Kenseth's race, Johnson's title

Monday, 19th November 2007

Season-finale falls to Kenseth as Johnson cruises to second championship.

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Gordon knew he had to throw caution to the wind and simply go for the race victory but despite running in the top ten virtually all day he could rise no higher than third at any point. Gordon also had to contend with the fact that he was rarely more than a handful of places away from Johnson in the running order with the two teammates engaging in some respectful wheel to wheel action at varying points of the race as they swapped positions back and forth.

Following the seventh and final caution of the race a ten-lap sprint to the finish remained with Gordon taking the restart sixth and Johnson seventh. It was only now that Johnson appeared to visibly back off for as Gordon charged off after the leaders Johnson allowed the gap between the two to grow. As Gordon came up against a brick wall in the form of birthday boy Denny Hamlin in their battle for third Johnson settled in behind Martin Truex Jr in seventh place and simply cruised home to take the chequered flag.

Capping what has to be one of the most dominant team performances ever seen in the modern era the two Hendrick drivers finish the year with the two single best point tallies in the four year history of the Chase for the Championship. Johnson, whose final winning margin was 77 points, ends the year with ten wins including four in the ten-race Chase and just two finishes worse than seventh during the championship stretch. Gordon meanwhile who was the last driver to win back-to-back titles in 1997/98, finishes the year with a record breaking 21 top five and 30 top ten finishes from 36 starts. Despite winning twice during the Chase and never finishing lower than eleventh Gordon's search for a fifth Cup Series title will continue into 2008.

Virtually overshadowed amidst the championship hype was a compelling drive by Matt Kenseth who led 213 laps en route to his second win of the season, extending Jack Roush's unbeaten streak at the 1.5-mile variable banked Homestead oval to four years.