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The NASCAR playoffs are over. Jimmie Johnson is the Nextel Cup Champion again. All that is left are the details, obligations, appearances and other required items that public relations people were already scheduling last Sunday night as the haulers pulled out from Arizona headed back East.

Jeff Gordon, the owner of the No. 48 race car Johnson drives, is a winner and a loser. He wins the car owner championship, but loses what would have been a fifth driver title for him.

We all know Rick Hendrick owns both cars, but Gordon is listed as car owner on the NASCAR race and point reports. It is a little strange though that Gordon is missing from the group photo of the team on the cover of the NASCAR Media Guide. The shot was taken last year as Johnson, Hendrick and the rest of the No. 48 team celebrated their 2006 championship. It is Mr. Hendrick standing next to the trophy in that photo and Gordon nowhere to be found.

Yes, it is true there is still one race left in the season and Gordon (the driver) is only 86 points behind his employee, but it looks like the four-time champ has given up on this cup. He shook his head and said as much to the crowd of reporters gathered outside his car after Sunday’s race.

“We don’t have a shot at it man. I’ll tell you those guys (Johnson and crew) are on an unbelievable roll and whatever they’ve got, we’re missing,” said Gordon after finishing tenth at Phoenix.

The numbers show NASCAR is under the control of the giant Hendrick organization. Sunday’s-fourth-in-a-row win by Johnson was the 18th win for the Hendrick cars this year. Johnson has claimed ten wins, Gordon six, Kyle Busch one and Casey Mears one for the Hendrick camp.

A little number crunching tells you about the season right away. Hendrick’s operation has won more than half of the races run, led the most laps, collected the most prize money and probably sold the most souvenirs. Pretty boring for me, but not for the money counters over in Hendrickland.

Johnson and Gordon are the only drivers that have led more than a thousand laps this season. The four Hendrick cars have led over 33-percent of the 10,315 run in the 35 races so far. Gordon has led the most laps. He has been scored up front 1,300 times, but teammate Johnson is just 11 laps behind his boss on the laps-led list.

The time trials is another area where the Hendrick arnselnal has shown their horsepower and muscles. Gordon has claimed seven pole positions, Johnson three and Casey Mears got one for the team.

Penske Racing comes closet to offering a bit of a challenge in the speed department this year. Ryan Newman snagged five poles and Kurt Busch one for the Dodge operation.

There seems only one area where the Hendrick team fell a little short. Richard Childress Racing wins the title of having the least amount of “DNF”s (Did Not Finish) on the season scorecard. Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer have managed to be able to complete all 35 events. Their teammate Jeff Burton has the only three DNFs for Childress.

Hendrick cars have accumulated nine DNFs for the season, but that looks good compared to the 16 DNFs registered by the Dale Earnhardt Inc. cars so far.

Florida Finale: Homestead-Miami Speedway has been on the schedule since 1999. It looks a little like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, except it is a half-mile shorter. The turns were originally built with only nine degrees of banking, but after continued driver complaints (and a few absolutely boring races) NASCAR decided to rebuild the turns and increase the banking to 18 and 20 degrees.

Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle are the only repeat winners at Homestead-Miami. Biffle has won the last three races run at speedway. Stewart claimed wins there in 1999 and 2000.

The only other winners at the Florida speedway are Bobby Labonte (2003), Kurt Busch (2002) and Bill Elliott (2001).

Jack Roush was the dominating team-owner at the speedway in 2005. Roush captured the four top-spots in the 2005 race and three of his drivers finished in the top-ten last year.

The top-five finishers of last year’s race at Homestead-Miami were Greg Biffle, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick.

Kasey Kahne collected the bonus points for leading the most laps. Kahne’s No. 9 led 90 of the 268 laps. Ten drivers traded the lead 15 times during the race.

The other drivers leading more than two laps of the event were the winner Greg Biffle (47), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (47), Sterling Marlin (28), Martin Truex Jr. (27), Elliott Sadler (17) and J.J. Yeley (8).

There were 11 caution flag incidents and the race took just over three hours and 12 minutes to complete.

Kasey Kahne was the pole winner with a qualifying speed of 178.259 miles-an-hour.

Georgia Boys: Peachtree City driver Reed Sorenson posted the best results for the Georgia drivers making the trip to Arizona. Sorenson finished 19th and was even able to lead a lap to collect five bonus points in the Phoenix International Raceway Nextel Cup event. Sorenson is ranked 22nd in the Nextel Cup point standings.

David Ragan finished 32nd in the Nextel Cup race and 23rd in the Busch Series race at Phoenix. The Unadilla driver holds down the 23rd spot on the Nextel Cup point chart and is ranked fifth in Busch points.

Bill Elliott finished 34th in the phoenix Nextel Cup race. The Dawsonville driver has run 19 of the 35 races this season trying to keep the Woods Brother’s No. 21 Ford in the top-35 in points.

Elliott’s past-champion provisional gives the team one more start this year. They are ranked 36th in owner points and it appears there is no chance for the team to advance into that top-35 group following this weekend’s event.

Getting the Wood Brothers a top-35 team ranking would have guaranteed the owners starting spots in the first six races next year.

The Wood Brothers have been racing on the NASCAR circuit since 1953. Petty Enterprises is the only other racing operation still fielding cars today that were a NASCAR regular before 1960.

There were no Georgia drivers in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Phoenix, but Woodstock-based Ballew Motorsports carried the winner’s trophy home. Kyle Busch won the truck race in the team’s No. 51 Chevrolet. It was the second win of the season by the team.

Saturday’s WSB 120 racing program will air from 5:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Newstalk 750 WSB Radio and www.wsbradio.com. For more race information visit our Fastcar Newsdesk at www.captainherb.net.