IS IT OVER? There's still one race left, but it will be tough to beat Jimmie Johnson.(Motorsports)

Byline: AL PEARCE

This is such a silly suggestion it probably doesn't merit much attention. But let's pay attention, anyway, if only for a few moments. The suggestion is this: Jimmie Johnson is the best NASCAR driver never to have won a championship.

Better than four-time points runner-up Mark Martin. Better than 50-race winner Junior Johnson. Better than Tim Richmond or Ricky Rudd or Harry Gant or Fred Lorenzen. Certainly better than Dale Earnhardt Jr.

In any case, the suggestion might become moot in a few days. Johnson takes a 63-point lead over Matt Kenseth into the Nextel Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He built his margin from 17 points by beating Kenseth by 11 positions, second to 13th, in the Checker 500-K at Phoenix International Raceway. It was Johnson's third straight runner-up finish and his fourth in the last five races. (By the way... the other finish was a win.) He and crew chief Chad Knaus have come from ninth in points since opening the Chase for the Championship with a wreck-related 39th at Loudon the third Sunday in September.

"I never felt we were out of it,'' Johnson said after his series-leading 23rd top-10 finish, "but I never expected the 31 [Jeff Burton] to have as much difficulty and let a lot of us back in it. I never conceded. I just said, `Let's go all out. We have nothing to lose. Let's try to finish up by winning races like the 20 [Tony Stewart] has been doing.' It's all about winning, and that's been our philosophy the last couple of months. We're not doing anything any different than we were early in the Chase.''

Johnson claims the "best driver never to...'' tag doesn't faze him. This, after all, is only his fifth Cup season, hardly enough time to make such judgments. Granted, he has nine poles and 23 wins and been top-five in points all five years. But it took Hall of Fame driver Bobby Allison more than 12 years to win his only championship, in 1983. "I don't know if you learn to accept defeat in some ways,'' Johnson said at PIR. "It's just part of it. You can't win every race and you can't win every championship.

"I think the experience of the Chase the past three years has made me a stronger driver and mature enough to deal with the pressure and stress. The team has been in this position and knows what that's like. I'm not saying we won't make mistakes, but I think we're a stronger team. I have a lot of confidence in that. We're going to be in this sport a long time.''