The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 46

sSH NASCAR CHAMP: 2NS 1 035:5 23 2229 1 THE M'AMI HERALD CHASE FCR THE CUP LEADERBOARD (AFTER 9 CF 10 RACES) TCP 10 23 DRIVER I wa-k-i 3 JeSc-Jon 4 K1 42 5 0 S3 '32 450 se-z'ce $4 522 POLES 3 7 1 0 0 2 0 1 2 0 0 TOPS '5 14 15 9 15 7 10 14 5 7 7 4 PTS £452 £223 6223 640 6031 5972 5826 STRT 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 ttINS 7 5 1 2 4 0 0 3 0 2 1 -239 j321 20 23 13 16 19 15 14 13 13 5 Stewat 6 A3'lf'3t0HDrtDa 7 8 7 9 Ryan Newman 10 kasey Kane Cart Ed a ads 12 Bran Vickers -520 -666 But des)iti season-sm TITLE 1 Jimmi Sprint or bette or 28th regardle does 2 Mark finishes wins the 3 Jeff Chase ft standinr from the Johnsor BY ADAM BEASLEY abeasley a MiamiHerald com Since NASCAR created the Chase in 2004 as a playoff system to make late-sea-son races meaningful and to hang on to television viewers in the fall when the NFL reigns supreme the system has been a lightning rod for criticism And with Jimmie Johnson poised to run away with the championship his unprecedented fourth in a row the criticism appeared to be justified But sometimes all fate needs is a little nudge With just the slightest bump in the third lap of the Dickies 400 on Nov 8 at Texas Motor Speedway quest for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title went from a ebronation to no sure thing A traffic jam early in the race put Johnson into the wall and cut his seemingly insurmountable lead over Martin from 184 points to 73 And although Johnson redeemed himself with a victory last Sunday at Phoenix stretching his lead to 108 points another catastrophic 2007 start a Speeds undo domin thing a wrong Joh quietc 2008 Jimmie Johnson won title No 3 despite a late charge by Carl Edwards who won three of the last four races yet still fell 69 points short of the No 48 car Johnson finished the year with seven wins 15 top-six finishes and $73 million in earnings 2006 The first of three Chase championships courtesy of five top-two finishes in the final six races Johnson ended the year 56 points clear of the next driver Matt Kenseth Johnson's season included 24 top-10 finishes 2005 Tony Stewart win a race during the Chase but took home the title with five top-five finishes Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards were 35 points back each Stewart won $13578168 ($6173633 for winning the championship) 2004 Kurt Busch won the title despite winning just one race during the inaugural Chase Johnson finished second just eight points off the lead despite winning four of the final six races Busch had 10 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes Johnson made it consecutive titles after victories in four consecutive weekends at Martinsville Va Atlanta Texas and Phoenix Jeff Gordon who the Chase runner-up was the only driver within 345 points of the leader Z3L rf wwMuai.