By Jenna Fryer
Associated Press
HOMESTEAD, Fla. ó Three championships down and Jimmie Johnson is already thinking about No. 4.
There’s no time to rest ó not with Carl Edwards hot on his bumper.
Johnson tied Cale Yarborough’s 30-year mark as the only driver to win three consecutive titles, but Edwards made it clear he doesn’t intend to play second fiddle for long. Edwards won Sunday’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway yet still fell 69 points shy of dethroning Johnson.
“I shook his hand tonight,” said Rick Hendrick, Johnson’s car owner, “and he said, ‘It’s going to be different next year.’ “Not if Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and their Hendrick Motorsports team has anything to say about it.
“I could go race again next week and start the season and go for four,” Johnson said. “It’s on our minds. It’s not that we’re chasing a number, we just know what we’re capable of. We know we can do better. It’s a search to do the best we can.”
Edwards, who picked up his series-best ninth victory of the season, needed Johnson to finish 36th or worse to win his first title.
Johnson, who ended the season with seven victories, won the title by placing 15th.”We won more races than Jimmie, and we ran with him when he won,” Edwards said. “I know they’ll enjoy this championship, but they knew we were here.”