It looked bleak for Johnson until he snatched a 7th title

Just two questions into his post-race press conference Sunday night in Homestead, someone asked Jimmie Johnson when he would get his eighth NASCAR Cup championship.

Johnson now ties the record held by Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, according to The Associated Press. “We ended up wrecked, so that’s the way things go sometimes”.

“Some luck came our way and we were able to win the championship”, Johnson told NBC Sports after the race.

It was five years to the day since the most heart-breaking loss of Carl Edwards’ career.

That worked, but Johnson was fortunate to work his way through a wreck on Lap 258 that involved Edwards and Logano, one that likely changed the entire tone of the championship. After pounding the inside wall, the orange Camry shot up the track and was collected at near full speed by Kasey Kahne‘s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, shoving it slightly airborne and into hard contact with the outer wall.

With the backing of crew chief Chad Knaus and the powerhouse Rick Hendrick racing team, one would think Johnson will at least put himself in position under the new Chase format to be in the hunt. An extra pace lap was added before the race so that Stewart could be honored in front of the field.

For Jimmie Johnson, Sprint Cup Championship number seven came the hard way.

Edwards walked out of his vehicle and went over to Logano’s pit crew and shook hands with crew members. He dropped a bunch of f-bombs as he was unhappy with a late-race restart order, perturbed why Landon Cassill’s auto lined up ahead of him and a bunch of others. By Lap 30, he was in the top 10.

Kevin Harvick finished third, while Logano recovered to be fourth. Johnson, for most of the season, was never even mentioned as a title contender. There was never a lap that everybody wasn’t sideways at some point on the race track. He led one lap and it was the one that mattered. Edwards’ Toyota was totaled, his championship hopes ruined again.

Johnson probably had the worst vehicle of the four championship contenders at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but a odd sequence of events opened the track for him to take the title over Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and defending champion Kyle Busch. Whichever of the four drivers finishes highest will win the championship.

“Eventful, to say the least”, said Logano, who finished second in the race and for the season crown. He offered his support of Johnson after the race.

Johnson started last because his auto failed three pre-race inspections for an improperly-shaped rear axle and for attaching new decals to deflect air off the vehicle once it was on pit road before the race. “I just had to push it”. After escaping the nine-car wreck, he was back in contention.

Logano would only manage to lead 6 laps in the middle-stages of the race.

Petty, NASCAR’s career leader with 200 wins, has yet to speak to Johnson since the Hendrick Motorsports star earned a spot in the season finale with a championship berth on the line.

Back home, concurrently, down at Homestead-Miami Speedway, something even more stunning and remarkable was happening. Sure, more than a few times in his career the stormy in native (whose nickname was well-earned) got a bit too aggressive either on or off the track-as NASCAR executive Mike Helton wryly observed while delivering a tribute to Stewart in the pre-race drivers’ meeting, Smoke was a frequent visitor to the officials’ hauler (NASCAR’s equivalent of the principal’s office).

Edwards also stopped at Logano’s pit to apologize to crew chief Todd Gordon and the No. 22 team.