AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Jimmie Johnson was done.

The longest uninterrupted title reign in NASCAR history was ending, right before our eyes, on a brilliant afternoon at Phoenix International Raceway. The No. 48 car is historically as much a predator in the Estrella Mountains as the rattlesnakes and coyotes that inhabit the region, but on Sunday it was being eaten alive. Crew chief Chad Knaus urged more speed from a driver and a vehicle that had no more to give. Even when Johnson was fast, Denny Hamlin was faster -- to the point where the four-time champion was once buried 78 points in the standings, and looking every bit like a champion about to relinquish his throne.

“

I hope he has a hell of a time sleeping all week. I hope he hears every rattle in that car, and everything you could imagine at Homestead.

”

-- JIMMIE JOHNSON

"Come on, buddy. You can find us something. Find us a little something," Knaus exhorted over the radio, a hint of desperation in his voice. But there wasn't anything to find. Johnson slipped one position in the running order, then another, while Hamlin picked up bonus points for leading the most laps in the race. "Believe me, I'm trying," Johnson told his crew, but there was only so much he could do. The No. 48 car just didn't have enough. Hamlin had too much. With each circuit around the desert oval, a dominant, four-year run atop NASCAR's premier series came a little closer to an end.

And then it all changed. And somehow, some way, Johnson heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway not only alive in this championship hunt, but feeling a fifth consecutive title is there for the taking. Johnson's ability to save fuel over the final 77 laps saved his season, and pulled him to within a miraculous 15 points of Hamlin after the driver of the No. 11 car was forced to pit late for gas. Now the season-ending rumble in South Florida looms, with Hamlin and Johnson involved in the closest two-man battle in the Chase to this point, and third-place Kevin Harvick still only 31 points back of Johnson.

"I know what my mind-set is," Johnson said after a fifth-place finish that ultimately cut 18 points off a deficit that seemed ready to balloon out of control. "I hope the pressure of us being on his heels works on his mind over the course of the week, he and his crew. His guys better be on their toes. Not only do they have the 48 to worry about, but also the 29 [team of Harvick] in a one-race, winner-take-all championship."

The fact that there's even still a race at all is just astounding, given how Hamlin was running away with things Sunday until the fuel-mileage scenario intervened. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was beating Johnson at his own game, following up his victory last week at Texas Motor Speedway by placing the heel of his boot on the competition's throat in Arizona. Hamlin led the race almost at will. Johnson's car simply couldn't challenge, and when Harvick had to serve a penalty for a missing lug nut, the result appeared a foregone conclusion. At one point Hamlin led Johnson by 78 points and Harvick by 130, and the only remaining question seemed to be how big the new champion's party would be on Miami Beach.

Then Robby Gordon spun, ending a 118-lap green-flag run. "Let's try to save fuel," Knaus told Johnson over the radio. In the ensuing laps the crew chief urged his driver to turn off his fans, to avoid using the brake, to back off and be smooth on the throttle. Johnson did, and had enough to hold on over a race-ending green-flag run that turned out to be 73 laps. Hamlin, told by crew chief Mike Ford that he was 10 to 12 laps short, pitted in a move that led to an eventual 12th-place finish, and a massive swing in the points. (Continued)