Jimmie Johnson Won - Didn't we just say that?

Coming off a huge win in Las Vegas, his second in three Sprint Cup races this season, Jimmie Johnson is the guy who is considered to have the inside track on taking a points lead into the Chase for the Cup.

Of course, those are most observers talking, not to mention the odds, which have him at +250. Don't count on the drivers waving the white surrender flag just yet. Remember that those two victories only moved Johnson into fifth place in the Sprint Cup standings. Kevin Harvick (currently +800 to win the Sprint Cup) is actually the guy on top of the points race right now, and he is the guy who sounds the most defiant. "We can run with them, and they know it," he says. Last week Harvick commented that Johnson was "lucky: to win the Auto Club 500 at Fontana, because he happened to get out of the pits just in time to stay on the lead lap during a caution. Harvick experienced some frustration with his own pit crew, who were slow getting him out on occasion.

Current Top 12 to Win Sprint Cup

• Jimmie Johnson +250
• Jeff Gordon +600
• Kevin Harvick +800
• Mark Martin +800
• Carl Edwards +1000
• Tony Stewart +1000
• Jeff Burton +1200
• Clint Bowyer +1200
• Kyle Busch +1200
• Denny Hamlin +1800
• Greg Biffle +1800
• Matt Kenseth +1800

The guy who had to feel crestfallen was Jeff Gordon, Johnson's teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, who led 218 of the 267 laps of the Shelby American but had to settle for third. Gordon's first top ten finish left him just outside the top dozen in the points standings, but he is still one of the favorites, at +600, to capture the Cup.

There are four drivers who have placed in the top ten in every race - Harvick, Clint Bowyer, who is second in the Sprint Cup points, Matt Kenseth (fourth) and Greg Biffle (+1800 to win the Sprint Cup). Old reliable Mark Martin, another teammate of Johnson's, has two top-five finishes and is in third place, ranking among the Sprint Cup favorites at +800.

David Reutimann, a rising star who won last year's Coca-Cola 600, is in ninth place. He's right behind 19-year-old wunderkind Joey Logano, who was out of the running in Daytona but has put together two top tens in a row. He has nosed out by Matt Kenseth for fifth place in Las Vegas. Both of these guys are going off at high prices at the moment; Logano is +3000 to win the Cup, while Reutimann is 100/1.

To say the least, it was a disappointing week for Kyle Busch, the hometown kid, who in his own words. "Watched this track (the Las Vegas Motor Speedway) being built" and was very wager to defend his title in this Cup race (last year it was the Shelby 427). Busch, who started fifth, was near the leaders for much of the day, but got burned by a pit row speeding penalty with 51 laps remaining and finished fifteenth. "We ran a really patient race but, on our last stop there, I used too much rear brake and slid across the line coming in," Busch said. "Totally my fault. I feel bad for the guys since we had a good car and we didn't end up finishing where we ran all day long."