Johnson wins again at Martinsville

Johnson overtook Gordon with 43 laps remaining and was able to fend off the seven-time Martinsville winner in one of the later restarts, then keeping Ryan Newman under control in a green-white-chequer finish to take his seventh win of the season in a crash-filled afternoon at the half-mile oval.

"Those last restarts were tough on me," said Johnson, who cut 15 points out of Gordon's lead in the points, taking the gap to 53.

"I was nervous of the 24 (Gordon) behind us and I was able to kind of hold him off, and then the 12 (Newman) got in there and I knew he was going to be tough on the short run too."

"I needed longer runs. The cautions kept me getting back into a vulnerable situation. They really hurt me, I think, but I was still able to hang on and get it done."

For the second time this season, Gordon has been beaten by Johnson at Martinsville. This time however, he could only finish third after being overtaken by Newman.

The Chase leader recovered from a problem with his left rear tyre, which required an extra pitstop that dropped him down the order halfway through the race. A number of caution flags in the closing laps didn't seem to help his cause either as he struggled for grip on cold tyres on every restart.

"I think Jimmie had the car to beat for must of the day and he certainly had it right there at the end," Gordon said. "We just didn't need the short runs, we needed longer runs. I felt like with 100 to go we were going to stay green all the way but that was wishful thinking here at Martinsville."

Johnson, Gordon and Kyle Busch between them led more than three quarters of the distance, underlining the supremacy of their teams as the Chase battle reaches its climax.

Busch ran out of pit sequence early on but capitalized on it as he got good track position when it mattered thanks in part to the caution flags going his way.

"This is all you can ask for, we've had top 5 finishes in every finish we've had here in the Chase so far," Busch said. "It's hard to beat the 24 (Gordon) and 48 (Johnson) when you know what kind of stuff they're in and what kind of drivers they are."

Ryan Newman had some revenge from his spin out of the lead a week ago at Lowe's Motor Speedway, taking his third second place of the season. On his final pitstop he moved up seven positions, having changed two tyres instead of four as most drivers did.

He felt like he was closing on Johnson in the end before the caution flag came out on the final lap.

"I wish we had the opportunity to get that last lap in," Newman said. "Having a shot at the win in the last lap was saying a lot, specially on two [new] tyres. We had a good strategy but just unfortunate that it didn't work out but it was a good finish for us."

Matt Kenseth rounded up the top five but is still at the bottom of the Chase standings, while Denny Hamlin finished sixth ahead of Greg Biffle and a surprising Juan Pablo Montoya, who led his first ever laps in an oval in the Nextel Cup, completing nine in front of the field until being bumped out of the lead by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"We had a good day," Montoya said. "We worked on the car all day and couldn't get where we wanted to be, but I think in general it was a great day. A top ten here, it's a big thing. This was pretty good for a short track. We did the ultimate: qualify bad and race good and that is pretty good."

Clint Bowyer continued his strong run of results getting yet another top ten with a ninth place finish, which settles him in third place in the Chase, although the gap to Gordon has grown now to 115 points, and to 53 to Johnson.

Kevin Harvick rounded up the top ten ahead of fellow Chase contenders Carl Edwards Jeff Burton and Tony Stewart. The latter got caught in an incident with 34 laps to go, when Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Petty spun in front of him.

Edwards was also involved, hitting the back of the No. 20 car of Stewart, who has fallen further back in the title race, now 249 points off from Gordon, which is nearly 100 more then what the gap was before this weekend.

Truex had a very bumpy afternoon, being involved in three separate incidents during the 506 laps of racing. His DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr led the race for 24 laps after bumping Montoya, but seemed to be a bit too aggressive all day.

He finished the race in 23rd and with his car full of tyre marks on the right side. During an early caution period he had a heated exchange of paint with Tony Stewart, he also had some contact with Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon and brushed the wall on his own as well.

Kurt Busch was the lowest finisher of the Chase contenders, having two flat right front tyres during the afternoon. The first of them sent him into the wall at speed on lap 166, virtually ending any hopes of getting his Chase back in track.

Next weekend the Nextel Cup teams will be racing at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Johnson won earlier this year.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson          Chevrolet    506
 2.  Ryan Newman             Dodge        506
 3.  Jeff Gordon             Chevrolet    506
 4.  Kyle Busch              Chevrolet    506
 5.  Matt Kenseth            Ford         506
 6.  Denny Hamlin            Chevrolet    506
 7.  Greg Biffle             Ford         506
 8.  Juan Montoya            Dodge        506
 9.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet    506
10.  Kevin Harvick           Chevrolet    506
11.  Carl Edwards            Ford         506
12.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet    506
13.  Tony Stewart            Chevrolet    506
14.  Tony Raines             Chevrolet    506
15.  Kasey Kahne             Dodge        506
16.  Scott Riggs             Dodge        506
17.  David Reutimann         Toyota       506
18.  Michael Waltrip         Toyota       506
19.  Martin Truex Jr         Chevrolet    506
20.  Casey Mears             Chevrolet    506
21.  Kyle Petty              Dodge        506
22.  Bobby Labonte           Dodge        506
23.  Dale Earnhardt Jr       Chevrolet    506
24.  Paul Menard             Chevrolet    505
25.  David Gilliland         Ford         505
26.  David Ragan             Ford         505
27.  Ricky Rudd              Ford         504
28.  Jeff Green              Chevrolet    503
29.  Johnny Sauter           Chevrolet    503
30.  Dale Jarrett            Toyota       503
31.  Kurt Busch              Dodge        501
32.  Jamie McMurray          Ford         500
33.  John Andretti           Dodge        492
34.  Bill Elliott            Ford         483
35.  A.J. Allmendinger       Toyota       474
36.  Dave Blaney             Toyota       439
37.  David Stremme           Dodge        410
38.  Ward Burton             Chevrolet    406
39.  Robby Gordon            Ford         390
40.  Elliott Sadler          Dodge        371
41.  Reed Sorenson           Dodge        259
42.  J.J. Yeley              Chevrolet    258
43.  Aric Almirola           Chevrolet    111

Chase For The Cup - Points Standing:

Pos  Driver              Change  Points
 1.  Jeff Gordon                  6055
 2.  Jimmie Johnson               6002  + 53
 3.  Clint Bowyer                 5940  +115
 4.  Tony Stewart                 5806  +249
 5.  Carl Edwards                 5767  +288
 6.  Kyle Busch                   5765  +290
 7.  Kevin Harvick         +1     5686  +369
 8.  Denny Hamlin          +1     5681  +374
 9.  Jeff Burton           +1     5649  +406
10.  Kurt Busch            -3     5635  +420
11.  Martin Truex Jr              5608  +447
12.  Matt Kenseth                 5593  +462