He suffered damage in one accident when Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton tangled, got nicked up in another when Busch and Joey Logano ricocheted off each other. A vibration stemming from a loose wheel sent him to the pits under green, and cost him a lap. As bad as last Sunday was for Jimmie Johnson -- and it was plenty bad, as his uncharacteristic 25th-place finish will attest -- it could have been much, much worse.

A result like that at New Hampshire Motor Speedway typically buries a driver in the Chase standings, forcing him to spend the next nine weeks looking up at competitors whom he hopes will experience misfortune of their own. And yet, once the smoke from Clint Bowyer's victory burnout cleared, it became evident that Johnson's quest for a fifth consecutive title in NASCAR's premier division was still very much alive. He has some work to do, certainly, but at 92 points off the lead he still lingers as a legitimate threat.

“

That's basically what you're looking to do is try to build up as much cushion ... so you can have a buffer in case you have a bad day.

”

-- KYLE BUSCH

No question, that's the case because so many other Chase drivers had trouble in the Granite State, and the widespread adversity -- the result of either accidents or fuel miscalculations -- mitigated the losses suffered by some championship-contending teams. But in Johnson's case, another factor played a part. Like a safety harness tethering a high-rise construction worker to an iron beam, all those bonus points he accumulated during NASCAR's regular season helped to arrest his fall.

You wonder why Cup Series drivers so covet the bonus points they receive for winning races over the first 26 weeks? Not necessarily because of the relatively small gaps they insert between the title contenders at the start of the Chase -- all 12 drivers this season, for instance, were within a very manageable 60 points of one another heading to New Hampshire. No, those bonus points mean the most when circumstances are at their worst, providing drivers like Johnson with something of a mathematical cushion when things go terribly wrong.

That was never more evident than Sunday at New Hampshire. There was Johnson suffering an altogether rotten afternoon, with two crashes and a pit mistake, and finishing a lap down. And there was Matt Kenseth, sent into the wall late by Brad Keselowski, yet staying on the lead lap and salvaging a finish two spots better than Johnson recorded. And yet Johnson heads to Dover this weekend 92 points behind leader Denny Hamlin, while Kenseth is 136 back and in last place among the 12 drivers in the championship field.

That's the power of bonus points. Johnson had 50 of them, one for each of his five race victories this season, and together they acted like a safety net strung beneath a trapeze artist. Kenseth, winless so far this season, had none, and cratered as a result. Now right from the opening race, the Roush Fenway driver faces a mentally crushing triple-digit deficit of the kind that can bury a team for the entire duration of the Chase.

Johnson, by contrast, faces a daunting but more manageable situation, even though he had a worse day on the race track. The bonus points he gained for the races he won during the regular season are the reason why. (Continued)