Johnson takes fifth win at Fontana

Johnson led 84 out of the 250 laps, dominating the last part of the race and getting 10 bonus points for his victory, which potentially take his total to start the Chase to 5050 points, 10 more than his teammate Jeff Gordon.

"For us to come here and score a victory at my home track Fontana, I couldn't be happier, I couldn't be more proud," said Johnson. "We don't know why but we always get off to a good season start and finish up strong, it's just the way our team works for whatever reason.

"But we're peaking at the right time. There's a lot of great teams fighting for this Chase but we're hitting our stride at the right time."

Carl Edwards carried his momentum from his Bristol victory and finished the race second, closing the gap to Johnson. Kyle Busch was a factor for most of the race until a brush with the wall, but led more laps than any of his rivals and still finished third, securing a place in the Chase as a consolation prize for his efforts.

Also securing his Chase seeding were Jeff Burton, who finished fourth running the unbranded No. 31 RCR car again, as well as race winner Jimmie Johnson. Meanwhile, four drivers remain mathematically vulnerable to lose their place among the top 12 in the standings to Dale Earnhardt Jr, who drove a strong race to finish fifth.

"It was fun, hot, sweaty and the car was tight, loose, never perfect," said an exhausted Earnhardt at the end of the race. "But we worked hard and I'm proud of my team. It's been so hot this weekend but I thank my team for seeking it all out and doing us a good run."

In terms of the Chase, the biggest loser of the day was Kevin Harvick, who is now 'on the bubble' in the standings after dropping down to 12th place with a 14th place finish. Kurt Busch jumped in front of him and is thirteen points ahead after finishing the race ninth. He led for 21 laps but delayed pit stops prevented him scoring a better finish.

Among the Chase contenders the lowest finisher of the day was points leader Jeff Gordon, who was involved in an incident for the third week in a row. He made contact with Jeremy Mayfield on the front stretch with 71 laps to go and dropped back to finish in 22nd.

His was probably the biggest incident of the day, which also involved Ricky Rudd, the veteran who was celebrating his 900th career start and who was taken to a local hospital for precautionary x-rays on his left arm. David Reutimann and David Gilliland were also involved in the crash.

However, the most spectacular incident was that of Michael Waltrip, whose car burst into flames after a blown tyre cut an oil line and sent him into the wall. He kept everyone anxious for a while as it took him some time to be able to jump out of his burning car.

"I was up beside Ricky [Rudd] and he pulled over and pushed in my left front fender and the tyre rubbed until it blew up," said Waltrip. "When it did it tore off an oil line and caught on fire but it looked a lot worse than it was because it didn't even get hot in there.

"I'm just too big. I'm thankful about the Car of Tomorrow because I just can't get out of this car in a hurry at all. I tried it at the shop and basically I have to take my helmet off to get out."

Juan Pablo Montoya had yet another difficult day starting from the back of the field after his engine gave up in qualifying. On the first caution of the day he pitted and as he was approaching his pit stall, Carl Edwards left his and the Colombian had nowhere to go.

In the impact, his No. 42 Ganassi Dodge sustained considerable front-end damage. His team tried to fix it as much as possible during the race, but their efforts were in vain as Montoya dropped a lap down. He then had further trouble in his last stop under green when the engine on his car stopped running and didn't want to fire up again.

Next week the Nextel Cup will race for a second time this year at Richmond, where the interest will be around the final places in the Chase and the ten bonus points for the race winner, which will be up for grabs for the last time before the fight for the title starts.

Odds are against Earnhardt Jr making the Chase, as Kevin Harvick only needs to finish 32nd or better to secure his place, while for Kurt Busch 36th place would be enough, even if the No 8 Chevrolet crosses the finish line first. Martin Truex Jr and Clint Bowyer just need to start the race to make the Chase.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson          Chevrolet    250
 2.  Carl Edwards            Ford         250
 3.  Kyle Busch              Chevrolet    250
 4.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet    250
 5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr       Chevrolet    250
 6.  Martin Truex Jr         Chevrolet    250
 7.  Matt Kenseth            Ford         250
 8.  Brian Vickers           Toyota       250
 9.  Kurt Busch              Dodge        250
10.  Kasey Kahne             Dodge        250
11.  Bobby Labonte           Dodge        250
12.  David Ragan             Ford         250
13.  Tony Stewart            Chevrolet    250
14.  Kevin Harvick           Chevrolet    250
15.  Casey Mears             Chevrolet    250
16.  Jamie McMurray          Ford         250
17.  Greg Biffle             Ford         250
18.  A.J. Allmendinger       Toyota       249
19.  Denny Hamlin            Chevrolet    249
20.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet    249
21.  Reed Sorenson           Dodge        249
22.  Jeff Gordon             Chevrolet    249
23.  Jeff Green              Chevrolet    249
24.  Paul Menard             Chevrolet    249
25.  David Gilliland         Ford         249
26.  Bill Elliott            Ford         248
27.  Tony Raines             Chevrolet    248
28.  Kyle Petty              Dodge        248
29.  J.J. Yeley              Chevrolet    248
30.  Johnny Sauter           Chevrolet    248
31.  Aric Almirola           Chevrolet    248
32.  David Reutimann         Toyota       247
33.  Juan Montoya            Dodge        247
34.  David Stremme           Dodge        245
35.  Elliott Sadler          Dodge        245
36.  Jeremy Mayfield         Toyota       229
37.  John Andretti           Dodge        203
38.  Dave Blaney             Toyota       201
39.  Ryan Newman             Dodge        194
40.  Ricky Rudd              Ford         179
41.  Robby Gordon            Ford         159
42.  Michael Waltrip         Toyota        38
43.  Joe Nemechek            Chevrolet      9