PHOENIX, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Jimmie Johnson closed in on a third straight points championship Sunday, winning the Sprint Cup Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 Sprint Cup race in Phoenix.
The end of the race was delayed by a late caution flag, but Johnson, the pole-winner, led 217 of 313 laps.
Johnson needs only a 36th place finish at the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead, Fla., to win his third straight points title next Sunday.
His No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet beat Jamie McMurray and a hard-charging Kurt Busch to the checkered flag for his seventh win this season and the 40th of his career.
"That's great ... very, very good," he said in a post-race television interview. "I know we'll have the speed to do it, but we just need things to go our way and not have anything crazy to happen."
In the "Race for the Chase," Johnson holds a 141-point lead over fourth-place finisher Carl Edwards.
Denny Hamlin finished fifth.
