If you're a Jimmie Johnson fan, congratulations. If you're not, condolences.

Johnson made it three in a row Sunday, adding a victory at Texas Motor Speedway to his wins at Atlanta and Martinsville the prior two weeks.

It was Johnson's 9th win of the year - he won the title last year with just five - and gave the 48 team a 30-point lead over teammate Jeff Gordon, who has six wins on the season.

As mentioned in our practice and qualifying recap, Gordon was very concerned about the car during Happy Hour, and crew chief Steve Letarte didn't get the handling close to Gordon's comfort level until Sunday's race was nearly over.

Said a frustrated Gordon after the race, "We flat out just got beat." While the title hunt is clearly down to just Johnson and Gordon now, the question at this point seems to be one of which factor will prevail: Gordon's better season overall, or Johnson's hot streak in the latter half of the Chase.

Gordon has more top-5 and top-10 finishes than any other driver this year including Johnson. Jeff has 20 top 5s compared to 19 for Jimmie, and 28 top 10s compared to Johnson's 22. Gordon has led 1300 laps this year; Johnson, 1233.

It's also interesting to note that Kyle Busch gained two spots in the standings after Texas, moving up to 4th in the points - not that he could win the title, but it means that Hendrick Motorsports now has three of the top 4 drivers in the Chase and has won fully half of this year's races (17 wins for HMS in 34 races).

The amazing thing about Johnson's takeover of Gordon in the points is that the 24 team has had an amazing run in the Chase - five top 5s and seven top 10s in 8 races - the only finish outside the top 10 was an 11th at Dover - while Johnson has had two 14th-place Chase finishes. Gordon has 2 wins in the Chase; Johnson, 3 wins. Gordon's average finish in the Chase is a 4.6, while Johnson's is a 5.2.

The Texas race itself started Sunday afternoon under warm sunny skies and finished at night under the lights, creating a challenge for teams to keep up with the changing track conditions throughout this 500-miler that took almost four hours to complete.

Kyle Busch had a dominant car for much of the day, passing Jeff Gordon for the lead on lap 46 and eventually leading 153 of 334 laps, accounting for 46% of the total laps run.

Other lap leaders included Denny Hamlin with 45, Matt Kenseth with 44, and Gordon with 20.

Hamlin and Kenseth raced each other for much of the midportion of the race, but on lap 273 Hamlin lost the handle, rubbed the side of the 17 car, and spun into the wall. While Hamlin finished the race in 29th place, Kenseth continued to run near the front.

The biggest wreck of the day occurred at lap 219 when Casey Mears got loose and slid up into Tony Stewart, touching off a crash that collected David Gilliland, Dale Jarrett, David Ragan, and Mark Martin, along with Stewart and Mears himself.

The race came down to a battle between Matt Kenseth on two tires and Jimmie Johnson - who only led nine laps all day - got off pit road quickly despite a four tire stop, and gained vital track position. After picking off Martin Truex and Ryan Newman, Johnson started closing the gap on Kenseth, who raced hard but later admitted that he knew it was just a matter of time before Johnson would pass him - which was the case with a lap to go. Kenseth also acknowledged that he didn't want to risk wrecking either himself or the 48. "He knew I wasn't going to give him a lot of extra room with five to go, but he knew I wasn't going to wreck him, either," said Kenseth.

Finishing behind Johnson and Kenseth was Truex, the pole sitter, while Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman rounded out the top 5. Clint Bowyer had to make a few unscheduled pit stops for tire issues and finished 19th; he's now 181 points behind Johnson and 151 behind Gordon, who finished 7th.

Heading into Texas, we pointed out that neither Gordon nor Johnson had ever won a Cup race there. Thanks to Sunday's victory, Johnson can cross Texas off his list. We used to be able to say the same thing about Phoenix - that neither driver had won there - until April when Jeff Gordon crossed PIR off his list.

Will Gordon repeat at Phoenix for the season sweep? Will Johnson make it four straight in the Chase? Or will something totally unexpected happen in the Valley of the Sun? Stay tuned …