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Getting in position to win a Nextel Cup Series championship hasn't been a problem for Jimmie Johnson. Sealing the deal, on the other hand, that's a whole other matter. Since coming into the series as a rookie in 2002, Johnson has finished the season in the top five in the point standings every year. Two times he finished series runner-up, including a scant eight points behind Kurt Busch in the inaugural Chase for the Championship in 2004. "Looking back at the past few seasons of the chase, we felt we maybe gambled at the wrong time and tried to develop parts and pieces for the car and set-ups at the wrong times," Johnson said. "This year I really think we really stuck to a good plan and developed our stuff at the right time." Johnson's team has the appearance of a fighter exploding out of the corner after getting knocked down with a few left hooks in the first two rounds. After a few bumps in the road early in The Chase, Johnson is back in position to win a title, 41 points behind leader Matt Kenseth with four races left, including Sunday's Bass Pro Shops 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "Obviously, with the slow start we had, I'm happy about it," Johnson said. "We've been knocking on the door for a championship for five seasons, and hopefully, this will be the year for us." Johnson will start Sunday's Bass Pro Shops 500 in third place after rain washed out all of Friday's on-track activity. The field will line up by points, putting Matt Kenseth and the rest of The Chase field out front for Sunday's race. Today's on-track action calls for two Nextel Cup practice sessions, the Crown Royal International Race of Champions season finale, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Easy Car Vehicle Service Contacts 200. The weather forecast for today is favorable with partly cloudy skies and little chance of rain. Getting in place to win a title hasn't come easy for Johnson, who entered The Chase in second place. After damage dropped him to a 39th-place finish in New Hampshire to start the Chase Johnson found himself in ninth place, well below his accustomed position of no worse than third up until the start of The Chase.

After a finish of 13th at Dover improved him to eighth, a chance for a big points day vanished two weeks later at Talladega where last lap contact between he, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Brian Vickers sent Johnson to a finish of 24th.

Since then, the No. 48 team has caught fire similar to the early-season fashion when it won two of the first three races to start the year. A finish of second at Lowe's Motor Speedway followed by last week's win at Martinsville moved Johnson up to third in the standings.

"The luck and the way things have gone have really made this an interesting and crazy chase for all the competitors," Johnson said. "We made good changes we're we need to be. We were let back into this deal in a weird way and it's time to go."

At Lowe's, Johnson was beat to the finish line by Kasey Kahne. Kahne's eighth in The Chase for the Championship, 99 points out of first place. Before the Nextel Cup trophy is hoisted in Homestead, Kahne expects Johnson to have a say in who the champion will be.

"He's right there. He can definitely come in and take away," Kahne said. "At Charlotte we won just off of having a better racecar. He started out with the lead after the final stop and I passed him and drove away."

Johnson getting back into the heat of The Chase couldn't come at a better time for he and his team. He ranks fourth among active Nextel Cup drivers with an average finish of 11.8 at AMS and won the Bass Pro Shops 400 two years ago.

Atlanta's 1.54-mile quad-oval configuration is very similar to Lowe's Motor Speedway and the next track on the schedule, Texas Motor Speedway. Johnson's won five points races at Lowe's in addition to a pair of Nextel All-Star Challenges.