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Johnson wins fifth straight NASCAR title

Jimmie Johnson won an unprecedented fifth-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with a second place finish in the final race of the season that was enough to overcome a slim points deficit.

Johnson, clinched the title by 39 points over Denny Hamlin, who entered the race with a 15-point lead but slipped to second after finishing in 14^th at Homestead Miami Speedway.

“Now I have to figure out what the hell to say about winning five of these things because everybody is going to want to know what it means,” Johnson told reporter. “I don’t know. It is pretty damn awesome I can tell you that.”

The 400 mile race was won by Carl Edwards.

Hamlin, who won this race last year, started 37^th in a 43-car field and would have to drive aggressively to close the gap on Johnson, who started 6^th.

But when Hamlin’s car came into contact with another early in the race, the damage to his car was too severe to overcome.

“I knew we had a car that could contend for a win, and obviously when we got in that incident on the back straightaway ... the car did not drive as well for the rest of the day,” said Hamlin.