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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