One of the main off-track storylines of the eighth weekend in the 2007 Chase for the Championship was whether Texas Motor Speedway would be able to swap their early November race date for one earlier in the Chase to avoid a clash with the opening weekend of hunting season. Numerous empty seats in the 190,000 strong grandstands attested to the popularity of deer stalking in Texas but the fans that were in attendance were still able to watch some 190mph stalking as Jimmie Johnson successfully hunted down his prey to win the Dickies 500, his third straight Nextel Cup Series victory and his first at the super-fast 1.5-mile Texas oval.
Johnson's well-timed run to the front of the pack in a caution filled 334-lap race means that the driver of the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet turns a nine point deficit into a 30 point advantage over his teammate Jeff Gordon with just two races remaining while the continuing dominance of the two HMS drivers resulted in no less than half of the 12 title contenders being officially eliminated from overall contention at the fall of the chequered flag.
Having stamped his authority on the Martinsville race two weeks ago Johnson lucked in to last weekend's triumph in Atlanta amidst a crazy set of late race events. Sunday's triumph certainly owed something to luck but the combination of a superb final pitstop from the crew and a great late surge from the driver means that this win will go down as one earned more by judgement than luck.
Johnson was by no means the dominant force in a race that began on a beautiful late Texas afternoon and ended in the cool, crisp night breeze. The #48 Chevy led the field for just eight laps all day and spent the first 250 laps mostly out of the top five as fortunes swung back and forth between the #5 Hendrick Chevrolet of Kyle Busch and the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet of Denny Hamlin.
![Jimmie Johnson - Kobalt/Lowe's Chevrolet [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/300249.jpg)
