Johnson’s Bid For Title No. 6 In High Gear But Keselowski Hangs Tough

It hardly was easy but Jimmie Johnson scored maximum points – 48 – for the second consecutive race to open a seven-point advantage over primary championship rival Brad Keselowski.

Johnson passed leader Keselowski on the final, green-white-checker restart to capture Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Keselowski finished second. Is Johnson on his way to a sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup title? You can look at it two ways.

The standings leader after 34 races has gone on to capture the championship six times, including Johnson in 2006-09. But in the past two seasons the No. 2-ranked driver – Johnson in 2010 and Tony Stewart in 2011 – prevailed.

Johnson and Keselowski have each won five times in 2012 with Johnson currently holding a potential tie-breaker based upon most second-place finishes (five to three).