Third title seems a sure thing to everybody but J.J.

Although he's knocking on the door of NASCAR's yet-to-be-built Hall of Fame, Jimmie Johnson isn't ready to step inside.

Johnson brings a 141-point lead over Carl Edwards into Sunday's season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and a finish of 36th or better locks up his third consecutive series championship.

But although the seemingly imminent accomplishment would make Johnson and Cale Yarborough the only two drivers in history to pull off the three-peat, Johnson won't take anything for granted.

"We're definitely in a great position," Johnson said. "But we've still got to run the race and still have to go out and get the points needed to win the championship. You're still worried about every move you make, every round of wedge in the car. Is the track-bar adjustment the right one? This and that. There's a lot of pressure on us and what we hope to do this weekend."

What Edwards hopes Johnson does this weekend is have trouble, a scenario the driver of the No. 48 car fears most.

"The thing I'm focused on the most is how we could lose this championship," Johnson said. And last weekend we did a very good job of getting some more points to take it out of a situation where if we just weren't running right that the 99 team would have a chance."

"Now we're in a position where if we make a big mistake or have a parts failure, (that's) what it would take. I feel good about things, but at the same time, I know that that possibility exists. This is motorsports. Things do happen. Like they say in football, you've still got to go play the game. We've still got to go run the race. I know that."

Jimmie Johnson: 'The thing I'm focused on the most is how we could lose this championship.' (Getty Images)

Edwards knows that even if Johnson does sputter and leaves the door to stealing the championship open, it won't matter unless he does his job.

"I'm hoping Jimmie forgets how to drive or has some sort of trouble between now and Sunday," Edwards joked. "We're just going to have to have great luck. We just have to make sure that we're there to capitalize."

"If Jimmie were to go out there and have trouble on the first lap, the most excruciating thing would be for us to finish eighth or ninth and still not go make it happen. We have to go out there to try to win this thing, and that's our plan is to go lead the most laps and win the race. That's what we're hoping for."

The points deficit between the two would not be as large if not for two major stumbles on Edwards' part during the Chase. Although he has found Victory Lane twice during the playoff schedule and has seven finishes of fourth or better, problems at Charlotte and Talladega have made the task of trying to catch Johnson in the final race tougher.

"With the way that the 48 team has been running, I definitely have understood the weight of every lap in the Chase," Edwards said. "That's what made Talladega so excruciating, to be -- I will never forget sliding down that banking with the mangled-up car thinking, 'Wow, I have really screwed us here.' That was a bad feeling."

"Then the next week at Charlotte, it was just like a bad dream where we were sitting there changing those ignition boxes, and I'm watching the field go by, thinking, 'I can make up one lap, maybe two, then three, four, five ... ' "I think I've learned a lot about the value of every point. I thought I really understood that well, but I think I understand it maybe just a little better now."

While Johnson's quest for a record-setting championship and Edwards' long-shot chance of snatching the title away dominate Sunday's storylines, there are other items of interest.

The race will be the last for several drivers in their current rides before migrating to new opportunities next year.

Casey Mears will take the green flag for the last time as a member of Hendrick Motorsports before he joins Richard Childress Racing in 2009. Reed Sorenson will make his last start for Ganassi Racing in advance of his move to Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

And Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman will wrap up his career at Penske Racing as he readies to join the new Stewart-Haas Racing operation next season with teammate Tony Stewart, who leaves Joe Gibbs Racing after Sunday's race.

"I'm not excited for the season to be over because of the fact that I'm going to be leaving Zippy (crew chief Greg Zipadelli) and Home Depot and Joe Gibbs Racing," Stewart said. "But on the other hand, I want the season to end because I want to get started on this new endeavor and I want to be 100 percent on it."

Stewart's departure ends a relationship with Gibbs that included 33 Sprint Cup victories and a pair of series championships.

"It's like it's been a marriage and now we're getting a divorce," Zipadelli said. "I spent so much time with him, working with him, working for him over the last 10 years that I don't know what to expect this weekend."

"Not to be corny or anything, but it'll be sad. It'll be disappointing. I still wish that we were staying together and finishing out our time here at Joe Gibbs Racing, but obviously that's changed. We're going in different directions now."