HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- By now, they could do everything by heart -- crowding upon the big stage parked along the start-finish line at Homestead-Miami Speedway, raising the sterling silver trophy amid a storm of fireworks, flashbulbs and confetti, hoisting a banner bearing their car number to the top of a flagpole silhouetted against the South Florida night. Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team have proven so adept at winning championships on NASCAR's premier series, that the practice of celebration must be engrained deep in their muscle memory.

The familiar routine unfolded once again Sunday, when Johnson finished 15th in the Sprint Cup season finale to claim his third consecutive series championship by 69 points over Carl Edwards. He's tied Cale Yarborough, the old bulldog of a driver from South Carolina, and the only other man in the 60-year history of NASCAR to accomplish the feat. His car owner and teammate, four-time champion Jeff Gordon, is up next. And from there, the targets only get bigger.

Jimmie Johnson is 33, and at his competitive peak. He has three championships in seven full seasons on the Cup circuit. He's never finished lower than fifth in the standings. He's backed by a team that's won eight titles in the past 13 seasons, and a crew chief with a reputation as the most imaginative in the garage area. As things stand today, with the brake dust still settling over the swamps and palmetto nurseries of this Everglades outpost, there's no reason to believe that a once-unheralded driver who sprung from desert buggies and off-road trucks can't challenge the most mythical record in NASCAR, and perhaps take his place alongside the Intimidator and the King.

"Oh, God. Don't start with that," moaned Gordon, who heard such talk himself after winning his fourth title in 2001. "As soon as you start chiming about that to them, like you did me, that's when it's all going to end."

Yet after Sunday, only three drivers have won more championships than Johnson -- Gordon, with four, and Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, with seven each. With Petty's mark of 200 career race victories rendered untouchable by the limitations of the current Sprint Cup schedule, seven titles stands as the one seemingly obtainable mark for stratospheric greatness. Only two men have ever achieved it. But with frightening ease, Johnson has just taken co-ownership of a record previously held by one man, in the process doing something that neither Earnhardt nor Petty could ever do.

"You think about the New York Yankees, you think about championships. And when you think about Jimmie Johnson's name, you have to think about championships," former series champ Dale Jarrett said. "I mean, he's never finished out of the top five. It's just amazing what he's accomplished in a short period of time here. Everybody wants to make the comparisons to the different eras and what Cale did. I think more than comparing it to what Cale did, let's look at the people in our sport that we consider the greatest, and that's Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with seven championships, and neither one of them ever won three in a row. It's pretty amazing what Jimmie and his team have accomplished here, and we need to give credit where credit is due and deserved."

Enough of the complaints about his personality, or perceived lack thereof. Enough of this canard that he's a product of the Chase. Enough of the conspiracy theories that crew chief Chad Knaus, finishing a season that's been free of suspension, has the No. 48 car cheated up to win. As one of only eight drivers to win three or more titles on NASCAR's premier series -- under various points systems, dating back to Lee Petty's first crown in 1954 -- Johnson's achievements of the past three years have clearly put him in the conversation when debating the best ever. The only remaining question is, how high can he go?

“

With the team that we've got, the resources we've got with Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet behind us, we can definitely go and bid for four championships in a row.

”

CHAD KNAUS

"I don't know how you can doubt the talent that he's got and the competitiveness of the sport and the things he does in the car, the coolness and the communication and the way he describes the chassis and works with Chad," car owner Rick Hendrick said. "I don't think he's gotten the respect he's deserved, and I think this is kind of serving notice, what he's really done to win three of these in a row. When you go back to '04, and since he's stepped into the series, what he's accomplished, his record speaks for itself. I'm just glad I don't have to race against him."

Knaus, like Hendrick admittedly biased, was more succinct. "In my eyes, he's the best there's ever been," said the crew chief, a member of Gordon's team during the Rainbow Warrior glory years. "People are going to say, 'Oh, Richard Petty is, or Jeff Gordon is, Dale Earnhardt and all those guys.' But with the competition level the way it is today, with what you've got to do working in racing day in and day out, no time to take any time off, in my mind he is the best."

Admittedly, seven championships in this generation of NASCAR, where periods of dominance can wax and wane with astonishing swiftness -- remember when nobody could beat Dale Earnhardt Inc. on restrictor-plate tracks? -- may be more a fantasy than a realistic goal. Evolving rules, technology, and team alignments serve as inherent deterrents to the kind of prolonged supremacy Johnson and the No. 48 team have shown since they first broke through in 2006. In a high-stress, high-reward sport, it's only natural for relationships to be tested or one member of an organization to want to strike out on his own. Gordon has been there; his era of invincibility, three championships between 1995 and '98, was curtailed when crew chief Ray Evernham left to become a team owner.

"Egos get in the way. A lot of things can go wrong," Gordon said. "I've always said I watched this 48 team, how fast they were competitive, how quick they were able to be a championship contender. And even though they did lose a couple, when they won that first one, because of how strong they were leading up to that one, I knew these guys were going to be tough to beat for a championship for a long time. They know how to win the championship, they know how to win races. They're the complete package, and Hendrick Motorsports plays a big part in that. In Jimmie's ability and Chad's communication and his skills, they have it all. As long as they continue to work together the way they are -- and not every day is pretty -- but they know how to get the results at the end of the day. If they don't let anything get in the way of that, there is no telling how many they can win."

Another potential hurdle is complacency, something that on Sunday night was hard to find. Johnson sounded ready to start the Daytona 500 on Monday. Knaus, who said on Friday that he thought the 48 bunch had "at least three, four years left in us as a team," seemed ready to chase another ring.

"Yeah, we want four [consecutive titles]. Why not? That's why we're here," the crew chief said. "With the team that we've got, the resources we've got with Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet behind us, we can definitely go and bid for four championships in a row. I mean, why wouldn't we? Give me a reason not to. I think that's the mentality we have to have."

To Hendrick, that's a good sign. "Sometimes when guys get it one time or twice, they maybe back off a little bit," he said. "They've gotten there. This [third title] makes these guys hungrier. The chemistry between them, and the respect they have, I hope there's nothing in the future that will separate them. As long as they have this burning desire with their talent, they'll be a force every single year."

This third championship campaign was not without its trials, chief among them a slow start that left Johnson and Knaus searching early in the season. They've already endured a near-breakup, their disparate personalities clashing after a fifth-place showing in points in 2005. But while at their peak, they've yet to face the kind of moment that will stretch bonds to their limit. Inevitably, Gordon believes, that moment will come. How they weather it may determine how much further they can go.

"You're going to have some down years," Gordon said. "You're going to have some years that don't go your way. The 48 team hasn't really seen that yet. This year was probably the biggest challenge I've seen them have since they got into the series. The way the season started for them, that's what makes it so impressive, what they did this year. But when they go through that tough year -- if they ever do -- that's going to show what they're really made of. I think challenges are good for them, because it really does show how bad they want it. Whether they can stick together and continue to do what they've been doing remains to be seen. But right now I can't see anybody beating them."

Edwards, certainly, will try. "I guess Jimmie has a chance to make some real history next season," said the Roush Fenway driver, who didn't win the championship but did win his series-leading ninth race. "I would be glad to be the guy who denied him that chance."

He'd be succeeding where many others have failed. This weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway brought Jimmie Johnson a third championship. Another would tie Gordon, and perhaps bring an unprecedented four in a row. Seven, the number of kings and intimidators, remains out there in the ether, waiting to be challenged just as Yarborough's record once was. Listening to Johnson talk Sunday evening, nothing seems out of bounds.

"It's not that we're chasing a number," Johnson said. "It's that we know what we're capable of."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

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