Johnson

For the most part, life in his first season on the Winston Cup circuit has been a non-stop party of success for rookie Jimmie Johnson.

He was the first rookie in history to ever lead the points, has three wins and 20 top-10 finishes, and has given us a season most of us won't forget for a long time.

But like all good things, it appears the party may be coming to an end for the young California native.

With three races left on the schedule, Johnson is not only coming off a disappointing 22nd-place finish in last Sunday's rain-shortened NAPA 500 in Atlanta, he dropped back to third in the standings, a distant 150 points behind series leader Tony Stewart.

"When you give 100 percent and come up short, it's just one of those things," said Johnson, who must now try to regroup for Sunday's Pop Secret 400 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.

"We all tried as hard as we could (at Atlanta), we just had a bad day," Johnson said. "It's just unfortunate that we had a bad day at the end of the season when it's so important to collect points, but that's just how it is. It'll sting for a couple of days but we've got to switch our minds to Rockingham and go there and do as well as we can."

While Johnson is not willing to concede the title to Stewart just yet, some of his comments in his weekly teleconference with reporters Tuesday indicate he feels the title is Stewart's to lose.

"We can't control our own destiny now," Johnson said. "Before Atlanta, we could look at maybe getting 20 points per event and maybe putting ourselves at the head table (at NASCAR's postseason awards banquet in New York), but I think Tony is going to have to have a bad finish or a failure or something like that for us to be able to win the championship.

"It's a bummer at this point to admit that and to look at that, but we can't take anything away from the year that we've had, and we've still got a chance at finishing up the year real strong and even an outside chance at winning it. We'll just try to run as strong as we can at every event from here on out and see how it shakes out."

Heading into Rockingham, Johnson, second-place Mark Martin (146 points behind) and fourth-place Ryan Newman (203 points back) would seem to be the only drivers who pose legitimate threats to overtake Stewart.

	Johnson's spin and subsequent 22nd-place finish at Atlanta severely damaged his title hopes.

Sure, others such as Rusty Wallace (227 back), Kurt Busch (297), and even defending champion Jeff Gordon (301) still have a mathematical chance at winning the title, but Stewart would have to either have a complete and catastrophic collapse -- like finishing last in all three remaining races -- or, like Sterling Marlin, would have to be sidelined by injury to prevent him from winning his first championship.

However, given the way Stewart has been driving of late, that would be a stretch. Heading into Rockingham, Stewart has been nothing but a picture of consistency with five top-five finishes, as well as an eighth-place and 11th-place showing in his last seven starts.

Conversely, Johnson has just one top-five finish in his last seven starts (a win last month at Dover, Del.), but has four top-10s in that stretch, as well.

Sunday marks Johnson's return to Rockingham, where he finished 28th earlier this year in the second race of the season at the tricky one-mile oval. With 25-degree banking in two turns and 22-degree banking in the other two turns, not to mention a slightly longer backstretch than front straight, Rockingham is often compared to perhaps the toughest track on the circuit, Darlington Raceway.

Is it any wonder Rockingham is more commonly known as "The Rock?"

"Rockingham is a tough place," Johnson said. "It's got a surface similar to Darlington. Tires go away fast so it's hard to get a good feel for what to adjust on the car because the conditions are changing every single lap. It's a fun track, a mile track with a lot of banking. I'm looking forward to going there.

"We had a crew member, David Bryant, struck on pit road there earlier in the year and we had a lot of confusion in the pit when that happened and ended up losing a lap. That's why our finish looked so bad there. But I think we have a shot at running in the top-10 on Sunday."

Statistically, each driver has the potential to earn a maximum total of 555 points (including 30 bonus points) in the final three races. Subtract the 150-point edge Stewart has on Johnson and the margin closes to just 405 points left for Johnson to potentially earn just to tie Stewart, let alone regain the series lead.

And that's not counting what Stewart will potentially do in those races. Johnson admits he's gone from a worthy challenger to a longshot since Sunday.

"Before Atlanta, we talked about it," Johnson said about how he and crew chief Chad Knaus analyzed the remaining races and potential points they could earn. "But now, there isn't any number crunching that's going to work. It's pretty simple. Tony is going to have to have a bad day like we did to put us back in it (points chase).

"We just need to go out and fight hard and try to stay ahead of Mark (Martin) in points and try to beat Ryan (Newman) in the Rookie of the Year battle. If we get thrown a bone and Tony (Stewart) has some bad luck, then we've got our race for the championship back."

But the more Johnson talks and analyzes his situation, the more it appears he'll need a miracle -- and miracles are few and far between on the Winston Cup circuit.

"When you're coming down to the end and this is what you're been racing all season for, the pressure's there," he said. "We've tried to not put a lot of pressure on ourselves throughout the season. In the middle part of the season, we put the most pressure on ourselves. We learned some lessons from that.

"And now, the pressure's on. It's just something you get used to. We're just going to attack the rest of the season and see where it all falls out. And however it falls together, we've had a season that's been incredible and I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.