Jimmie Johnson completed perhaps the comeback of the season when he finally clinched NASCAR's Nextel Cup title on Sunday night in Miami, ending the season as he had started it - at the top of the points. source: crash.net The Daytona 500 winner needed only twelfth or better in the season finale at Homestead, having retaken the points lead three races from the post, and, although he trailed closest rival Matt Kenseth at the flag, ninth on the road was enough to see him standing on the roof of his #48 Lowe's Chevrolet and hoisting Nextel Cup above his head. "This is everything I ever wanted," said Johnson, shortly before accepting a cheque for $6.5million, "This is the most amazing day of my life." The Californian admitted that the last few weeks have been tense, the pressure increasing as he gradually hauled himself back from a nightmare start to the Chase for the Championship which defines the title race. An accident at the first of the ten 'play-off' events left Johnson trailing towards the foot of the top ten, a situation not helped by further poor results in the next few rounds, which left him 256 points off the lead. However, a string of top two finishes, punctuated by a win in the Subway 500 at Martinsville, propelled him from bottom to top in short order, leaving him in a position to claim the crown by 56 points over Ford rival Kenseth. Needing to only finish twelfth or better wasn't going to be easy though, and Johnson suffered debris damage early on at Homestead after Kurt Busch hit the wall.
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