Jimmy Johnson has won three of the first five Chase for the Sprint Cup races and holds a 90 point advantage over second place Mark Martin heading into the sixth race at Martinsville on Sunday. Johnson is looking to become the first NASCAR driver to win four straight Cup Series Championships and looks to be well on his way.

Right now, with the way Johnson has performed in the first five races of the Chase, it is hard to see him losing this title. Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Martin, has been strong, but a 17th last Sunday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway dropped him well behind.

Jeff Gordon sits third and is 135 points behind the driver he helped bring to Hendrick Motorsports. The performance has been there for the number 24 team, they just have not been able to finish a strong run in victory lane. If Johnson has trouble in one race and Gordon runs strong the door is still open for Gordon to win his fifth championship.

Tony Stewart is 155 points behind Johnson, but did win at Kansas. If Stewart can find victory lane a couple more times in the final five races, his chances at winning a title in his first year racing for his own team might not be gone just yet.

Kurt Busch is in fifth place, 177 points behind Johnson. Again, it is going to take Johnson running poorly once or twice and Busch having solid top ten or five runs to close this point’s gap.

Juan Montoya took a huge hit in the points at Lowe’s on Sunday when he finished 35th due to damage sustained on a chain reaction bump with Martin on a restart. Montoya now finds himself 195 points behind, in sixth place, and with no room to slip up anymore.

Montoya has been the surprise of the Chase and was able to run with Johnson, Martin and Gordon consistently the first four races. He even had a good car at Lowe’s before the accident. If the Earnhardt-Ganassi team can regain the same form they have had and just stay out of trouble on the track, he could move right back up the standings.

Greg Biffle is seventh, 268 points behind Johnson. Biffle, all the way back to Brian Vickers in 12th, can be ruled out as far as a championship goes. This includes, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin.

These drivers have had multiple weeks where they finished bad and have too big of a hole to climb out of with only five races remaining.

Vickers has had no luck, which is disappointing for a Red Bull team that was the hottest entering the 10-race Chase.

With five races remaining Johnson looks set to make history and it doesn’t look like there is anything his competitors can do about it. All they can do is hope the 48 team has a mechanical issue or gets involved in an on-track accident. Until that happens, the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup looks firmly in the hands of the defending three-time champion.