Sportsfrog.com

With his win Saturday night, Jimmie Johnson now has a 90 point lead on second place Mark Martin.

The Chase is only halfway over, so, multiply that lead by two, and it’s feasible that Johnson will win the Chase by 180 points.

The most points any driver can make up in a race is 161, and in the start-and-park era, that’s a pretty farfetched scenario.

So while it’s not all that probable, Johnson could wrap this thing up at Phoenix, the ninth of 10 Chase races.

That’s definitely not what NASCAR had in mind.

But who can stop Jimmie? In these first five races, he has finishes of fourth, first, ninth, first and first.

Juan Pablo Montoya has finishes of fourth, third, third, third and 35th, but he’s 195 points behind Johnson, thanks to the 35th place finish.

Of course, since one bad finish can swing the points that much, a poor finish could certainly stop Jimmie. And that poor finish could easily come at Talladega in two weeks, when the big one can strike anyone at any time.

However, this week’s race is at Martinsville, a place where Jimmie has had a ton of success. He could very well leave Martinsville with a 100+ point cushion, giving him a huge margin for error at Talladega.

With the way things are going right now, Johnson will probably narrowly skirt the big wreck at Talladega, while Martin gets caught up in it. (Martin always seems to get wrecked at Talladega)

And if that happens, watch out. The finale at Homestead will definitely not be must-see television.