Sprint Cup Series

Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 - Phoenix International Raceway - Avondale, AZ

With just two races to go, several drivers remain in contention to win the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship. Jimmie Johnson held a commanding 184- point lead prior to last Sunday's race at Texas, but after wrecking on the third lap, Johnson finished a season-worst 38th and saw his lead trimmed to 73 points over Mark Martin, who finished fourth.

The largest deficit ever overcome with two races remaining occurred in 1992 when Alan Kulwicki trailed by 85 points, but edged Bill Elliott for the Cup title by just 10 points, making it the second closest points battle in series history.

Right now, 178 points separate Johnson from fifth-place Tony Stewart. It's not likely but possible that Johnson could clinch the championship on Sunday at Phoenix. He would need to gain 122 points.

Regardless of any other drivers' performance, Johnson will capture his unprecedented fourth straight Cup title if he averages fourth in the next two races -- Phoenix and the November 22 season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"We're still in a great position," Johnson said. "We'll dust ourselves off. There's really not much we can do, reflect back on this, say it was a bad car, a bad pit stop or something I did wrong. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wrong place at the right time, depends where you want the points to go."

Johnson has won three of the last four races at Phoenix. One year ago, Johnson led 217 of 313 laps, but had to hold off Kurt Busch in a green-white-checkered finish. He left Phoenix with a 141-point advantage over Carl Edwards, who finished fourth. The following week, Johnson finished 15th at Homestead and easily claimed his third consecutive title.

In April, Martin spoiled Johnson's bid for a fourth win in a row at Phoenix. Despite leading a race-high 157 laps, Martin drove past Ryan Newman for the lead just after the final restart with six laps remaining. He then held off Tony Stewart at the finish to end his 97-race winless streak in the series. Johnson finished fourth.

"In Phoenix we led the most laps and won the last time there, and we have no reason to think we can't run strong at Homestead," Martin said. "There could still be swings in the points. There's two races left, and you never know what's going to happen."

The 50-year-old Martin has finished runner-up in points four times (1990, '94, '98 and 2002).

Jeff Gordon finished 13th at Texas and narrowed his gap to 112 points. Gordon, whose last win came in April at Texas, is looking to score his 83rd career victory, which would place him in a tie with Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time race winners list.

Kurt Busch kept his championship hopes alive with the victory at Texas. Busch moved up two spots to fourth in Chase points (-171). He won the first spring, night-time race at Phoenix in 2005.

"It's very competitive, no matter who is in the lead, who is behind trying to gather points," Busch said. "We hope it always goes to Homestead and there's five, six guys eligible, like the first year, 2004."

Busch fell way behind in points at Talladega, where he was caught up in the multi-car crash in the final laps.

"I'm kicking myself for what happened to us last week at Talladega," he said. "Running sixth place with a lap and a half to go, I put the car on the hauler at 30th. I didn't do my job there. We find ourselves too far behind, but we're still within a reasonable distance."

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