Martinsville, Va. – Trouble finally found Jeff Burton at Martinsville Speedway. Jimmie Johnson and a handful of other championship chasers found themselves back in title contention.
NASCAR’s Chase for the championship broke wide open Sunday, setting up what is likely to be a wild four-race finish.
Johnson took the lead from Bobby Labonte with 55 laps to go and held it through several restarts to win the crash-filled Subway 500, while 2003 champion Matt Kenseth replaced Burton atop the standings.
Johnson moved from seventh to third in the standings with four races left, and appears to be the driver with the most momentum heading into the final month.
“I’m just happy to finish where we should have,” said Johnson, who was denied at least a second-place finish at Talladega when he was spun out on the last lap two weeks ago, then finished second last week at Charlotte. “We’ve been running up front the last three of four races and haven’t been able to close the deal. Today we did.”
Kenseth assumed the points lead when Burton pulled his car into the garage after just 217 laps because of engine trouble, and most everyone took advantage.
“It’s great to be the leader, but we’ve got to start running good,” Kenseth said. “It’s still pretty wide open. It’s going to be pretty exciting, I think, coming down to the last race. I’m glad we are in the lead and if we can get going back on these last four tracks like we were earlier in the year, I think we’ve got a shot at it.”
Kevin Harvick is now second, 36 points back, and Johnson is 41 points behind. Denny Hamlin moved into fourth, 47 back. Burton dropped to 48 points off the pace, marking the first time the points leader has changed in the second half of the playoffs.
“By no means do I think we are out of this thing,” Burton said. “We won’t lay down. We have as good a shot as anybody.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (94), Mark Martin (96) and Kasey Kahne (99) also are within striking distance of Kenseth.
But Johnson, a two-time runner-up in the championship, made the biggest move in the standings after starting the race 146 points back. He quickly worked his way forward after being 10th on a restart with 94 laps to go, passed Gordon for second with about 70 laps to go and put Labonte in his rearview mirror on the 446th of 500 laps.
From there, he made it look easy, pulling away on every restart except the last one, when Hamlin, a rookie, nudged him and pulled alongside. Johnson rebuffed the challenge, got back in front and won by 0.545 seconds.
“Once I got pushed to the outside, I really felt like I was in trouble,” Johnson said of the duel, “but I was able to rally back on the outside and get going, and once I got back going, I knew I had a better car and could get away from him.”
Hamlin said it may have been best that he never did get around Johnson.
“I knew if I cleared him, he’d do the same thing to me going into the next corner and odds are I would not have been able to save it like he did,” he said.
Labonte finished third, followed by Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who cut 75 points off his deficit but is still 141 back.
The race featured 18 cautions for 107 laps, and the 17th one was, remarkably, the only one that really impacted Chase contenders. It happened on lap 477 when Earnhardt and Kahne, battling for sixth, bumped in turn 3, sending Earnhardt spinning.
Kahne raced on and finished seventh; Earnhardt, who wound up 22nd, said he was to blame after driving too hard into the turn.
Nextel Cup/glance
Keys to victory: On the last restart, Denny Hamlin bumped Jimmie Johnson coming out of the second turn, then pulled inside. Johnson stayed side-by-side with Hamlin for an entire lap, then beat him coming off the fourth turn to get in front, and Hamlin seemed content to protect second place.
What you might have missed: Entering the race, there were just two drivers within 100 points of the leader. Heading to next week s race in Atlanta there are seven. Back on track: Sunday, Bass Pro Shops 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway, KCNC/12:30 p.m.
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Results
NASCAR Nextel Cup Subway 500
At Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Va.
Lap length: 0.526 miles
(Start position in parentheses)
1. (9) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500 laps, 70.446 mph.,$191,886. 2. (3) Denny Hamlin, Chevrolet, 500, $118,525. 3. (30) Bobby Labonte, Dodge, 500, $137,661. 4. (5) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 500, $141,211. 5. (2) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 500, $148,686. 6. (19) Casey Mears, Dodge, 500, $113,233. 7. (32) Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 500, $110,814. 8. (8) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 500, $118,583. 9. (12) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500, $112,411. 10. (14) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 500, $103,083. 11. (20) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 500, $118,716. 12. (27) Carl Edwards, Ford, 500, $90,250. 13. (4) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 500, $114,658. 14. (11) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, 500, $73,575. 15. (13) David Stremme, Dodge, 500, $95,633. 16. (39) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 500, $105,200. 17. (21) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 500, $79,625. 18. (15) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 500, $85,400. 19. (24) Jamie McMurray, Ford, 500, $113,600. 20. (23) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 500, $98,795. 21. (22) Sterling Marlin, Chevrolet, 500, $81,508. 22. (7) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 500, $104,591. 23. (37) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 500, $78,800. 24. (25) Mark Martin, Ford, 500, $83,900. 25. (41) David Ragan, Ford, 500, $66,125. 26. (35) Ward Burton, Chevrolet, 500, $68,750. 27. (1) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 496, $112,118. 28. (29) David Gilliland, Ford, 496, $96,243. 29. (40) Kenny Wallace, Chevrolet, 496, $65,100. 30. (17) Scott Riggs, Dodge, 495, $68,525. 31. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 494, $102,500. 32. (38) Greg Biffle, Ford, 486, $85,050. 33. (6) Dave Blaney, Dodge, 485, $77,722. 34. (33) Michael Waltrip, Dodge, 472, $64,675. 35. (16) Reed Sorenson, Dodge, 460, $72,625. 36. (18) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 453, $72,575. 37. (26) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 416, rear end, $64,525. 38. (34) Elliott Sadler, Dodge, 412, engine failure, $94,466. 39. (43) Mike Skinner, Chevrolet, 341, accident, $64,415. 40. (31) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, 332, rear end, $64,365. 41. (10) Ken Schrader, Ford, 331, accident, $91,529. 42. (28) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 217, engine failure, $90,605. 43. (42) Kevin Lepage, Chevrolet, 209, rear end, $63,657.
Race statistics
Time of race: 3 hours, 44 minutes, 0 seconds. Margin of victory: 0.544 seconds. Caution flags: 18 for 107 laps. Lead changes: 16 among 5 drivers. Lap leaders: Kurt Busch 0; J. Gordon 1-144; J. Johnson 145; J. Gordon 146-152; J. Johnson 153-156; J. Gordon 157; J. Johnson 158-204; J. Gordon 205; J. Johnson 206-243; J. Gordon 244-255;D.Hamlin 256-282; J. Johnson 283-333; Kurt Busch 334-352; J. Johnson 353-400; D. Hamlin 401; B. Labonte 402-444; J. Johnson 445-500. Leaders summary (driver, times lead, laps led): J. Johnson, 7 times for 245 laps; J. Gordon, 5 times for 165 laps; B. Labonte, 1 time for 43 laps; D. Hamlin, 2 times for 28 laps; Kurt Busch, 1 time for 19 laps. Point standings: 1. M. Kenseth, 5,848. 2. K. Harvick, 5,812. 3. J. Johnson, 5,807. 4. D. Hamlin, 5,801. 5. J. Burton, 5,800. 6. D. Earnhardt Jr., 5,754. 7. M. Martin, 5,752. 8. K. Kahne, 5,749. 9. J. Gordon, 5,707. 10. Kyle Busch, 5,677.
