Well, we won't have the "T" word to kick around anymore. Talladega and all the wild-card talk is history. Jamie McMurray won the race, Jimmie Johnson avoided disaster, and now there are three races standing between Johnson and even more history. Here's the breakdown of the top 12 after Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway.

1. Jimmie Johnson, 6,248 points
You might think the 48 team is either incredibly lucky or incredibly good. I think it's both. And there's nothing wrong with that. You don't win one championship without getting some breaks along the way, and you surely don't win two, three or four without the same. Johnson laid back the entire race, missed both big wrecks and took on gas at the right time — and finished sixth. Those who complained about that strategy simply were jealous their driver didn't do as well.

2. Mark Martin, 6,064
Martin completed all but one lap — but it was the biggest lap of all — before his car flipped and landed back on its wheels. He clearly was frustrated after the race with his fate: his sixth DNF at Talladega for a crash and second this year, his 28th-place finish and his 184-point deficit in the standings.

3. Jeff Gordon, 6,056
Gordon ran short on fuel and finished 20th, his worst finish of the Chase. One for the thumb will have to wait another year.

4. Juan Pablo Montoya, 6,009
Montoya finished 19th and has three more chances this season to get his first win on an oval. This week at Texas, it's all about speed, and that's one of his strengths. He finished seventh in April.

5. Tony Stewart, 5,969
Stewart got caught up in the wreck that claimed teammate Ryan Newman on Lap 184 and suffered his first DNF and his worst finish (36th) of the season. Stewart and Newman had completed all but 14 laps heading into Talladega — tops in the series — before losing that distinction to Montoya on Sunday.

6. Kurt Busch, 5,936
How's this for a consolation prize? Busch retains his title as the best plate racer never to win a plate race. He visited DNFs-ville for the second time in the past four races at Talladega.

7. Greg Biffle, 5,908
Speaking of consolation prizes ... for all the disappointment Biffle has experienced in 2009, none can be attributed to Talladega. He finished seventh in April and fourth Sunday — those are his only top 10s in 14 starts at the superspeedway.

8. Ryan Newman, 5,846
What's the best thing we can say about Newman's day at Talladega? He's alive. Three thoughts: First, great job by NASCAR for making the car so safe. I feared Newman had been crushed. Second, I'm hugely thankful there was no fire. Yes, that's an obvious statement, but he was pinned in there for such a long time, it was a concern of mine. And third, Newman said he couldn't communicate with his team because his antenna was busted in the wreck. Any chance that can be addressed so we won't have communications blackouts if something similar happens again?

9. Kasey Kahne, 5,834
Kahne finished second for his second top five in three races and kept alive his all-or-nothing Chase: three finishes in the 30s, four finishes eighth or better. He moved up two spots in the standings and can continue that climb at Texas, where he has one of his 11 career Cup wins.

10. Carl Edwards, 5,811
Edwards drove across the finish line Sunday — finishing 14th — so that was an immediate improvement to his Ricky Bobby finish in April. Perhaps that will give him momentum going into Texas, where he has three wins.

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11. Denny Hamlin, 5,800
Hamlin had a fast car but suffered a blown engine for the second time in three weeks. It also was his third DNF in four races. The misfortune overshadows just how strong he has been in that stretch: Despite a 29.5 average finish, he has led the second-most laps, 292 to Johnson's 382.

12. Brian Vickers, 5,697
Vickers finished 13th and is still looking for his first top 10 of the Chase. There has never been a Chase driver in the six years of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup to go without a top 10 in the final 10 races.

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