At Texas, Johnson finally runs out of great escapes (cont'd)

Even Sunday, as day turned to nighttime and Johnson slid backward with alarming speed, you still thought he was going to pull out of it. He's done it so many times, roaring to the front at the end of twilight races, fighting to make up lost laps, that everyone has almost come to expect it. He's the movie-star hero who faces mounting odds and ridiculous situations, yet always walks away with the pretty girl at the end. Sure, they were a lap down less than 100 circuits in. Granted, even the usually unflappable Johnson was getting rattled, telling his crew, "We're in trouble, boys," at one point over the radio. But they'd been in trouble many, many times before, and usually escaped -- sometimes even with a shiny trophy and a big check to show for their efforts.

Not this time. This wasn't a setup designed for after dark, this wasn't strategy, this wasn't part of the plan. This was a whiff, a car that started way too loose, became way too light, and left Johnson, in his words, "a sitting duck." He fell as far back as 29th, running with cars he's more accustomed to lapping, before crew chief Chad Knaus radioed that there had been some sort of tire pressure miscalculation and they thought they had a line on how to fix the car. They did, and the No. 48 Chevrolet ran markedly better, turning lap times on a par with the leaders. But Johnson wasn't with the leaders, he was a lap down. And this time, Edwards wasn't letting him get it back. The Roush Fenway driver kept up such a pace, and the race featured so few cautions, that Johnson didn't really have a chance. Only 12 cars finished on the lead lap.

"There are a couple of times where I had some hope," he said. "I was running down the 11 [car of Denny Hamlin] and he was the first car one lap down. We didn't get a caution. We had green-flag stops. Carl caught guys and put them a lap down. That opportunity went away. There at the end I was kind of catching the 83 [car of Brian Vickers] a little bit. We kind of stalled out, were running the same speed. There were a couple points I felt good about it. But at the same time there were so many green-flag runs that I knew we were in trouble. I knew we could run in the top five. But I felt like I was going to have to go up there and take my lap back, and I knew we couldn't do that. I kind of had that feeling we were in trouble."

The resulting 15th-place finish, Johnson's worst in a Chase event since an accident-related 24th-place result at Talladega in October 2006, leaves him with some work left to do. He now has to average a seventh-place finish in the season's final two events, regardless of what Edwards does, to win the championship. Strange how perception can change; Jeff Gordon left Fort Worth last season 30 points behind Johnson, and essentially finished. Now Edwards leaves facing a much larger deficit, but with all the momentum seemingly behind him. His crew strutted back into the garage area Sunday night wearing tall, black cowboy hats, mementos from their celebration in Victory Lane. The message, intentional or not, was clear. The cavalry had arrived.

Meanwhile, Johnson's team loaded up their blue and silver No. 48 car, ready for the long trip home. Now it's on to Phoenix, where they won earlier this season. They surely sounded confident. But, perhaps for the first time ever, they looked something else -- vulnerable.

"The first three runs of the race [Sunday], we weren't competitive, especially that third run," Johnson said. "We messed up. We just didn't have it. That got us behind and we could never recover. I'm more frustrated in the fact we didn't do the job we needed to [Sunday] than the fact that I lost points. I mean, if I lose five or 10, 20 points at a time to those guys because they win and I finish fourth or fifth, you know, I can handle that. But to go out there and not perform, get caught a lap down, stuck a lap down all day, that's the part I'm frustrated with."

And that's the part we're not used to seeing. Next time Johnson gets himself entangled in the motorsports equivalent of a padlocked straightjacket, everyone will wonder whether NASCAR's Houdini can get out.

Post-Race Interview
• Video: Johnson talks about the Dickies 500

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.