Gears and lug nuts doom Jimmie Johnson's title hopes

• Jimmie Johnson's season ended in the garage at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 36th-place finish
• Johnson was given a penalty after a lug nut was left off the left rear tire on a lap-213 pit stop
• Shortly after he returned to the track, Johnson radioed his crew of smoke in the cockpit

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — When it became apparent that the effort to save Jimmie Johnson's badly injured No. 48 Chevrolet was a lost cause, his crew didn't quit trying to save it.

Even with three laps remaining in Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400, when it was official that Johnson had lost the Sprint Cup championship to Brad Keselowski, three Hendrick Motorsports crewmen remained under the car, thrashing to replace its broken differential gears.

"It's one of those things a team does to get back out there and try not to have a DNF," Johnson said. "It's just in case somebody had a problem — or if the 2 (Keselowski) did — we could capitalize on it."

Johnson's night and season ended in the garage at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 36th-place finish, tying his worst since the Daytona 500. Keselowski's 15th was plenty to win the title by 39 points over Clint Bowyer and 40 over Johnson, who prior to last week's 32nd at Phoenix International Raceway had a seven-point lead in the standings and a seemingly clear path to his sixth title.

Sunday's problem with the rear-end gears wasn't related to a lug nut that went missing on a pit stop shortly before the cockpit of Johnson's began to fill with smoke.

"I'm not sure if a fitting busted or if something hit a line or we caught some debris," Johnson said. "It puked all the oil out of the rear-end gear and burned up the gear. "It's disappointing because we were right there in position and putting pressure on (Keselowski) like we needed to," he said.

It was a wild turn of events, because with just more than 50 laps left, Johnson had Keselowski on the ropes. Johnson was leading the championship standings by seven points based on the running order when Johnson drove to the pits on lap 213. However, one lug nut was left off the car's left rear tire, and Johnson was forced to return to the pits.

Shortly after he returned to the track, Johnson radioed his crew of smoke in the cockpit. By the time he brought the car in, the problem appeared to be dire, something Johnson knew as soon as he smelled burning gear oil.

"In my experience, you should never smell your own; you should only smell others'," Johnson said.

Johnson said the performance — especially that of his crew, in spite of the crucial mistake — eased the pain.

"I would have hated to come out here and do all this trash-talking and then run 25th all night long," he said. "I'm proud of the fact that we went out there and backed up what we said we could do. We put the pressure on. It doesn't take away the sting of losing the championship. It helps in some ways and stings in others."

It was, in short order, an unusual way for the five-time Cup champion to fail in his effort for a sixth. First the penalty dropped him back to 25th, 18 positions behind Keselowski. Then, with smoke filling the car's interior, it was over. All in 12 laps.

"It all unraveled pretty quickly," Johnson said. "It's definitely disappointing, but I feel like we had the speed we needed to have.

"It's hard to be real down on myself. These championships are special. It takes a lot to win one."