Johnson hoping for title this weekend

The reigning champion heads into Sunday's race with 106 points over his main contender Carl Edwards, while Greg Biffle is third only 37 points behind his Roush Fenway teammate.

In his first championship-winning season Johnson headed into the penultimate race at Phoenix with just 17 points difference back to second-placed Matt Kenseth, while last year 30 points separated him and Jeff Gordon.

The Californian says he feels more comfortable ahead of this weekend's race compared to the past two seasons, but hopes to rebound after a difficult race last weekend at Texas, where he only managed to finish fifteenth, giving up part of his points gap to Edwards.

"When I stop and look at where we are at, I am certainly more comfortable now than any other Chase that we have been a part of," Johnson said. "But the racer in me and what this team is about, we look at last weekend and say, we gave some points away.

"We got caught behind and couldn't recover through the course of the race the way the race worked out and we lost points. That side still sticks around and it is in my head and (crew chief) Chad's (Knaus) head because we are racers. We felt like we were much better than where we finished.

"That is a problem in our eyes. We can't have those days, regardless of where the points are. Again, that is behind us. That is last week. We are at one of our better tracks.

"When we look at the reality of things, we still have a great points lead as you pointed out and it is just time to get out there and do it again."

If Johnson wins at Phoenix and Carl Edwards finishes thirteenth or worse, he could clinch the title on Sunday, becoming the first driver to do so before the season finale under the current playoff format. The Hendrick driver is hoping to do just that.

"Last week we were mature and had a little bit of a points lead; we didn't have to stress too much about and so we handled it right," Johnson added. "But this weekend, we're showing up and we want the trophy. We know what the points breaks are. We know what we need to do.

"And the first goal would be to try to leave here and not have to worry about racing in Homestead. Will that happen? Carl (Edwards) is going to be strong now. But if I can keep the points where they are and take the trophy home, we're in great shape."

Johnson won a year ago at Phoenix before claiming his second title and he also won in April of this year at the one-mile oval, dominating the race but then gambling on fuel mileage to take his first victory of the season.