HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Prior to the start of the media day Thursday with the four championship contenders, Jimmie Johnson passed a reporter.You missed it, Johnson said. We just got in a big fight.A quick check of Johnson showed no black eye. He was fibbing, just having fun. It was no surprise. For a driver who had six Cup titles and feels like he plays with house money for the rest of his career, he could joke around all he wanted a few days prior to another potential biggest race of his life.But maybe he just wanted to create a distraction. Johnson obviously was hiding something else.A horseshoe.I guess the horseshoe only goes in one spot, Johnson quipped after a long celebration Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But theres no room.That horseshoe has to exist somewhere in the Hendrick Motorsports stable. How else could Johnson have won a race Sunday when he looked to be the worst among the four Chase finalists for much of the event, causing crew chief Chad Knaus to drop a couple of choice curse words when trying to talk about what to do to the car?And then, in the most stunning and improbable fashion, Johnson emerged as the champion, number #se7en as he puts it.Most people in the situation we were just in would have crumbled and he didnt even waver, Knaus said. He knew what he needed to do. He knew what the demands were on him at that point in time and he made it happen. Thats the difference.Running sixth with 15 laps to go and fifth with 10 laps remaining, Johnson found himself in no position to win his seventh title and tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt in the process.Appearances werent even deceiving. He just didnt seem to have the speed to match Chase finalists Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.I never thought it was bleak, Johnson said. There was a weird, comfortable confidence all night long. ... I just felt like something was going to happen and I was going to be OK with it.And for a while, I came with the grips to the reality of it being third, fourth somewhere in there and shaking somebody elses hand and being happy for them.And then he turned into a seven-time Cup champion. A wreck on a restart with 10 laps remaining ruined the day for Edwards as he tried to block Logano. Edwards had the strongest long-run car but was out of the race. Logano, who was able to continue, had the strongest short-run car, but it was damaged.Johnson restarted fourth with five laps left in regulation and jumped quickly to second. Another accident led to NASCARs version of overtime, a two-lap dash to the finish. Johnson took the lead from Kyle Larson on the restart and never looked back, winning the Ford 400 and the 2016 title.There was just some calmness that was in me, Johnson said. We restart and the 22 [of Logano] and 19 [of Edwards] wreck and Im like, Oh, OK. Weve got a shot at this thing. I dont know why Ive been so calm but maybe it is in the cards. ... I get the restart of my life at the end and I got the goose bumps going down the backstretch and Im like, Youve got to be kidding me.Non-Chase finalists Larson and Kevin Harvick followed him across the finish line with Logano fourth. Kyle Busch, the other Chase finalist running at the finish, was sixth, while Edwards was in the garage at 34th.Crazy that they were never really in the game, but there they are all of a sudden every chance they get, Busch said. They get in the right time or the right lane or have a good restart or just do the things they need to do, and they make the most of it.As the team celebrated its championship, team members threw hats into the crowd. No horseshoes could be found.You can say luck, whatever you want to say, but those guys battled, said four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, a co-owner of the team. They battled hard to try to get themselves in that position and hoped that cautions would come out and fall their way. And they did.It certainly was a battle. With 95 laps remaining and Johnson stuck in 10th, the team tried to figure out the adjustments during a caution.Were going to try a bunch of s--- here, Knaus told Johnson. Were last anyways.Among the adjustments: The team made an adjustment of the right front shock of the car, allowing the car to turn better as track temperatures cooled as the sun went down. It was especially important on those final restarts.Jimmie was definitely able to run the bottom of the racetrack better, Knaus said. In traffic, we just couldnt get from that fifth-to-eighth, in that area it is kind of like a black hole. Its very difficult to progress through that area and we just couldnt get through.So Johnson needed help. He got it in the form of the Edwards-Logano ruckus.Was there some luck involved or bad luck? ... Did that open up the door for us? Absolutely, Knaus said. But the fact of the matter is we lined up out there and Jimmie drove that thing past those guys and won the race.Yes, he did.With 10 laps to go, I said [to my wife], Were not going to??? were not going to do anything, team owner Rick Hendrick said. She said, Youre going to win the race.? I said, Well, thats pretty funny.When we had that last caution and he came out and took the lead ... I couldnt believe it.? I was actually stunned because we had so many ups and downs in that race, and Im not a big fan of restarts because I usually come out on the wrong end.Hendrick might be Johnsons biggest fan. And the feeling is mutual. Johnson remembers when Hendrick took a chance on him on the advice of Gordon, who saw Johnson race in the Xfinity Series and do nothing spectacular.Or at least not have spectacular results.Johnson proved Gordon a prophet, winning five consecutive Sprint Cup titles from 2006 to 2010, another in 2013 and now one more in 2016.I saw him doing a lot with a lot less equipment than some of his competitors, Gordon said. I thought, Wow, if we could give him the kind of equipment Ive been driving, just imagine what he can do. Of course, none of us expected it to turn out quite the way that it has.Its been an unbelievable career, a career that now includes 80 victories along with the seven Cup titles.?I didnt know if wed ever see anybody win seven, said Johnson teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of the late seven-time champion. 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AUBURN, Ala. -- Auburn starters Bryce Brown and Horace Spencer have been suspended following their arrest on charges of misdemeanor marijuana possession.Auburn police arrested the two players at about 3 a.m. Wednesday and charged them with second-degree marijuana possession, according to an incident report.The report says the players were found in a 2006 Hummer with a cellophane bag containing marijuana, as well as some that was loose.Tigers coacch Bruce Pearl says they will miss at least Thursday nights game with Coastal Carolina.ddddddddddddPearl says the two players are embarrassed and are really good kids.Brown is averaging 6.9 points per game while Spencer is averaging 5.9 points and 4.8 rebounds.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org ' ' '