Johnson: Burton always a threat

The reigning champion fought hard against Burton on the last restart and for a couple of laps while trying to overtake him. Johnson was running on two new tyres while Burton jumped him in the last pitstop after taking on fuel only.

However, he couldn't get past Burton and struggled with the balance of his car from then on, dropping down to sixth place by the chequered flag.

"The first two-thirds was good for us, then we were junk at the end," said Johnson. "I tried to get up there and took a lot of risks tonight trying to get as many points as I could on the No.16, and trying to hang with the No.31 (Jeff Burton) and get by him.

"I damn near threw it away a couple times. Early in the race we had some pretty big moments as well. I just hated the last third of the race, we got out in left field and couldn't get it back."

Johnson acknowledged that Burton is now a serious opponent in the battle for this year's Sprint Cup title and remembers how the RCR driver led the Chase a couple of years ago before hitting trouble in the second half of that year's playoff.

"He's always been on my radar," said Johnson. "I think in '06 he led most of the Chase. He's been doing this a long time, he knows the tracks, and he's revitalised RCR over the years.

"I think we can all give him a lot of credit for the turnaround RCR have had. On track. he's smart. He knows how to race hard and he's been out there a long time. He knows how to race and get points."

Johnson leads the standings by 69 points from Burton and 86 from Greg Biffle. Carl Edwards had been second before Saturday's race but electrical issues caused him to drop 168 points behind, a gap that Johnson believes will be hard to overcome for Edwards if the top three don't hit any serious trouble in the coming races.

"If us top three guys have problems, those guys are right back in it," Johnson said. "As we get down to fewer races left on the schedule, I think that margin becomes more comfortable.

"That's a decent margin. Heck, we're only halfway through it. I was more than that down after Talladega (in 2006), but it took other guys having problems to let me back in.

"So if we go clean, that's going to be really tough for the No.99 (Edwards) to overcome. But if we all have trouble, he's right back in it."

Johnson has now had seven consecutive top-ten finishes, following his sixth place at Lowe's Motor Speedway.