all we can do. I would be a fool to go home and be discouraged about that. You've got to build on that, move on, and hopefully win it the next year."

He later insisted that this year isn't quite over -- yet. But you get the feeling that even he's already thinking it's the 10th frame and even a turkey won't be enough to get him to Johnson's back bumper this time.

That leaves next season, and beyond. Edwards is showing signs, and producing results, that indicate he might get there as soon as they can move onto the next game.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.