FORT WORTH, Texas -- It was like Harry Houdini finally getting himself stuck inside the padlocked straightjacket. It was like David Copperfield being unable to find the woman he had made disappear. It was like David Blaine needing help to break out of the block of ice, or tank of water, or whatever it is he's submerged himself in this time.

On Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson ran out of great escapes. The resident magician of the Sprint Cup circuit, who's used luck and timing and guile to avoid what could have been a pair of disastrous results already in this Chase, finally found himself inside a locked box from which he couldn't wriggle out. A setup that missed the mark, a race that featured only five cautions, a leader on a mission to put one opponent after another a lap down -- they all added up to an uncharacteristic 15th-place finish, Johnson's lowest in the NASCAR playoffs in nearly two years, and a 183-point advantage in the championship battle trimmed to 106.

"It's like getting kicked in the [groin] over and over," the two-time defending Cup champion said of his evening. "That sucked."

With good reason, given that he had won this event on the 1.5-mile track last year, and in practice and in qualifying prior to the Texas race looked nothing like he did Sunday. But perhaps a hiccup like this was inevitable, given the two Steve McQueen imitations he'd already pulled off within the past four weeks. There was Talladega, where he started at the rear of the field because his No. 48 team needed to check out some suspicious-looking engine parts on race morning. He lost the draft, and was passed by the leader within 25 laps. He eventually received the free pass, and finished ninth after several of his pursuers were caught up in a big wreck.

Then there was last Sunday at Atlanta, where Johnson was busted for a pit-road speeding infraction 30 laps into the event and forced to serve a pass-through penalty. He received another free pass and finished a quite astonishing second, a feat that left race winner and championship rival Carl Edwards shaking his head in disbelief. The resiliency paid off in the form of the biggest points advantage ever for a Chase driver, and legitimate discussion as to whether the Hendrick Motorsports driver could put it away one race early, at Phoenix International Raceway next week.

While there's still a remote chance of that -- 161 points are the most one driver can gain on another in a single event -- Edwards' victory at Texas, his second in a row and eighth on the season, almost assures that the championship will be decided amid the swampy surroundings of metro Miami on the final day of the season. Johnson has the lead, Edwards has the momentum. The race is on.

"Man, there's been a race the whole time. You just never know what's going to happen," said Johnson, vying to tie Cale Yarborough's 30-year-old record of three consecutive titles in NASCAR's premier series. "There's still 400 miles at Homestead and 300 at Phoenix. A lot can happen. Even at 183 points over Carl, I wasn't comfortable. I mean, I think it's 161 points you can get in a weekend. If I stuffed it in the fence the first run, I finish 43rd, they're right there. It's a race of 20 or 30 points at that point. Now that comfort margin has even closed up more. So it's still a race." (Continued)