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.
The second caution period of what was a warm, sunny afternoon in the Arizona desert brought the next round of stops and for the first time so far the lead changed hands as Truex Jr's crew got their man out just in front of Edwards. Edwards fought back quickly though and the two exchanged the lead several times before, quite unexpectedly Edwards brought the #99 Ford onto pit road with potential engine bothers. A quick inspection under the hood confirmed the worse and the driver who led the first 87 laps of the race was suddenly heading to the garage.
Truex Jr wasn't allowed to stretch his new found advantage thanks to a plethora of caution periods including a hard crash into the inside wall off the turn two dog-leg for Dale Earnhardt Jr on lap 119 and a similar impact into the outside wall for Jacques Villeneuve on lap 137 after contact with Kasey Kahne. The demise of the former Indy 500 winner and F1 World Champion prompted most of the leaders onto pit road for the third time with Truex Jr emerging ninth behind the line of who chose to stay out.
Having suffered damage in his clash with Villeneuve Kahne then slapped the turn four wall hard on lap 147 to bring out the seventh caution of the afternoon but after the green flag waved again on lap 154 the race finally settled down again with Matt Kenseth, who inherited the lead when Truex Jr pitted, now pacing the field.
Kenseth soon started stretching his lead, mindful of the fact that he would have to pit for fuel and tyres long before the majority of others. Jeff Gordon was another driver in the same boat as Kenseth and he moved into second place while Johnson, who had stayed on the same strategy as the majority, ran in tenth place but was soon moving up.
With fresher tyres Johnson was soon harrying the rear bumper of Gordon's car and on lap 172 he completed an excellent drive up the top ten as he grabbed second place before Gordon had the chance to lead a lap and when Kenseth made a green flag pitstop on lap 190 it was Johnson who inherited first place and five precious championship bonus points. Gordon had to pit just shy of the 200 lap mark leaving Johnson in front until he made his way down pit road on lap 218.
