Wow, talk about a change up.

Last week the Sprint Cup series raced at the smallest track on the schedule and this week they head straight to the largest track on the circuit - Talladega. Points leader Jimmie Johnson sits at a comfortable 118 points ahead of second place Mark Martin and it certainly looks that as if Johnson is well on his way to capturing his historical fourth straight championship.

There is only one thing standing in his way - "The Big One" at Talladega. If Jimmie can survive Talladega and get out of there with a decent finish, I might as well make this my last column for this year because the rest of the season I will be writing columns about Jimmie Johnson only. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not a Johnson hater but, I just wish a couple of these other teams would step up their game and give this No. 48 team a run for their money. Dare I say that this No. 48 team is unstoppable? Jimmie has led more than 100 laps in eight out of the last nine races. Well there is a little glimmer of hope because the only DNF that Johnson has had this season came right here back in April when he was caught up in a wreck with about 10 laps to go in the race.

I love when all these NASCAR analysts start speculating how Jimmie will run this race. Will he lay back and be conservative or will he be aggressive? I don't think it matters what a driver decides to do out there. The only safe place out there is first place and the lead changes so many times that a driver usually isn't out front for very long. In fact, the last two races at Talladega have averaged 60 lead changes.

I love Mark Martin's attitude coming into this race. Martin has made it clear that he is coming here with no worries and no stress. As some of you may remember, Martin finished dead last here back in April when he got taken out of the race in the first five laps.

"I'm going to go with the mindset that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice." Martin stated. Mark has been pretty quiet as of late so he has to be due to have a fast car. I really hope that he gets a great finish today if not, win the race to maybe close this gap a little and make this Chase a little more exciting.

It's too bad that Juan Pablo Montoya had a bad finish a couple of weeks ago because he has been racing his tail off lately and boy did we see it at Martinsville. Montoya and Gordon were really banging each other around early in the race. Montoya for most of the race was really the only car that was able to pass the No. 48. In my opinion, I think Montoya raced too hard, too early and he used up his car so he didn't have anything at the end, especially brakes, to contend for the win. Montoya sits 200 points behind leader Johnson so he will really need some help from Johnson to get back into this thing.

Oh yeah I'm not forgetting about Jeff Gordon, the six-time winner here at Talladega. Gordon has been finishing second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth in the last seven races so the only thing missing is a first. It is so a shot in the dark trying to pick a winner here at Talladega so I'm just going to throw a name out there - Dale Earnhardt Jr. I won't elaborate on that pick. I'm just leaving it at that.

The AMP Energy 500 will start at 1:19 p.m. with coverage beginning at noon. Qualifying was rained out, so all 12 Chase drivers will start in their points position.