Jimmie Johnson has taken a big step towards retaining the Nextel Cup title following his fourth straight win in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500k at the Phoenix International Raceway.
Having finally wrested the Chase for the Championship points lead away from Jeff Gordon last weekend in Texas Johnson and his Chad Knaus led #48 Hendrick Motorsports team hammered home their new found advantage with aplomb at the tricky one-mile dog-leg Phoenix oval. Having sealed his tenth win of the 2007 season and the 18th in total for the dominant Hendrick stable, Johnson can now look forward to the season finale in Homestead with a 86 point cushion over the man who has acted as a mentor to him since his arrival at Hendrick some seven years ago.
Johnson's run to victory lane was another perfect example of team and driver working in harmony to ensure that they had the best car on the track when it mattered for although polesitter Carl Edwards, second place starter Martin Truex Jr and Matt Kenseth all had the field covered at varying stages of the day, Johnson was simply untouchable once the pitstops and final set-up adjustments had been completed.
From sixth on the grid the defending series champion made minor progress in the opening laps, which were led with ease by the #99 Roush-Fenway Ford of Edwards over Truex Jr and Gordon. Through the first round of yellow flag pitstops on lap 25 Edwards continued to lead although during the first decent green flag run of the day between laps 28 and 85 Truex Jr remained in close company with Johnson now moving passed Gordon to take third.
![Jimmie Johnson - Kobalt/Lowe's Chevrolet [pic credit: GM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/300233.jpg)
