Johnson, in control, cruises to series title

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Riding a four-race winning streak and knowing that NASCAR’s championship was his to lose, Jimmie Johnson came to the season’s last race confident in himself and his team.

“It’s the things that are out of my control that worry me,” Johnson said. Even with a hefty lead over teammate Jeff Gordon in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Johnson -- who needed only to finish 18th or better -- could have seen the title slip away with a blown engine, a crash or other unforeseen disaster.

He needn’t have worried.

Johnson drove a solid, conservative and incident-free race Sunday to finish seventh behind winner Matt Kenseth in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and win his second consecutive championship -- the first driver to win back-to-back titles since Gordon in 1997-98.

Johnson also is the first driver to achieve that since the 10-race Chase playoff format was introduced in 2004.

“It is just such a special time for me,” Johnson said. “I am so blessed. It is just awesome.”

Johnson, 32, grew up in El Cajon racing off-road race cars and motorcycles and, when he joined the Hendrick Motorsports team full-time in 2002, looked to Gordon as his mentor.

Now, Johnson is challenging Gordon -- a four-time champion and another California native -- as the top driver in NASCAR’s modern era.

Johnson finished the season with 10 wins -- the most since Gordon won 13 races in 1998 -- and became only the 10th driver in the history of NASCAR’s top series to repeat as champion.

“We just got on a tear that’s been unbelievable,” Johnson said. “We were just able, for whatever reason, to squeak out a little more” than Gordon.

Gordon was in the top 10 for most of the race, which started in the late afternoon and ended under the lights in front of a sold-out crowd of 80,000.

But he never led a lap on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami oval and finished fourth, ending the season 77 points behind Johnson.

The Chase was a bitter disappointment for Gordon, 36, who won six races this year and had a huge lead in the Cup series points after 26 races when the Chase began.

But all the contenders’ points are reset for the Chase, and Gordon couldn’t keep up with Johnson’s hot streak.

“It really was an amazing year for me,” Gordon said. “I’m a competitor. I’m very happy for Jimmie and those guys, but I really wanted it for our team.

“We came up a little short. What [Johnson] did this year is incredible. It’s nothing for us to hang our heads about.”

After the race ended, team owner Rick Hendrick first went to see Gordon, hugging the driver after he climbed from his No. 24 Chevy on pit road.

“I told him I was proud of him,” Hendrick said.

Although Johnson easily made the Chase, his season was by no means perfect. He slumped during the spring; in one eight-race stretch he finished in the top 10 only once.

And at Sonoma in June, NASCAR suspended crew chief Chad Knaus for six races because the fenders on Johnson’s car didn’t conform to the rules in a pre-qualifying inspection.

But during the Chase, Johnson finished out of the top 10 only twice.

He also was on the pole Sunday, but Kenseth’s Ford dominated the race for Roush Fenway Racing and led 214 of the 267 laps. It was his second win of the season following his victory in February at California Speedway.

Kurt Busch was second for Penske Racing South and Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing was third. They, along with Kenseth, were among those in the Chase but only Johnson and Gordon were still mathematically eligible to win the title.

The win was especially sweet for Kenseth because it was the last race for his longtime crew chief Robbie Reiser, who is taking a management job at Roush Fenway next year.

Kenseth’s victory also capped his late-season comeback. The Wisconsin native quickly fell from title contention in the first half of the Chase and was last among the 12 drivers in the playoff.

But he finished in the top five in the last five races and surged to fourth in the standings.

“It’s pretty awesome to get up to fourth from where we were,” said Kenseth, 35. “It feels good to pull it off, we’ve lost some close ones this year.”

It also was the fourth consecutive win at Homestead-Miami for Roush Fenway; Kenseth’s teammate Greg Biffle had won here the three previous years. Biffle was 13th Sunday.

Although Johnson wanted to avoid trouble to ensure the championship, “we really wanted to win the race,” Knaus said.

But, he added, “once we got into the race and realized what a good car we had, [Johnson] could just find a spot to ride and ride safely in the top 10.”

Johnson noted that his pit stops were flawless and “the pressure did not get to anyone” on his team. “We executed like we needed to. We were just being smart today.”

Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s career driving the red No. 8 Chevrolet came to an ignominious end.

Earnhardt was going too fast as he approached the pits for his first stop early in the race. He swerved off the pit-road apron to slow down, then was hit from behind by Kyle Busch, spinning Earnhardt into the wall.

Then, on the restart, Earnhardt again was hit from behind, this time by Jeff Burton. That sent Earnhardt hard into the wall a second time and he finished 36th after repairs.

It was Earnhardt’s last race for Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team started by his late father, and he’s moving next year to Hendrick. Coincidentally, Busch -- who finished 20th Sunday -- was released by Hendrick to make room for Earnhardt.

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Nextel Cup

Final standings:

*--* Driver Points Behind 1. Jimmie Johnson 6,723 -- 2. Jeff Gordon 6,646 77 3. Clint Bowyer 6,377 346 4. Matt Kenseth 6,298 425 5. Kyle Busch 6,293 430 6. Tony Stewart 6,242 481 7. Kurt Busch 6,231 492 8. Jeff Burton 6,231 492 9. Carl Edwards 6,222 501 10. Kevin Harvick 6,199 524 11. Martin Truex Jr. 6,164 559 12. Denny Hamlin 6,143 580 *--*