Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“You put the two pit crews toe to toe and those guys are going to make mistakes,” Ford said of Johnson’s crew. “We've seen it this year, and we went beside them, and those guys faltered, and it made them panic and push to the point where they made changes.

“I stayed focused on what we needed to do. We did see all that go on, saw them making mistakes, saw them studying us real hard, and when you put your focus on watching other people, you make mistakes, so I was glad to see that they are watching us and paying attention. That means they are chasing. And they made mistakes in doing so.”

Of the unprecedented mid-race pit crew swap, Ford minced no words.

“I think it was kind of a desperation move,” he said. “But it's something that — I won't say that race team — that Jimmie, Chad and Rick (Hendrick) needed to do if they wanted to win a championship because they just took their team out of it. They removed their team. Their team got them to this point and they pulled them out, so this is more about trying to win a championship for the company and not the team.”

Wow.

Harsh words, but words Ford can afford to say at this point.

And, now, two more races and the No. 11 team will have its first championship.

“Mike put a plan together, and we never panicked,” Hamlin said. “ ... And just executed a plan. And regardless of where our competition was or where we were at on the racetrack, I'm sure he felt as well as I did that we could win the race at any point. So for me I was pretty confident of that.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.