Championship leader Jimmie Johnson showed his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon that he not only has the fastest car in qualifying trim this weekend at the Homestead-Miami Speedway but he also has the fastest in race trim as he led the final Happy Hour practice session of the year on Saturday.

Johnson's best time of 31.101secs was more than two tenths of a second quicker than Gordon's fastest, which was good enough for fourth place overall as the two title contenders, and the 41 other teams in attendance, made their final preparations for Sunday's season-ending Ford 400.

Although Johnson goes into Sunday's race only needing to finish 18th or better in order to retain the Nextel Cup title he won in 2006 he shows no signs of just wanting to cruise around and collect the trophy and continues to exert maximum possible pressure on Gordon and his multiple-title winning #24 team.

When the green flag drops on Sunday there will be 41 other drivers vying for the race win, immune to the duel between Johnson and Gordon and of the 'bit part players' it was 2004 champion Kurt Busch who was best placed with second fastest time in the #2 Penske Racing Dodge.

Third fastest was surprise package Robby Gordon, one of 27 drivers in the starting field who have yet to win a race this year while Jeff Burton completed the top five, behind Gordon.

Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, David Stremme and Mark Martin completed the top ten with Newman, Stremme and Martin all joining Robby Gordon on the winless list so far this year.

Paul Menard was the best placed rookie of the year candidate in an impressive eleventh place just ahead of his DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr, whose replacement transmission gave him no further problems.

267 laps of Homestead's fast, 1.5-mile oval now stands between Johnson and his second Nextel Cup title.