Edwards hopes Johnson feels pressure

Edwards has won the last two races and heads into this weekend's race at Phoenix 106 points behind the reigning champion after being more than 190 off his lead three weeks ago.

The Roush Fenway driver says Johnson should be worried about them being able to gain on them as much as they've done in the past few weeks.

"I think that definitely Jimmie and those guys are aware of where we're at and we've been closing points," Edwards said.

"I can't speak for them, but if I were in their position, I'd be nervous because everybody sees how this sport can go and in a matter of a week or two weeks things can change, drastically. I hope they're worried about us. I think they are."

The reigning Nationwide Series champion, who is also closing down Clint Bowyer's lead in the second-tier series, feels that he could still prevent Johnson from winning another championship if he is able to at least maintain the current gap heading into the season finale.

"As long as we maintain or gain some ground, I feel like we have a great chance at Miami, just based on the probability that anything can happen," he said. "If we run well enough, we could theoretically run down Jimmie and still have a chance to beat him without anything going wrong with their car or their race.

"When you add in the variables that could go wrong, I think that as long as we're within 130 or 140 points at Homestead, we're still mathematically in it. Obviously, the best thing will be to go out and lead a bunch of laps, win the race and do what we've been doing and gain a ton of points.

"All we can do is the best that we can do, just like we have the last few weeks. Just go out there, be aggressive and race hard."

If Edwards finished thirteenth or worse at Phoenix and Johnson wins the race, the Californian would clinch the title by just taking the start at the season finale.