Johnson all but clinches another NASCAR title

Start chilling the champagne.

Jimmie Johnson all but locked up his third consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup title Sunday by winning a record third consecutive Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway in dominant fashion.

Carl Edwards, Johnson’s closest pursuer in the title hunt with one race remaining, doggedly climbed from a 15th starting spot to finish fourth in the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.

But it wasn’t enough to dent Johnson’s momentum. Johnson, 33, widened his championship lead over Edwards by 35 points to 141 heading into the season finale next Sunday at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.

“[I’m] just so, so happy to go out tonight and execute,” Johnson said.

“I was going for maximum points and I got it,” he said, adding that he wanted to “go down to Homestead and wrap this thing up.”

Johnson needs only to finish 36th or better at Homestead-Miami -- or 37th if he leads one lap, or 39th if he leads the most laps -- to win the title regardless of how well Edwards finishes.

“It’s possible, not probable” to catch Johnson, Edwards said. “They did their jobs tonight, we did the best we could.”

Kurt Busch was second in Sunday’s race for Penske Racing, followed by Jamie McMurray, Edwards’ teammate at Roush Fenway Racing.

Although Edwards is still mathematically alive for the championship, Johnson -- who grew up in El Cajon racing off-road vehicles before moving to the stock car ranks -- is about to cement his status as one of the best drivers in NASCAR’s modern era.

If he hoists the Cup in Florida, Johnson will join Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to win three consecutive championships in NASCAR’s 60-year history. Yarborough accomplished the feat 30 years ago.

And Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, would become the only crew chief to win three straight championships, because Yarborough had more than one crew chief.

Johnson not only became the first three-time winner at Phoenix International, he also was the first to win three consecutive races here since the track began hosting Cup races in 1988. The win was his seventh of the season.

Supported with flawless pit stops by his Hendrick Motorsports crew, Johnson never played it safe on the flat, one-mile PIR oval.

Starting on the pole on a blustery day, he led the most laps (217) in the 313-lap race, which ended under the lights after being interrupted twice by red-flag periods.

The race first was halted 23 minutes for a fast-moving thunderstorm, and again for 18 minutes to clean up an eight-car crash that included Casey Mears, David Gilliland and Scott Speed.

There were several other caution periods in the last 50 laps of the race, but on each restart Johnson refused to surrender his lead to Busch and the rest of the field.

Busch marveled at Johnson’s performance.

“We got beat by something special,” Busch said. “It’s a privilege to finish second to [Johnson] today. I was wanting to get next to him, I couldn’t quite get there. I couldn’t quite put enough pressure [on him].”

Neither could Edwards, who came to Arizona after having whittled down Johnson’s point lead with consecutive wins at Atlanta and Texas.

Edwards said his crew couldn’t get the handling of his No. 99 Ford in sync with the treacherous PIR surface.

“The track was real slippery, it was real hard to pass,” he said. “But I guarantee you that’s not going to change the way we do business. We’re going to go to Homestead with everything we’ve got.”

Another Edwards teammate, Greg Biffle, remained third in the Chase for the Cup, 203 points back, after finishing 11th.

Despite Johnson’s formidable point lead, his teammate Jeff Gordon showed Sunday that nothing is guaranteed.

Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, suffered a rare Hendrick engine failure and finished 41st. He’s still in danger of having his first season without a win since his rookie year in 1993.

“The kind of year we have had . . . it’s just pretty frustrating,” Gordon said.

But with Edwards and Biffle fading further in his rear-view mirror, “I’m really excited about next week,” Johnson said.

At Homestead-Miami, he said, “there’s no need to do anything stupid. At the same time, how cool would it be to win?”

France on economy

NASCAR Chairman Brian France said that despite the economic woes roiling the auto industry, his sport “is on very, very solid ground that transcends one manufacturer or another.”

Amid speculation that NASCAR could be imperiled if the financial condition of General Motors, Ford or Chrysler deteriorates further, or if any of those companies merge, France said “we’re not going to live or die” if that happens.

He and other NASCAR officials have talked to the automakers’ executives in recent weeks and were told that NASCAR is “one of the things that works best for them,” France said.

France also said NASCAR has talked to other auto manufacturers -- which he did not identify -- about possibly joining the series, but France acknowledged that “this is probably not the best time for them to put big [financial] bets down.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Standings

*--* RK DRIVER PTS BEHIND 1. Jimmie Johnson 6,561 -- 2. Carl Edwards 6,420 141 3. Greg Biffle 6,358 203 4. Jeff Burton 6,292 269 5. Kevin Harvick 6,233 328 6. Clint Bowyer 6,226 335 7. Jeff Gordon 6,151 410 8. Matt Kenseth 6,091 470 9. Denny Hamlin 6,090 471 10. D. Earnhardt Jr. 6,087 474 11. Kyle Busch 6,080 481 12. Tony Stewart 6,059 502 *--*

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Next week’s race

Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami

Sunday, 12:45 p.m., Channel 7