Johnson refused to quit after setback

FORT WORTH, Texas --- Jimmie Johnson refused to get out of his battered race car after he crashed on the third lap Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

He sat behind the wheel while his team looked over the damage. He remained defiant when crew chief Chad Knaus said their race was over, keeping his seat belts tight and his hands gripped on the steering wheel.

Sixty-eight minutes later, he was back on the track after the team essentially rebuilt the car.

Johnson refused to quit, and that stubbornness eventually translated to an extra 15 points in his quest to become the first driver to win four consecutive Sprint Cup championships.

His accident was shocking, but the team's determination was predictable. Hendrick Motorsports hoped for the best, but it planned for the worse by putting all the parts and pieces to repair a major crash in the garage before the race started.

That attention to detail, even in a desperate situation, is why Johnson is on the cusp of his fourth championship.

"It's not as bad as it could have been," he said. "We could have finished 43rd. At one point Chad told me to hop out of the car. It was done. We were going to have to put it on the truck.

"They were able to get it fixed; Mark (Martin) didn't win. There were a couple small things that helped us in the end."

Those small things have played big in Johnson's domination in the past four years. His run in the playoffs hasn't been perfect in the past, but unlike everyone else he's been able to avoid a complete collapse in the Chase.

He's left Texas with the points lead for the past four years. He has a 73-point lead over Martin with two races to go.

His margin has been as close as 17 points over Matt Kenseth in 2006 and as big as 106 over Carl Edwards last season after Texas, and the closest anyone's been to Johnson at the end in the past three years was 56 points.

No matter what happens at Texas, Johnson always seems to get back on track a week later at Phoenix. In the past three fall races at the one-mile track, Johnson has two wins and a second-place finish.

But anything can happen, especially since Martin won at Phoenix earlier this year.

"We're still in a great position," Johnson said. "Like I said, we'll dust ourselves off. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the back of my mind, I couldn't shut down the possibility of something going wrong. This is racing. You got to drive the race. We've heard it from other sports: You have to play the game."

A crash involving Juan Pablo Montoya, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon and a blown engine for Kasey Kahne also helped Johnson. Though he gave everyone else in the Chase a chance to make up ground, several failed at the rare opportunity.

They might not get another opportunity.

If Johnson finishes no worse than fourth in the final two races, he will clinch the championship. If he leads a single lap at Phoenix or the finale at Homestead, Fla., he can finish fifth at both tracks.

"Luckily we have a big points lead," Johnson said. "All along we've been trying to tell everybody this thing is far from over. Luckily we've raced for every point throughout this Chase."

The most important 15 points, however, might have been Sunday, when Johnson refused to give up.

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com.