Jimmie Johnson

INDIANAPOLIS — Jimmie Johnson won the battle Sunday in dominant fashion. But Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a big step toward winning the war. Johnson won the Brickyard 400 again, joining Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon as the only four-time winners since NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series began racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994. Earnhardt, who also drives for Hendrick and has enjoyed a strong car all season, finished fourth — his best Brickyard 400 finish in 13 tries — to lift him into the lead of the Cup championship standings.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As the cars barreled into the final lap, there was a chance the improbable might happen at the Daytona 500. Jimmie Johnson, the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, led the field with Greg Biffle on his tail and Danica Patrick stuck to Biffle's rear bumper. If Patrick could find a way to maneuver around Johnson and Biffle, Patrick would become the first woman to win the sport's crown-jewel race, in only her second attempt. But for as strongly as Patrick ran Sunday, at the end her inexperience showed.

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Dale Earnhardt Jr. is Jimmie Johnson's teammate and Brad Keselowski's former boss, so who does Earnhardt see winning this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup? "I think Jimmie is going to win it" for a sixth championship, Earnhardt said Friday. Johnson has "great equipment . . . one of the best crew chiefs in the business" in Chad Knaus, and Johnson "is one of the best drivers in the business. " "It's going to be hard to beat those guys," Earnhardt said. Johnson has a seven-point lead over Keselowski in the title standings with two races left: Sunday's AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway and the season finale a week later at Homestead-Miami (Fla.)

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Brad Keselowski not only is a talented NASCAR driver, he's also confident, aggressive and self-assured. Good thing, because standing between Keselowski and his first Sprint Cup Series championship is perhaps the most daunting challenge he could face: Jimmie Johnson. Johnson, seeking a remarkable sixth Cup title in the last seven years, has a seven-point lead over Keselowski in the title standings with two races left, starting with Sunday's AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Shortly before Jimmie Johnson rolled out for practice at Phoenix International Raceway, someone was missing from the group making last-minute adjustments to Johnson's car: crew chief Chad Knaus. Two years ago it would have been unlikely that Knaus, a self-admitted control freak, would have left the garage while his team tuned up Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet.

Jimmie Johnson nudged Denny Hamlin aside in the third and fourth turns with 15 laps to go in the Goody's 500 at Martinsville, Va., and gave team owner Rick Hendrick a perfect place to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his first victory in NASCAR's premier series: Victory Lane. Johnson, dubbed "Mr. Martinsville" by Jeff Gordon, lived up to his moniker, winning for the fifth time in the last six races on the smallest, trickiest track in the series. It was his sixth victory at the 0.

One by one, the championship contenders struggled to stay out of trouble at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Not Jimmie Johnson, though. In a career of impressive feats, he grabbed yet another one Saturday night by completing a "perfect weekend" to take control of the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings. The three-time defending series champion led every practice session, started from the pole and then held off his challengers during several late restarts for his third victory in five Chase race this season.

Jimmie Johnson appeared poised for one of his patented comebacks but came up short Sunday at Infineon Raceway, a track where he's never won. The El Cajon, Calif., native, winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title the last three years, started the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in 11th place and was working his way to the front. But he was penalized for entering pit road too fast on an early pit stop and was sent to the rear of the field. "I had to come back from that," said Johnson, driver of the No.

AVONDALE, Ariz. — The backlash among NASCAR's faithful resurfaced almost instantly. No sooner had Jimmie Johnson won the race at Martinsville, Va., two weeks ago, and taken the points lead in the Sprint Cup Series than the outcry began that this was, somehow, bad news. Johnson is trying to win his sixth Cup championship — an achievement only two other drivers have accomplished — in the last seven years. And that had a good many NASCAR watchers grumbling in the blogosphere, social media circles and on Internet message boards.