AVONDALE, Ariz. -- So many times Jimmie Johnson has come to Phoenix International Raceway on the brink of a championship, and so many times he's used a performance on the desert mile to essentially secure the crown. Four of his five titles at NASCAR's premier level have been all but locked down at the foot of the Estrella Mountains, and Sunday he laid the groundwork for what would be title number six. Phoenix has always loomed large for Johnson, a Southern California native who so focuses on the Arizona track that he even made a rare NASCAR Nationwide Series start here in the spring in an effort to learn a little more for the track's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup event. But even as the scene shifts from the desert to the Florida coastline for the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Phoenix still looms large, and not just because of what Johnson did here Sunday in weathering a pair of early scrapes to place his boot heel on the neck of the competition. More...