He’s Not Checking Mirror

Nearing the finish line in the race for the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship, Carl Edwards has vaulted into the spotlight.

But Tony Stewart, pursuing his second series championship in four seasons, still sits in the driver’s seat. And Jimmie Johnson, seeking his first series title after two consecutive runner-up finishes, still is best positioned to overtake Stewart.

Though Edwards won the last two races, punctuating his victories by back-flipping from his No. 99 Office Depot Ford, Stewart leads the Chase for the Nextel Cup going into today’s Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, the 35th race in the 36-race series and ninth in the 10-race Chase.

Johnson trails Stewart by 38 points in the Chase standings. Edwards, in his first full year on the Cup circuit, is 77 points behind.

“We don’t have to make something happen,” a confident Stewart said before Saturday’s qualifying. “Everybody else has to make something happen.”

Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle, a winner on this track in April, also could overtake Stewart in the Chase standings, but a lot would have to break right for them to do so. The chances of any of them driving off with the championship after next Sunday’s season finale at Homestead, Fla., are slim.

All trail Stewart by 122 or more points; any driver not within 156 points of the leader after today’s race will be eliminated from the Cup chase.

Johnson finished second, Edwards third and Stewart ninth under sunny skies in Saturday’s qualifying. Denny Hamlin, who will make only his sixth Nextel Cup start, won the pole with a lap of 134.173 mph on a flat, one-mile oval nestled at the foot of the Estrella Mountains, about 20 minutes west of Phoenix.

Though Stewart’s closest pursuers will start in front of him today, the 34-year-old from Rushville, Ind., has good reason to feel confident about his championship chances. No driver leading the series with two races to go has failed to win the title since 1992, and Stewart has finished ninth or better in 18 of his last 20 starts.

But the 30-year-old Johnson, who last year wound up eight points behind Kurt Busch in the closest finish in the history of NASCAR’s top stock car series, vowed to keep the pressure on.

“I really predict a dogfight to the end,” he said.

The exuberant Edwards, 26, also promised not to back down.

“Oh yeah, we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain,” said Edwards, who gained 72 points on Stewart in the last two weeks.

Johnson, who will start from the outside of the front row after turning a lap of 133.506 mph in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, trailed Busch by 48 points with two races to go last year, so he’s 10 points better this time around.

“It’s go time,” he repeated several times Saturday. “We gained a couple of points last week on the No. 20 [Stewart]. We’ve got to finish ahead of them. We’ve just got to go out there and race as hard as we can for the next two weeks.

“And, remember, [Edwards] is out there. He’s coming on strong.”

Stewart claimed not to have noticed, or wouldn’t let on.

“We’re not watching where everybody else is,” he said. “There are so many guys that are still mathematically in it that there’s no point in even worrying about it. With so many different people in the hunt right now, the best thing for us to do is just sit there and do what got us here in the first place....

“You look at the other teams and they’re all focusing on what we’re doing. We like that.”

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Edwards won another race Saturday, this time holding off Busch Series runner-up Clint Bowyer to take the Arizona 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Bowyer’s second-place run, combined with a sixth-place finish for points leader and reigning Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr., cut the leader’s margin to 64 points with only next Saturday’s race at Homestead, Fla., remaining. But all Truex needs to do to assure himself of winning is finish 12th or better, even if Bowyer wins and leads the most laps.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Chase

The Nextel Cup standings entering today’s race:

*--* PL DRIVER POINTS BEHIND 1 Tony Stewart 6,255 -- 2 Jimmie Johnson 6,217 38 3 Carl Edwards 6,178 77 4 Greg Biffle 6,133 122 5 Mark Martin 6,132 123 6 Matt Kenseth 6,120 135 7 Ryan Newman 6,081 174 8 Kurt Busch 5,974 281 9 Rusty Wallace 5,940 315 10 Jeremy Mayfield 5,848 407

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REMAINING RACES

* Today: Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

* Nov. 20: Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.