Superman will fly into Homestead a champion

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- How could we be so foolish?

One little slipup at Texas that wasn't even his fault, and some of us actually believed for a few seconds that Mark Martin had a chance of at least taking this Chase for the Sprint Cup down to the wire with three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.

The Closer

Pardon the baseball term, but Johnson may be the best closer in NASCAR history.

• Victory Lane: Phoenix
• No. 48 bounces back
• Race Rewind
• Texas wreck
• Johnson rolls at PIR

Well, if you believed it then, there is nothing that says you can't keep on dreaming. In the aftermath of Johnson's dominant victory Sunday in the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, it's over. But if you want to keep on fooling yourself into thinking Martin has a chance, NASCAR did make an announcement following the race.

Martin, who finished fourth in Sunday's race, now trails Johnson by 108 points heading into the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday. He was down only 73 prior to the Phoenix race.

But get this: just after a NASCAR official announced that all Johnson has to do in Homestead to win his unprecedented fourth consecutive championship is start and finish 25th or better -- regardless of whatever Martin does -- it also was announced that history shows this deficit can be overcome. Already nine times in his career Martin has beaten Johnson by 108 points or more in a single race, including at Texas two weeks ago and at Homestead in the 2005 season finale.

Nine times out of 266.

If a Major League baseball batter had nine hits in 266 at-bats, his batting average would be .034. He wouldn't be a Major Leaguer any longer.

No, this time Johnson cannot fool us with his talk and his 38th-place Texas finish. It's over.

The proof

You want to know how we know? How we're absolutely certain now that it is indeed over?

Because, if you'll pardon another baseball term, Johnson is a closer. Maybe the best closer in NASCAR history -- and if not, certainly one of the top five.

Sure he had a rare bobble with the debacle in Texas, but that was an aberration of the rarest form. Not only that, but it merely served to sharpen the senses of Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus and the entire No. 48 team.

"I was really proud to show up the way that we did this weekend," Knaus said. "It would have been easy for us to come in here with our tails between our legs, really bow out, try to pull a conservative race, hang out, finish right behind the 5 [of Martin], whatever the situation may have been.

"We didn't want to do that. We wanted to come in here confident and go after it and attack."

They not only attack, they destroyed and demoralized their opponents. Johnson led 238 of the 312 laps that comprised the race. No one else led more than 69.

"We knew this was going to be a great track for the 5 and also for the 24 [of Jeff Gordon, yet another Hendrick Motorsports teammate]. The only way to get any points on 'em would be to lead the most laps and win the race," Johnson said.

"We did it. I'm very proud of the fact we looked each other in the eyes, knew what we had to do, and delivered. It wasn't easy. You know, there was a lot of pressure on us to do this. All week long, thinking about this race, wondering if we could come back and step up like we did, there were just a lot of thoughts that go through the brain. I'm very, very proud of how we delivered and rose to the occasion." (Continued)