Jimmie Johnson Wins Seventh NASCAR Title

By ESPN

Prior to the start of the media day Thursday with the four championship contenders, Jimmie Johnson passed a reporter.

"You missed it," Johnson said. "We just got in a big fight."

A quick check of Johnson showed no black eye. He was fibbing, just having fun. It was no surprise. For a driver who had six Cup titles and feels like he plays with house money for the rest of his career, he could joke around all he wanted a few days prior to another potential biggest race of his life.

But maybe he just wanted to create a distraction. Johnson obviously was hiding something else.

A horseshoe.

"I guess the horseshoe only goes in one spot," Johnson quipped after a long celebration Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "But there's no room."

That horseshoe has to exist somewhere in the Hendrick Motorsports stable. How else could Johnson have won a race Sunday when he looked to be the worst among the four Chase finalists for much of the event, causing crew chief Chad Knaus to drop a couple of choice curse words when trying to talk about what to do to the car?

And then, in the most stunning and improbable fashion, Johnson emerged as the champion, number "#se7en" as he puts it.

"Most people in the situation we were just in would have crumbled and he didn't even waver," Knaus said. "He knew what he needed to do. He knew what the demands were on him at that point in time and he made it happen. That's the difference."

Running sixth with 15 laps to go and fifth with 10 laps remaining, Johnson found himself in no position to win his seventh title and tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt in the process.

Appearances weren't even deceiving. He just didn't seem to have the speed to match Chase finalists Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.

"I never thought it was bleak," Johnson said. "There was a weird, comfortable confidence all night long. ... I just felt like something was going to happen and I was going to be OK with it.

"And for a while, I came with the grips to the reality of it being third, fourth somewhere in there and shaking somebody else's hand and being happy for them."

And then he turned into a seven-time Cup champion. A wreck on a restart with 10 laps remaining ruined the day for Edwards as he tried to block Logano. Edwards had the strongest long-run car but was out of the race. Logano, who was able to continue, had the strongest short-run car, but it was damaged.

Johnson restarted fourth with five laps left in regulation and jumped quickly to second. Another accident led to NASCAR's version of overtime, a two-lap dash to the finish. Johnson took the lead from Kyle Larson on the restart and never looked back, winning the Ford 400 and the 2016 title.