Only question remaining is, how far can Johnson go? (cont'd)

"I don't know if we'll win another championship. I have no idea what next year will bring, what the challenges will bring as the years go by. There are no guarantees for that. I feel in my heart we'll be competitive, but at some point in time, we won't be that team. We are going to do everything we can to make sure we are that team, but you just never know what the future holds. So yes, I would love to win seven, eight championships. But me saying that is like [Jeff] Gordon saying yeah, he wants to win seven. Of course we want to do that. Is it a realistic thing at this point at time, with the level of competition we have in the sport? I don't know. But we sure as hell are going to try."

“

I think you get excited and you want to continue it on. It's easy to feed off that fire once it starts to develop. But the thing is, this sport is so, so difficult. It's a grueling, non-forgiving sport, it really is.

”

-- CHAD KNAUS

The frightening thing for the rest of the field is just how effortless Johnson and his No. 48 team make all of this seem. It's not, of course -- Knaus, for instance, will be back in the office Tuesday, overseeing cars for the 2010 Daytona, California, and Las Vegas races that are already in the pipeline. But let's face it; for Johnson and the No. 48 year, winning championships gets statistically easier with every passing year. But for a bobble by Sam Hornish two weeks ago at Texas, Johnson would have had this thing wrapped up before the circuit even reached South Florida. As it stands, he still won by his widest margin ever, a 141-point advantage on Mark Martin.

"I managed the pressure much better this year," Johnson said. "That's the most relaxed I've been in the race car. This week, the nights, all of that stuff has been very, very good. There was a lot of pressure, and I'm definitely relieved the pressure is off, and I feel so light all of the sudden. But I think I've done a very good job this year of understanding the Chase, understanding the pressure, understanding what I'm capable of, what this team is capable of, what to focus on. And I certainly hope now that I've got a good comfortable understanding, and so does the team, that we can operate in this environment and continue it the next few years."

There's a warning shot for you. Not that there weren't some tense moments -- surely there were, particularly the crash at Texas that sliced 111 points off Johnson's lead and cast a runaway championship race suddenly into doubt. And there were a few hold-your-breath instants Sunday, like when Juan Montoya thought he was clear and came up the race track, forcing Johnson to back off. Or when Johnson saw Hornish next to him on a restart, and had bad flashbacks. Or when Clint Bowyer got a little too close through the corner, sending Johnson into a rare tantrum on the radio.

"I definitely was a little revved up [Sunday]," Johnson conceded.

But ultimately, the outcome was never in question. Martin never had the car to mount a serious challenge, and even if he had, Johnson never gave him the opportunity. And so Johnson cruised to another title, and his fellow competitors were left wondering what they needed to do to catch him. There were no simple answers. (Continued)