Homestead 2007: Matt Kenseth won the battle. Jimmie Johnson won the war.

All along, it had seemed unlikely that Jeff Gordon would be able to pull off what one broadcaster called the "Miami Miracle" - making up an 86-point deficit in one race to pass Johnson for the championship.

Despite a strong 4th-place finish by Gordon Sunday, Johnson ran a clean race and finished 7th, more than high enough to win his second straight Cup title. Gordon was only able to close the gap from 86 to 77 points by race's end.

Johnson's numbers are pretty amazing when considered as a whole - 33 wins and two championships in just six full-time Cup seasons, along with a 10-win season this year. By way of comparison, Johnson has as many titles now - and one more victory - than Tony Stewart, and Johnson's done it in three fewer seasons.

Gordon certainly has nothing to hang his head about, however. Normally his accomplishments this year would have been more than enough for a fifth championship - six wins, a record 30 top-10 finishes, and an average finish of 5.0 in the ten Chase races.

But Johnson's string of four straight victories in the final five Chase races was too much for anyone - even Jeff Gordon - to overcome. And you can't accuse Johnson of laying back and logging laps. He drove aggressively throughout the Chase, even capturing the pole for the final race at Homestead.

Matt Kenseth, who won Sunday's race, will be heading into the offseason with a lot of momentum as well. Kenseth was 12th in the Chase standing six weeks ago, but posted five straight top 5s - a 5th, 4th, 2nd, 3rd, and 1st - to move up to 4th in the standings after Homestead. And Kenseth isn't really "losing" long-time crew chief Robbie Reiser as some have asserted. While Reiser will no longer be on Matt's pit box, his new role as General Manager of Roush-Fenway Racing's Nextel Cup operations will benefit Kenseth as well as the other Roush teams in 2008.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. also has a lot to look forward to in 2008, leaving DEI and moving to Hendrick Motorsports, the most dominant team in NASCAR. But Junior had a completely forgettable season finale. After moving to the back to start the race due to a transmission change, he later got hit from behind on a restart by Jeff Burton and run into on pit road by Kyle Busch. Junior finally knocked the fenders off it after repeated contact with the wall and finished 36th. Junior tried to remain upbeat most of the season despite a quarter of his races ending in DNFs. But a hint of self doubt crept into his radio chatter tonight when he told his crew, "Man, I feel like I'm bad luck. They say you create your own luck. I wonder of it's me." Time will tell.

Tony Stewart is another driver with big changes on the horizon as he and the rest of the Joe Gibbs Racing crew transitions to Toyotas for 2008. Stewart ended the season on a sour note, however - after running in the top 10 all day, he got loose and backed into the wall on lap 253, finishing 30th.

On a more positive note was the run by Roush driver David Ragan, who started the race 7th and finished 10th. Ragan was the highest finishing rookie at Homestead, but Rookie of the Year honors go to Juan Pablo Montoya, who finished 15th Sunday.

Following Matt Kenseth in the top 10 were Kurt Busch (2), Denny Hamlin (3), Gordon (4), Carl Edwards (5), Martin Truex (6), Johnson (7), Jeff Burton (8), Mark Martin (9), and Ragan (10).

Notably, the top 8 drivers Sunday were all Chase drivers. Clint Bowyer was the lowest finishing Chaser, coming in 39th after experiencing engine problems, but he held on to 3rd in the standings overall. Despite finishing strong at Homestead, neither Truex nor Hamlin will appear on the dais at the award's banquet in New York, finishing 11th and 12th in points overall.

Matt Kenseth had a clearly dominant car from the early going at Homestead, leading 214 of 267 (80%) of the laps, which tells the story of the race. Denny Hamlin led 19, Kurt Busch, 17, and Ryan Newman, 7.

There were six Chevys in the top 10 Sunday along with three Fords and Kurt Busch in the only Dodge. Dave Blaney had the highest finishing Toyota at 12th.

While it may seem like there's a long off season ahead, I guarantee that February 9th and the Bud Shootout will be here before you know it.