Johnson won again yesterday at Dover International Speedway, finishing 2.637 seconds ahead of fellow Chaser Jeff Burton in the NASCAR AAA 400 Sprint Cup race.
Johnson collected his sixth victory of the season, tying Denny Hamlin for the series lead. It's also Johnson's sixth Dover victory in just 18 starts. He has won three of the last four races at the Monster Mile.
Two races into the Chase for the Championship, Johnson trails Hamlin, the leader, by 35 points.
Last year Johnson also won at Dover in September, then took two of the next three races to seize first place on his march to an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship.
Other than a celebratory burnout in the No. 48 Chevrolet near his pit stall, at the entrance to the garage area instead of along the front straightaway, it was business as usual for Johnson.
"We want to win this championship," Johnson said. "Yes, [this] was a big victory and hopefully a step toward the championship, but it's not the prize we want. It's not time to celebrate.
"We've got to keep this momentum going. At the end of the year, if we're fortunate to win the championship, I'll be the guy with the biggest smile."
Johnson tames Dover the way Tiger Woods used to conquer golf courses. Explaining his Dover success, Johnson said, "There's just a certain rhythm to this racetrack that works, that suits my style."
In winning, Johnson, the pole-sitter, led 191 of the 400 laps. A.J. Allmendinger, the second fastest qualifier, paced the most laps of his career, 143 of the first 200, on his way to a 10th-place finish.
Johnson passed Carl Edwards for the lead with 35 laps to go, and then held off Burton.
"What won the race for Jimmie," Burton said, "[was] about 15 laps into the next-to-last run, he cleared [Joey] Logano and got really fast right there. He squirted away from me pretty hard and ran the [No.] 18 [Kyle Busch] down. Then we started running [Johnson] down. But he was just a little quicker than we were."
Admiring Johnson's reign, Burton said, "They're great. That word is not overused when I say that."
Hamlin wasn't surprised by Johnson's performance.
"This is probably their best race track," Hamlin said. "I can't think of anyplace else where they really dominate like they do [at Dover]."
While Johnson clearly is a contender to extend his remarkable title streak to five, Hamlin appears comfortable as the leader.
"I think a lot of people are just waiting for us to slip up, like we have done in the past," Hamlin said. "I just don't see that happening. I just think our team is too focused and we're running too well for that to happen."
Kyle Busch challenged Johnson later in the race. Driving a Toyota, Busch beat Johnson out of the pits on lap 293 and led 46 laps before yielding the lead and finished sixth. Busch is third in the Chase, 45 points out of first.
"We definitely had a better car than where we finished," Busch said. "I about wrecked a couple times, so I just backed up and rode there. We were loose and then we tightened it back up. We were just too tight the rest of the day."
Logano's third-place finish, in a Toyota, was his best since a second at Martinsville in March.
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