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Johnson takes Chase lead with win

Jimmie Johnson took the lead of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, after claiming his ninth victory of the season in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

The reigning Nextel Cup champion and his crew chief Chad Knaus took another winning decision when they changed four tyres on their last pitstop under caution with more than 30 laps to go.

Matt Kenseth had only taken two and could only do so much to keep Johnson behind in the closing laps, before giving up the lead on the penultimate lap.

Johnson's third consecutive victory allowed him to move back to the top of the points standings, opening a 30-point gap to Jeff Gordon, who didn't have a great day but still managed a seventh place finish. Undeniably the momentum has shifted to Johnson recently as he seems to be closing on a second title.

"This is unbelievable," said Johnson. "The four-tyre call really worked out well for us. I was really impressed that Matt was able to hang on for as long as he did on those two tyres. I knew he was hungry for a win and we put on one heck of show for the fans. It was just great hard racing.

"I hope than we can put things together and be the champions again this year. It's two to go, but 30 points can come and go very easily. I'm not on safe grounds by any means but it's definitely better than being in second."

Kenseth ran as hard as he could to try to keep Johnson at bay but the former Nextel Cup champion was fair, although tough. He was probably a bit more aggressive earlier in the race, when battling Denny Hamlin for the lead. The two ended up making contact, and Hamlin actually brushed the wall.

"The thing with me and Denny probably shouldn't have happened," Kenseth said. "I think Jimmie was probably pretty confident that I wasn't going to wreck him.

"We raced each other really hard and I really didn't give him any much extra room at all. I thought of the points thing and I though that he would back off, but he was just a lot faster."

Martin Truex Jr rounded up a good day after starting from pole, finishing third with the rebuilt car that he crashed on the back of Denny Hamlin's at Atlanta last week.

Kyle Busch led the most laps but his strategy didn't work to plan and he was not in the best position to contend for victory on the final 29-lap sprint, eventually finishing fourth.

Ryan Newman had led the field on the final green flag after taking on two tyres as Kenseth, but he dropped down the order quickly, finishing fifth. Jeff Burton was sixth ahead of former points' leader Jeff Gordon who couldn't tick off Texas on his winning resume. It remains one of the two tracks where he has never won a Cup race.

Gordon's consistency is proving to be insufficient to stop Johnson's charge for the title. Since beating his teammate for the last time at Lowe's Motor Speedway, he has scored a third and two seventh places, which by normal standards would be pretty good results, but not when faced against Johnson's and his team's current form.

"We're not getting there close enough and we're getting beat," said Gordon. "A pretty disappointing day right there because we want to be fighting out hard for wins and up there battling in the top-three.

"You've got to take your hat off to Jimmie and those guys; they did an excellent job and won the race. We got the car really good there at the end but it was too late by then.

"Thirty points is not much. The biggest thing right now is we're just getting beat and those guys are winning races. We've got to go and put the pressure back on them and outperform them.

"Phoenix is a good track for us so we'll go there and fight hard for the win like we did today and hopefully we'll get those points back."

Clint Bowyer dropped further behind Johnson and Gordon in the Chase points, finishing the race down in 19th place and two laps down. He made an unscheduled pitstop under green due to a suspected loose wheel on his car, which put him out of contention for the day. He is now 181 points off from Johnson in the championship.

The race saw twelve caution periods, one of them due to a big wreck involving six cars on lap 220. Casey Mears moved up the track while trying to overtake Ricky Rudd but in doing so he made contact with Tony Stewart.

Both cars spun and ignited a chain reaction, which involved David Ragan, David Gilliland, Dale Jarrett, Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a promising start to his race from third on the grid, overtaking Martin Truex Jr for the lead on lap seven. He held on to the lead until lap 14 when everyone pitted for the first time under caution, but later a broken valve dashed any hopes of a good finish for the Colombian.

Next weekend the Chase for the Nextel Cup goes to Phoenix for the penultimate race of the year. The one-mile oval in Arizona will dictate how close will the showdown for the Nextel Cup be in the season finale at Homestead in two weeks time.

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   334
 2.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        334
 3.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   334
 4.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   334
 5.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       334
 6.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   334
 7.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   334
 8.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       334
 9.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        334
10.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   334
11.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   334
12.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       334
13.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       334
14.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   334
15.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        334
16.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       334
17.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   333
18.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       332
19.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   332
20.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   332
21.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      332
22.  Jeremy Mayfield     Chevrolet   332
23.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      332
24.  Mike Skinner        Toyota      331
25.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       331
26.  Carl Edwards        Ford        331
27.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   330
28.  David Gilliland     Ford        330
29.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   324
30.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   322
31.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   302
32.  Robby Gordon        Ford        300
33.  Greg Biffle         Ford        295
34.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   278
35.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   275
36.  Bill Elliott        Ford        248
37.  David Ragan         Ford        222
38.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      217
39.  AJ Allmendinger     Toyota      151
40.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       143
41.  David Stremme       Dodge       136
42.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       129
43.  David Reutimann     Toyota       90

Chase for the Cup - Points Standing:

Pos  Driver           Change  Points
 1.  Jimmie Johnson     +1    6382
 2.  Jeff Gordon        -1    6352  - 30
 3.  Clint Bowyer             6201  -181
 4.  Kyle Busch         +2    6043  -339
 5.  Carl Edwards       -1    6025  -357
 6.  Tony Stewart       -1    6009  -373
 7.  Jeff Burton        +1    5951  -431
 8.  Kevin Harvick      -1    5943  -439
 9.  Kurt Busch               5929  -453
10.  Matt Kenseth       +1    5928  -454
11.  Denny Hamlin       -1    5858  -524
12.  Martin Truex Jr          5858  -524

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