Nascar Tickets - Jimmie Johnson Steals The Show At Martinsville

Denny Hamlin took the spotlight in late October as his No

. 11 FedEx Toyota crossed the finish line first at Martinsville, but really the whole day was still all about Jimmie Johnson, the second-place finisher of the day. Despite taking the backseat to Hamlin in the Martinsville race, Jimmie Johnson still maintained his first-place standing in the Chase, increasing his lead by 118 points over second-place competitor Mark Martin with four races left to go.

Now that Johnson is so far ahead of the rest, NASCAR fans are worried that he will solidify his win in the Sprint Cup Series early this season - a first in Chase history. The Sprint Cup Series has four more races to run this year (at Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead, respectively,) and with Johnson so far in the lead, the Homestead race on Nov. 22 might not even count for competition if he clinches the lead before then.

In fact, some NASCAR drivers are even so certain Jimmie Johnson will win the title this year they've already thrown in the towel. Juan Pablo Montoya, though still continuing to race his hardest, acknowledged that fact over the weekend, saying, "The way he's running, you've probably got to win the next [four] races and he's got to have some bad luck. I'm too far [200 points back]. It doesn't matter. You've got to say the 48 team is doing an amazing job and they deserve everything they're getting right now." This, of course, is a huge nod to Jimmie Johnson, who is all but expected to clinch the Sprint Cup title over the next few weeks.

As of the Martinsville race on Oct. 25, Jimmie Johnson has 6098 points, enough to put him 118 points ahead of second place, which now is Mark Martin. Jeff Gordon is currently in third place 150 points down from first, while Tony Stewart is in fourth and Juan Pablo Montoya sits in fifth place. The only thing that could now shuffle the standings for the rest of the Chase is the dangerous race known as Talladega. 'Dega is one of the most unpredictable races on the Sprint Car circuit (remember earlier this season when Carl Edwards crashed at this racetrack and fans in the grandstands even got hurt during the incident?), and it's going to take Jimmie Johnson losing control at Talladega on Nov. 1 to keep the Chase alive.

The next two races on the Sprint Cup schedule are Texas and Phoenix, two of Johnson's best tracks, and if he fares well at Talladega beforehand, Johnson could come out of the next three races with a 162-point lead over the pack, securing his victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2009 without even having to race hard at Homestead, the last race of the season.

Will Jimmie Johnson be named champion of the 2009 Sprint Cup Series before the season even ends, or will he make it a down-to-the-wire finish in true NASCAR form as the Chase winds down? It's all to come this fall as the NASCAR season comes to a close, so get NASCAR tickets to one of the final races and watch history in the making as Jimmie Johnson strives for his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup championship!

by: Brent Warnken

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