Jimmie Johnson has been crowned the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion after a seventh place finish in Sunday's season ending Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.
Johnson went into the 36th and final round of the gruelling Nextel Cup schedule with an 86 point lead over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and mentor Jeff Gordon but while he was unable to extend his race winning streak to five in Sunday's 267-lap race the California based driver did more than enough to retain the title he first won in 2006.
Even though Johnson could have mathematically lost the championship as late as lap 264 such is the nature of the NASCAR scoring system the eventual title outcome rarely looked in doubt from the drop of the green flag despite the best efforts of Gordon and his quadruple championship winning #24 team.
Starting the race only needing to finish 18th to clinch the crown Johnson was able to lead the first lap and thus gained an extra five bonus points, meaning he could afford to slip to 19th and still take the title. As the race wore on it became apparent that Gordon wouldn't lead the most laps, reducing his potential points haul by five more markers and giving Johnson a 21st place safety net as the race entered its closing stages.
As has so often been the case this season Johnson narrowly avoided disaster on several occasions, as all champions must do from time to time. On lap 50 the #48 Chevrolet was caught on pit road by a caution but crucially Gordon was also pitting and therefore the drop to 18th was softened by the fact that Gordon was one place further back. Some 30 laps later Johnson was again saved from a potential pit fall when eagle eyed crew chief Chad Knaus spotted a loose lug nut during a round of safety car pitstops. Although Johnson lost half a dozen places while the nut was tightened, the penalty could have been far worse if Johnson had lost a wheel following the restart.
![Jimmie Johnson - Lowe's Chevrolet [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/279398.jpg)
