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Fans are down to the final two playoff games of the NASCAR season and the checkered flags can’t fly soon enough for some.

There were no surprises in Texas and the championship battle is still between a car owner and his driver.

The driver, Jimmie Johnson, took the lead in the points away from his car owner, Jeff Gordon, following Johnson’s win at Texas Motor Speedway. Johnson now has a 30-point advantage over his boss heading to the Phoenix race Sunday.

My best guess is you can’t count Clint Bowyer out of the running for the championship completely, but making up the 181-point deficit he left Texas with would be considered a racing miracle. His only chances now are if both Johnson and Gordon have poor finishes this weekend.

Unless the trouble train hits Johnson and Gordon Sunday, the Hendrick Motorsports domination of the season will continue through the final showdown at Homestead/Miami next week. The ten other drivers in the Chase for the Cup will still be trying to win, but the fire in their heart for that big trophy and check handed out in New York has been extinguished.

I would think being denied a chance at the championship, after making it into the Chase, has to have some sort of effect on a team’s enthusiasm. Some say teams in that situation beat the non-championship blues by rolling up their sleeves, working harder and attempting to steal the show away from the championship contenders by winning the final races.

There will be jumping, squealing, hand-slapping, champagne spraying and much celebration in the Hendrick camp at Homestead/Miami. The rest of us will just have to enjoy our entrée of crow and hope that some of the other teams catch up with the money the Hendrick operation is spending to keep their teams up front.

The four Hendrick cars have led 3,208 of the 10,003 laps run so far in the point races this season. Gordon and Johnson are the only drivers leading more than a thousand laps this year. Tony Stewart comes closet to catching the Hendrick drivers. Stewart has logged 920 laps out front.

Gordon is credited with leading 1,300 laps in 23 different races. His teammate, Johnson, has led 1,234 laps in 22 different races. Gordon has accumulated the most bonus points for leading this year. His total of 150 bonus points is 30 more than Johnson has been able to score. Gordon has led the most laps of a race seven times this season.

The time trials have also been dominated by the Hendrick machines this year. Hendrick cars have sat on the pole in 11 of the 34 races. Gordon has seven poles on his scorecard and Johnson three.

Penske Racing was the only other team with more than two pole positions this year. Ryan Newman clocked in fast laps five times and Kurt Busch once for their team owner Roger Penske.

There seems to be just one category where the Hendrick operation is trailing. Richard Childress Racing holds the honor of having the best score for finishing all of the races. Teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer are the only two drivers that have been running at the end of every race this year.

Hendrick Motorsports has registered nine “Did Not Finish” entries on their season scorecard and four of those were posted by Jimmie Johnson. Jeff Gordon has only been out of the race early once this year.

Phoenix Stats: The original Arizona speedway was opened in 1964, but NASCAR’s top series did not begin racing at the facility until 1988. NASCAR’s parent company, International Speedway Corp. (Or is it the other way around?), purchased the track in 1997. There was only one trip each year to Phoenix then, but in 2005 NASCAR awarded a second yearly race date to their track.

Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton are the only active drivers with more than a single win at Phoenix. Harvick won both races at PIR last year. Dale Jr. won his events in 2004 and 2003. Jeff Burton’s wins were while he was driving for Jack Roush in 2001 and 2000.

The one-time winners list at Phoenix includes Jeff Gordon (2007), Kyle Busch (2005), Kurt Busch (2005), Matt Kenseth (2002), Tony Stewart (1999), Dale Jarrett (1997), Mark Martin (1993) and Bill Elliott (1989).

Jeff Gordon claimed his first win at Phoenix in April. Gordon has run 17 races at Phoenix scoring eight top-five and 14 top-ten finishes.

The top-five finishers of the April race at Phoenix were Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth. Tony Stewart collected the bonus points for leading the most laps. His No. 20 was out in front for 132 of the 312-lap race.

There were 13 lead changes during the race. The other drivers leading more than one lap were Denny Hamlin (70), Kevin Harvick (54) and winner Jeff Gordon (53).

There were six caution flag incidents and the race took just under two hours and 54 minutes to complete.

Jeff Gordon was also the pole winner for the April race at Phoenix. He turned a lap of 133.136 miles-an-hour during qualifying.

Georgia Boys: The trip to Texas was not a pleasant journey for the Georgia delegation of Nextel Cup drivers. All three of the Peach State representatives found themselves in trouble before sundown in the Lone Star State.

Dawsonville’s Bill Elliott posted the best finish of the Georgia gang. Elliott had crumpled fenders on the No. 21 Ford as he finished 86 laps behind the leaders in 36th place.

Unadilla’s David Ragan started 33rd and finished 37th in the Texas race. Ragan kept the No. 6 Ford in the top-20 until a crash damaged the machine on the 220th lap. He dropped to 23rd in Nextel Cup points.

Ragan is still ranked fifth on the Busch Series point chart. He finished 17th in the Texas Busch race.

Reed Sorenson was another victim of the wall at Texas in his Nextel Cup ride. A crash sidelined the Peachtree City driver just 113 laps into the race and he collected 40th place pay. Sorenson is in the 22nd place on the Nextel Cup point chart.

Richard Johns, of Gwinnett County, was the only other driver besides Ragan in the Texas Busch event. Johns finished 34th in his No. 25 Ford. Johns has run 13 of the 33 Busch events this season.

Joey Clanton was the only Georgia driver in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas. Clanton was involved in an early crash and finished 31st.

Saturday’s WSB 120 racing program will air from noon until 12:30 p.m. on Newstalk 750 WSB Radio and www.wsbradio.com. For more race information visit our Fastcar Newsdesk at www.captainherb.net.