Johnson in the driver's seat

He has the Chase - and Yarborough - in sight

When the 12-man field for NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship was set at the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway in September, Jimmie Johnson, the two-time defending champion, was pegged as the man to beat. As for Johnson, he was wary of Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, and Jeff Burton, contenders all.

But after building a 149-point lead over Biffle (6,073-5,924) by winning two of the last four Chase races, including last weekend's race at Martinsville, Va., Johnson seems to be pursuing only one man: Cale Yarborough.

Yarborough is the only driver in NASCAR history to win three consecutive titles, from 1976-78. With four races left in the Chase, Johnson is vying to duplicate the feat.

"I'm happy that I was able to win three consecutive championships," Yarborough said during a NASCAR teleconference. "But it looks like that record's going to come to an end this year."

Said Johnson, "If it does take place, it would be a very special thing. To find my name in the record books and hopefully have it be in the company of Cale in such an elite situation would mean the world to me."

Johnson takes another step toward that objective in Race No. 6 of the 10-race championship, the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Yesterday's qualifying for tomorrow's race was rained out, so the field was set on points. Johnson has the top starting spot, followed by Biffle and Burton.

At the beginning of the season, it appeared Johnson was going to struggle to qualify for the Chase. He recorded eight top 10s and one win to go along with one Did Not Finish in the first half of the season. He led just 91 of a possible 1,548 laps in the first five races of the season at tracks where he had won a combined 11 times.

"Truly getting back in championship form was the hardest for us," Johnson said. "We got off to a start we were not accustomed to, and that was frustrating. But it made our team stronger and made the relationships stronger inside the team and makes me really proud today to be where we are at knowing that we flat-out [stunk] at the start of the season.

"So, to fight through that is a lot of fun and I can say that for the first time in my career I feel more comfortable in this position, in leading and being on top [of the points], than I ever have."

Which is why Yarborough, one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers and fifth all time with 83 career wins in 23 seasons, expects to be joined by Johnson.

"The handwriting's on the wall now," Yarborough said. "It's going to happen. And if it happens, I understand that I was Jimmie's hero when he was growing up, so if he does it, more power to him."

But, Yarborough was quick to add with a cackle, "That don't mean I'm pulling for him now.

"But if he does it, I'll be in good company. I hope he feels the same way."

Switching gears

Johnson, who grew up in El Cajon, Calif., said Yarborough was always one of his favorite drivers. "I just loved his stocky appearance and attitude," Johnson said. "The guy had muscles all over the place." Evidently, Yarborough's pugnacious attitude, not to mention his speed as a halfback, won over legendary coach Frank Howard and earned him a football scholarship to Clemson.

But when his racing career collided with his football career, history will show that Yarborough's pugnaciousness won out over all when he went against Howard's wishes and pursued racing.

"I was racing during the summer and I was just about to win the track championship," Yarborough recalled. "I went to Coach Howard and told him I needed to go home to race one more race [on a Friday night] and that I'd be through with it. He said, 'If you go back, pack your clothes, don't come back. You either go race or play football.'

"So I packed my clothes and left."

Yarborough never looked back, despite Howard's repeated attempts to get him to return.

"Of course, he kept calling," Yarborough said. "I said, 'You told me to pack my clothes, and that's what I did. I'm going to make my racing career.' "

To which Howard replied, "Son, you'll starve to death."

"In the end, Frank Howard was one of my biggest fans," Yarborough said. "He used to love to go to races and stand in my pits. I'll never forget that he was at Talladega when I won a race there. He was in the winner's circle. He walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulder. He always called me 'Boy.' He said, 'Boy, I ain't never been wrong many times in my life, but I want you to know I was wrong this time.' "

Camp counseling

For a sport driven by its sponsors, NASCAR seems to keep on truckin' despite the downward economic trends. The sanctioning body landed new title sponsors for each of its three premier touring series in the last couple of years, going from the Nextel to Sprint Cup Series and from the Busch to the Nationwide Series. NASCAR officials announced Thursday that Camping World had entered a multiyear agreement to replace Craftsman as the Truck Series title sponsor beginning in 2009. "We tend to fare much better than other industries, thankfully," said NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France. "That's because sports are so culturally ingrained to fans. We're fortunate. We're nervous like everybody else. We're taking every precaution we can in terms of getting costs out of our system on behalf of the team owners, on behalf of the track operators. But this is also a time when you can't freeze, either. You've got to still be aggressive and still push hard your product." . . . What happened to Kyle Busch? He was the runaway leader in the driver points at one point and looked to be a shoo-in to win the Sprint Cup title after compiling eight regular-season victories, good for 80 bonus points and the top seed at the start of the Chase. But after the Chase got underway at the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the wheels, literally and figuratively, fell off Busch's bandwagon. He led 1,671 laps this season, but only 38 in the first six races of the Chase; he won eight races, but none in the Chase; and while he has recorded an average finish of 12.5 during the season, it's been much worse in the Chase (25.5). Worse, he's recorded two DNFs this season, including one at Dover, Del., in the second race of the Chase (because of a blown engine), which prompted him to officially declare he was out of contention for the title. "It's obviously going to be tough for him to have won that many races and not win the championship," said Kevin Harvick. "But that's just how tough our sport is."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com; material from personal interviews, various sanctioning bodies, race teams, sponsors, and track publicity departments was used in this report.