Jimmie Johnson completed perhaps the comeback of the season when he finally clinched NASCAR's Nextel Cup title on Sunday night in Miami, ending the season as he had started it - at the top of the points.

The Daytona 500 winner needed only twelfth or better in the season finale at Homestead, having retaken the points lead three races from the post, and, although he trailed closest rival Matt Kenseth at the flag, ninth on the road was enough to see him standing on the roof of his #48 Lowe's Chevrolet and hoisting Nextel Cup above his head.

"This is everything I ever wanted," said Johnson, shortly before accepting a cheque for $6.5million, "This is the most amazing day of my life."

The Californian admitted that the last few weeks have been tense, the pressure increasing as he gradually hauled himself back from a nightmare start to the Chase for the Championship which defines the title race.

An accident at the first of the ten 'play-off' events left Johnson trailing towards the foot of the top ten, a situation not helped by further poor results in the next few rounds, which left him 256 points off the lead. However, a string of top two finishes, punctuated by a win in the Subway 500 at Martinsville, propelled him from bottom to top in short order, leaving him in a position to claim the crown by 56 points over Ford rival Kenseth.

Needing to only finish twelfth or better wasn't going to be easy though, and Johnson suffered debris damage early on at Homestead after Kurt Busch hit the wall. A slow pit-stop - after a lug nut fell off the wheel - delayed him further and repeated cautions, followed by a red flag, only heightened the tension before a green-white-chequered finish finally produced the ninth place, behind winner Greg Biffle, gave the Hendrick Motorsport pilot reason to finally celebrate.

"It's been hell, there's no way around it," Johnson said of the anticipation, "We've been through the ups and downs of the seasons with the disappointment of not winning the championship and all the different things that really try relationships in our sport. But we've stuck by each other's sides and found a way through it.

"Believe me, there were times when it was tough to work through it, but Rick [Hendrick] is so good at that and he is a great people person. That's one of his biggest assets. Through the discussions he has had with me and Chad, we were really able to focus on the right things and take a lot of the pressure we're putting on ourselves
off of us and have a great season.

"I think we knew in our hearts that we could do it all along. We just needed some luck."

Johnson’s self-proclaimed 'dream season' - in which he added Brickyard 400 victory at Indianapolis to the Daytona triumph and three other wins - wasn't without adversity, as he and the Hendrick Motorsports team raced the first four races without crew chief and team architect Chad Knaus, who was suspended for technical irregularities. Darian Grubb stepped in, helping the #48 to post 24 top ten finishes – the most of any driver - during the year.

"It was a year when everybody came into their own," Knaus admitted, "Jimmie has matured an awful lot this year - especially in the last ten races. It's been a growing
season for us - and I think we'll have many more seasons like this."