Those dreams all but evaporated in the wake of Johnson’s commanding win at Phoenix this week.  Johnson now heads into the final race of the season with a 108 point lead.  That means that regardless of what anyone else does, he wins the Cup if he finishes 25th or better in Homestead next week.

It will  be another of NASCAR’s typical ho-hum finishes, unless some unforeseeable accident forces Johnson from the race altogether.  Even if such a surprise loss were to happen, it would be an anti-climactic ending to a wild NASCAR season.  This is the only sport that begins its season with the equivalent of the Super Bowl and ends with a formality.

If Johnson wins, it will be an impressive four years in a row, which would be a new NASCAR record.  If he doesn’t… well, it’s hard to imaging that he won’t finish in the top 25 next weekend.  He should take it easy, coast to a top ten finish and reap the rewards.  But this is NASCAR, so he won’t.  He’ll go in fast and hard, but maybe not quite so fast nor so hard as he would if anything were really on the line.

There isn’t even much drama about second place.  Barring a disaster for Johnson and his Chevrolet team, Mark “Always a bride’s maid never a bride” Martin will, in all likelihood, finish second in the Cup Chase for the fifth time in his career.  But anything can happen when they actually hit the track.  That’s why we continue to watch, even when we’re pretty sure we know how it will end.