Rick Hendrick

THE TINTED GLASS doors slid open, and the most successful man in NASCAR in 2007 strode up three stairs into the air-conditioned cool of Jimmie Johnson's number 48 hauler, leaving behind the brilliant South Florida sunshine that fell over Homestead-Miami Speedway. The start of NASCAR's final race of the season was still two hours away, but now every member of Johnson's crew lined both sides of the narrow aisle inside the team's headquarters in the garage. Rick Hendrick pressed his way to the front, and after clearing his throat, the 58-year-old owner delivered his most stirring pep talk of the season to the team that has dominated NASCAR in the 21st century.

"Everyone in this garage wants to whip us," said Hendrick, his voice rising. "In the modern era of our sport no one has come close to what we can finish off today. Let's lock and load. Let's go get 'em!"

And so they did. On Nov. 18 the 32-year-old Johnson, who's just entering the prime of his stock car career, finished seventh in the Ford 400 to clinch his second straight Nextel Cup. How impressive is this? In beating his Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon by 77 points in the final standings, Johnson became just the 10th driver in the 58-year history of NASCAR to win back-to-back championships—and the first since Gordon accomplished the feat in 1997 and '98.

He's not a bumper and banger like Tony Stewart or the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. No, Jimmie Johnson on the racetrack is what NBA legend George Gervin was on the basketball court: graceful, economical and, most of all, as mistake-free as anyone in NASCAR today. "Jimmie just doesn't mess up," says Darrell Waltrip, the three-time Cup champion who's now an analyst for Fox. "But the real key to his success is being with an organization that is simply the most dominant in the sport today. Rick Hendrick is an actor, not a re-actor, and he just makes things happen. It all starts with him."