HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson walked across the stage after driver introductions to find his car inexplicably missing from pit road.

In a dramatic start to his race for a record-tying seventh championship, Johnson learned NASCAR’s inspectors had yanked his Chevrolet off the pre-race grid and sent it back through tech. The Hendrick Motorsports team had been accused of manipulating a body panel, and Johnson had to start last in the field.

In less than 30 laps, he was sniffing the top-10.

“He come from last doing that?” Joey Logano asked him team, “Wow.”

The best was yet to come.

For most of the day, Johnson was the worst of the championship contenders in a winner-take-all season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He needed only to beat three other drivers to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt with a record seven titles, but he was clearly not in the same league as the other finalists Sunday night.

Johnson, who seemed to have sensed the last 10 weeks that he was finally going to grab that special seventh title, never panicked.