FONTANA, Calif. - Everything required for Jimmie Johnson to win his third consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship was on display in Sunday night's Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway.

If he and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team can come anywhere near replicating this performance on a consistent basis during the Chase, Johnson may be able to hoist his own "Mission Accomplished" banner in the season finale at Homestead, Fla.

Johnson blistered the field, leading 228 of 250 laps on his way to this third victory of the season and 36th of his career.

How strong was he? Twice in final 90 laps, Johnson restarted after a caution in sixth place, and in each instance, he retook the lead from Greg Biffle in less than three laps.

"To win this Chase, you're going to have to fight for wins every week, and every pit stop is going to count, because you're going to have at least [Kyle Busch] and [Carl Edwards] to have to deal with, and I would expect a few others to have their stuff in order," Johnson said. "I think [it] was a really good night for our guys to feel that pressure and to go through that.

"And for myself inside the car, it's been a while since I've been in a situation to blow it or throw it away. To really work on that mental toughness in those situations is important."

The performance by Johnson and his team is remarkably similar to last season's campaign, when Johnson used wins in this race and the next week at Richmond, Va., to launch another strong run in the Chase that produced his second consecutive championship.

"I'm happy to win and win on a big track, because the bulk of the races [in the Chase] are on these big downforce tracks," Johnson said. "I feel like we're doing the right things to have a fighting chance at the championship, and that's really all we can ask for."

Johnson cemented his spot in the Chase with his win. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th-place finish) and Jeff Burton (17th) are also locked in, joining series points leader Kyle Busch and second-place Carl Edwards.

Biffle (second) and Kevin Harvick, who earned his fifth consecutive top-10 finish, need only to start the Richmond race to secure their spots in the Chase.

"We're so glad to be in the Chase. That's so exciting for this team," Biffle said. "We missed it in '06 and '07, and to come back and get in '08, we're pretty excited."

David Ragan, 13th in points, and Kasey Kahne, 14th, are the only two drivers who still have a shot of racing their way into the Chase at Richmond. Ragan trails 12th-place Clint Bowyer by 17 points, and Kahne is 48 points behind Bowyer.

Hendrick Motorsports looks like it will have three drivers in the 12-driver Chase, with Gordon still likely to join Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson in the field. Gordon struggled again Sunday -- he finished 15th -- leaving team owner Rick Hendrick still searching for answers.

"We have got some really good tracks for [Gordon] coming up, but we've definitely got to get better on the 1.5-mile [tracks]," Hendrick said. "We've had unbelievable things happen -- breaking suspension pieces -- but we just haven't been as good, nowhere near as good as he was last year and we've just struggled.

"We are going to keep going, keep working, and nobody is giving up on that team, or any of our teams."

Denny Hamlin finished third for the second consecutive race, Harvick was fourth and Matt Kenseth rallied to finish fifth. Kyle Busch, who leads the series standings by 208 points over Edwards, was seventh.

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