Chase Update: Sailing To a Title

By Adam Ruggiero
Love of Sports Correspondent

Jimmie Johnson may as well be piloting a Chevy schooner, as he will again be the beneficiary of a weekend deluge. For the third-straight week, and a record-breaking 10th time this season, NASCAR Cup qualifying was rained out and the field will be set by owner points.

That means for the third time this Chase, Johnson will lead his 43 competitors to green Sunday at the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. For the third time, Johnson will almost certainly earn five bonus points for leading a lap. And it’s beginning to look like, for the third time in a row, Johnson will emerge as NASCAR’s champion at the end of the year. With a mere four races to go, Johnson maintains a seemingly insurmountable 149 point lead on second-place driver, Greg Biffle.

Johnson and crew never cracked the Top 2 during NASCAR’s “regular season” (the first 26 races), but have managed to be on top the last four weeks of the Chase, increasing their lead after each race. Such dominance is to be expected from a driver with two Chase wins in the first six races and no finishes outside the Top 10. Being the two-time defending series champ doesn’t hurt either.

Johnson goes into Atlanta with three career wins there, as well as eight Top 5s and nine Top 10s in 14 starts. This will be his first crack at the pole on the 1.5-miler, which sees speeds approaching 200 mph.

As Johnson and the No.48 Lowe’s team work to take another step toward matching Cale Yarborough’s three-pete championship run from 1976-78, the standings look like this:

Updated Chase Standings

1. Jimmie Johnson (6,073)

2. Greg Biffle (-149)

3. Jeff Burton (-152)

4. Carl Edwards (-198)

5. Clint Bowyer (-242)

6. Kevin Harvick (-256)

7. Jeff Gordon (-275)

8. Tony Stewart (-338)

9. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (-379)

10. Matt Kenseth (-408)

12. Kyle Busch (-445)