Texas brought Johnson closer to field with two left

Talladega came a week later for Jimmie Johnson. After surviving Talladega and finishing sixth, Johnson crashed early at Texas and finished 38th. Houston, we have a race. Maybe. Here's the breakdown of the top 12 after Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway.

1. Jimmie Johnson, 6,297 points -- Here's the way I see it: If Johnson had crashed and finished 38th at Talladega and then come back with a sixth-place finish at Texas, everyone would have said, "There's that 48 team showing how great it is at bouncing back. That 73-point lead is going to be hard to overcome." Instead, it was reversed, and now Johnson's lead is "only 73 points." Count me among those who think Johnson still has a meaty lead with two races to go.

By the Numbers

Phoenix has been kind to the point leaders in the Chase era. In the past five seasons, the leader heading into Phoenix not only kept their lead leaving Arizona, but went on to win the championship.

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2. Mark Martin, 6,224 -- Hooray for Martin. He seized the day with a fourth-place finish. Martin had to have a top-five finish after Johnson went out early, and the No. 5 team came through. Johnson is not going to cough up 111 points every race, but when it happens, you have to pounce. And Martin did.

3. Jeff Gordon, 6,185 -- Then there was Gordon. He needed a Martin-like finish and instead came home 13th, leaving a lot of points on the table. His outside shot at a fifth title fizzled.

4. Kurt Busch, 6,126 -- The No. 2 team's decision to pit on Lap 271, two laps after Kurt's brother, Kyle, pitted, was the difference. Kurt won his 20th Cup race by 25.686 seconds, the largest margin of victory since NASCAR began using electronic scoring in May 1993.

5. Tony Stewart, 6,119 -- Stewart picked up 101 points on Johnson with his sixth-place finish, but that still leaves him 178 back. He is 58 points ahead of sixth-place Juan Montoya, and a top-five finish would give Stewart the fifth of his 11-year Cup career.

6. Juan Montoya, 6,061 -- A wreck on Lap 174 sent Montoya to the garage and he emerged with enough time to finish 37th, his worst finish of the year. Last season he finished worse than 37th eight times.

7. Greg Biffle, 6,050 -- How inconsistent has Biffle been this season? Biffle finished eighth for his first back-to-back top-10 finishes since late August-early September and only his second since April.

8. Denny Hamlin, 5,975 -- Sometimes you do everything right and fate deals you a bad finish. Or, you do everything wrong and finish second. That's what happened Sunday for the No. 11 team. Poor pit stops coupled with Hamlin's brush with the wall set the No. 11 way back. But it also meant Hamlin would have gas left at the end. And, shazam! Almost 26 seconds after Busch takes the checkered flag, here comes Hamlin with his fourth second-place finish of the year.

9. Ryan Newman, 5,973 -- Newman finished 12th, leaving him at 15 top-10s this season. One more top-10 will give him his most in a season since 2005 when he had 16.

10. Kasey Kahne, 5,898 -- Kahne continued his odd trend of finishing in the top eight or in the 30s by finishing 33rd, his fourth Chase finish in the back of the field. This week's stop is at Phoenix, where, if you are wondering, Kahne finished 13th earlier this year.

11. Carl Edwards, 5,857 -- Edwards was a victim of Montoya and was saddled with his second DNF of the Chase and third of the season. He finished 39th, and his average finish is now 15.3. It was 9.5 last year.

12. Brian Vickers, 5,777 -- Vickers finished 26th and is still looking for his first top-10 of the Chase. He didn't finish well last year, either, failing to score a top 10 in his final 13 races. In fact, Vickers' last top-10 in the final 10 races of the season was Oct. 28, 2007, when he finished 10th at Atlanta.

TOP FIVE AND FIVE TO WATCH

Here's a look at the top five drivers along with five winless drivers to watch in Sunday's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. All statistical references are for Cup races at Phoenix unless otherwise indicated. Driver Rating is based on the past nine races at the track.

Top five ...

1. Jimmie Johnson, 120.0 Driver Rating -- Johnson is expected to bounce back after last week's disaster at Texas. Six of his seven top-fives in 12 starts have come in the past six races, three of which were wins. His average finish at Phoenix is 5.4, so if Johnson runs to form, he should be OK.

Busch

2. Mark Martin, 102.2 -- Martin won in April, snapping Johnson's three-race winning streak at the track. Understatement: Martin needs to win again Sunday. Reality: Martin needs to finish as far ahead of Johnson as possible; so, if Johnson should falter again, Martin's strategy likely would change -- just as it did at Texas when he didn't gamble on fuel mileage (remember Michigan?) and finished fourth. Martin is 73 points back.

3. Jeff Gordon, 99.5 -- Gordon is 112 points back and a long, long, long shot. But ... Martin picked up 111 points on Johnson last week, so why give up hope? Gordon has one win and 15 top-10s in 21 starts. The win came in April 2007, but he has a 22.3 average finish in four races since.

4. Kurt Busch, 102.4 -- Busch has a win in 13 starts, and two of his four top-fives have come in the past two races. He routinely runs toward the front, and his 571 laps led are second only to Martin's 833 among active drivers -- and Martin has started 12 more races than Busch at PIR.

5. Tony Stewart, 101.3 -- Stewart's only win came in his first start in 1999. He has seven top-fives in 15 starts, including finishing second to Martin in April.

Five winless drivers to watch ...

6. Juan Montoya, 68.7 -- Montoya has been close to a win this year, especially at Indy. Unlike the others, though, if he doesn't win Sunday or in next week's finale, he will not go into the offseason with disappointment. This has been a breakout season for Montoya. His best finish in five starts at PIR is 16th.

Harvick

7. Greg Biffle, 101.1 -- Yes, Biffle made the Chase, but after his big finish in 2008 (winning the first two Chase races and finishing third in the standings), much more was expected of the No. 16 team. It has flirted with wins all season to no avail. Biffle finished fifth in April, one of his four top-10s in 11 starts.

9. Ryan Newman, 84.1 -- It appeared Newman might break through with a win in the first third of the season, but then his season turned mediocre and he struggled to make the Chase. He has only five top-fives in 2009, and the last one was in Race 14 (at Pocono) in June. He has more DNFs (four) than top-10s (three) at Phoenix.

11. Carl Edwards, 101.9 -- A win now is a consolation prize for Edwards, who was expected to challenge Johnson for the championship after almost unseating him last season. Edwards had nine wins in 2008, including three in the Chase. This season has been so barren, top-fives are reason to celebrate, and he hasn't had one of those in three months. He has seven top-10s in 10 starts at Phoenix, including four top-fives.

19. Kevin Harvick, 99.0 -- It has been 105 races since Harvick's last win, the longest drought of this group. Harvick finished fifth last week, his fourth top five of the season. Phoenix is one of Harvick's better tracks. He is from Southern California and had a lot of experience at PIR before moving into the Cup Series. He has two wins and six top-10s in 13 Cup starts at PIR and also has one win and 10 top-fives in Nationwide and three wins in the Truck Series.