HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- As Jimmie Johnson made his celebratory trip around the track, crew chief Chad Knaus fumbled with papers that had fallen from his notebook, too distracted to celebrate.

``I wanted to make sure I had everything, so none of the competitors could get them,'' Knaus said.

Two Nextel Cup championships down, and Johnson and Knaus are already thinking about a third. Based on their dedication and dominance, there's no reason to believe they won't contend for it next season.

After all, Johnson wasn't even out of his car following Sunday's title-clinching race at Homestead-Miami Speedway when Knaus was looking toward 2008.

``It's been a phenomenal ride,'' he said. ``Sad it's over, but I can't wait for Daytona now. When you're fortunate enough to be with a group of guys and have an organization behind you like we've got right now, all you want to do is just keep going. I think there are more wins out there for us. I think there are more championships out there for us.''

As does everyone else.

Johnson didn't back into a second straight title. He wrested it from teammate Jeff Gordon and never looked back, turning a tight championship chase into a runaway.

He was 68 points out after Gordon's win at Charlotte in the fifth race of the Chase for the championship, then reeled off four wins in the final five races to knock Gordon out of contention. When he finally finished his quiet Sunday drive at Homestead with a seventh-place finish, Johnson had a 77-point advantage over Gordon -- the largest in the four seasons of the Chase.

With four wins and eight top 10s in the Chase, Johnson posted an untouchable average finish of 5.0. Gordon, who won twice in the Chase and averaged a 5.1 finish, was dumbfounded.

``I'll be honest with you, I'll take a 5.1 average for the rest of my career in the Chase,'' the four-time series champion said. ``I'm pretty sure that will win a few championships.''

Just not this year, not against a team that can't seem to do anything wrong.

In winning 10 races this season -- the first double-digit total since Gordon did it in 1998 -- Johnson and Knaus proved they aren't afraid to be aggressive. So confident in their skill, they know they can gamble and go for wins. And if it backfires, the end result probably won't be too bad.

The two never stop pushing, even when Johnson had taken command of the standings and could have coasted to the title. Johnson went hard after wins in Texas and Phoenix when settling for second place would have been just fine.

``We're pretty fierce competitors and what we want to do is win races,'' Knaus said. ``When we knew that was our only way to get back into the championship hunt was to win races, it was nice.''