After tying Cale Yarborough's 30-year mark as the only driver with three straight championships, Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief were already thinking about going after No. 4. “I could go race again next week and start the season and go for four,” Johnson said after Sunday's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “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.” Chad Knaus, the first crew chief in series history to win three straight, even offered to report to work Monday morning to start their pursuit. He was only partly kidding. “We want four. Why not? That's why we're here,” Knaus said. “We can definitely bid for four. Give me a reason why not.” Carl Edwards could certainly offer a reason or two after winning Sunday's race - his series-best ninth victory of the season - only to fall 69 points short of wresting the Sprint Cup trophy away from Johnson. Edwards led a race-high 157 laps, and won despite running out of gas as he crossed the finish line. Johnson won the title by finishing 15th. Indeed they did, constantly looking in the rearview mirror as Johnson chased Yarborough's mark. Yarborough won his three titles 30 years ago, under a different scoring system and in a very different NASCAR. He accomplished his feat when drivers scraped together the cash they needed to race, and the champion was the guy on top at the end of a long grueling season. Johnson's titles have been won in the glitzy new Chase to the championship format, where the best 12 drivers compete over a 10-race sprint to the title. Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team have mastered the system, proving themselves unbeatable in their pursuit of Yarborough's mark. They've won their titles with consistency - he finished outside the top 10 just twice in this Chase and by winning eight of the last 30 Chase races. They've also gotten very rich along the way: Johnson has won more than $2 million in the 10 Chase races this year. Yarborough earned a combined $1.63 million in all three of his championship seasons. Although the industry was keenly aware of its front row seat to history, the celebration seemed subdued because of the economic crisis that's finally found its way to NASCAR. The Big Three automakers are crumbling, car owners are struggling to find sponsorship, and widespread layoffs are expected Monday, when teams could combine to let go up to 1,000 employees. Just this weekend, NASCAR said it would suspend all testing next year. – AP __
