Seven races into the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup and it is starting to look like Jimmie Johnson will be claiming his third consecutive Cup Series championship. Entering this weekend's race at the Texas Motor Speedway, Johnson enjoys a 183 point lead over Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards. Nipping at Edwards' heels is teammate Greg Biffle who is just two points out of second place.

Edwards is doing everything in his power to make this Chase a battle to the end, but Johnson and his Chad Knaus-led crew is not leaving much room. Last week's amazing comeback by Johnson and the great call by Knaus late in the race for four fresh tires shows this team is the simply the best.

"You have no clue what's going to take place next week or the final two races," Johnson explained last week in Atlanta. "You got to go. You just can't sit still and be content with sixth, seventh, fifth, wherever you're at. You've got to go. You just don't know what's gonna happen, what kind of luck we're gonna have. You just got to do it."

With only three races remaining, Johnson is finally starting to let the thoughts of winning his third title in a row sink in, but he is still remaining focused.

"My outlook is better," Johnson went on to say. "There's three races left. Our points margin is bigger than it's been yet. So that's a step in the right direction. But until I have that trophy in my mind, I can't loosen up on things. I just got to keep my head down and keep working for this."

Taking the victory last week, Edwards was in awe after being told of Johnson's rally to second.

"Are you kidding me" Man, you've rained on my parade all day," Edwards told ESPN's Dave Burns in Victory Lane. "I could have done without that one. Jimmie is an awesome competitor. I mean, Chad and Rick and all those guys came down to congratulate me, but that's unbelievable. He does a great job."

Edwards heads into Texas with a bit of history on his side. Over the last three years, the winner in the fall race in Atlanta has gone on to win at Texas the following week. The driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion already has two wins on the 1.5-mile track - including the race there earlier in the season. Adding another victory with just three races remaining would be a major boost in the points and might make this thing closer than it is right now.

"Here's the deal, we go out and do the best we can," Edwards explained in Atlanta. "If we win 10 races and the championship, it's gonna be a spectacular season and that's what we're focusing on doing right now. I don't know, we'll just have to see what happens. The one thing I've learned in this sport, and it's really hard to come to grips with, is you don't always get the result you want. You just have to perform the best you can and, if you do that, the result doesn't matter, you can lay your head down at night and feel OK. So I guess we'll see after Homestead."

Struggling throughout the race last Sunday, Greg Biffle was able to salvage a 10th-place finish. However, when your two biggest competitors for the title finish first and second, a tenth-place finish is nothing to brag about.

Biffle has one win at the Texas Motor Speedway, but has struggled there over the last few years. The driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion finished sixth in this race a year ago, but has four finishes of 33rd or worse in the last five races at the speedway - including a 39th-place finish earlier this year.

Still in the hunt, but not running as well as he would like, Biffle is remaining realistic. "We're just running as good as we can and whatever happens happens," Biffle explained. "I'm tired of people asking me how we're gonna catch him. We're just gonna race as hard as we can every week. We've got three more chances and then we're gonna start over next year."

This weekend is going to have huge implications on the outcome of the Chase one way or the other. If history repeats itself and Edwards does score back-to-back wins and sweeps the year's events at Texas that will move him even closer to Johnson's point lead. Yet, it Johnson and his Lowe's team continue to show the disciplined form they have over the last two months, that point lead may extend. Things are definitely going to continue to get interesting as time starts to dwindle down on this year's season.