Johnson wins again at Richmond

The reigning Nextel Cup champion who started from pole position took the lead from Tony Stewart in the pits with 102 laps to go, and was unchallenged from then on. His teammate Jeff Gordon led the most laps, but not the most crucial ones.

"We just had a solid effort all night," said Johnson. "In the first two-thirds of the race we had a good car but maybe not the fastest. We kept working on it and had the car right in the end, we had great stops in the end and got me the track position I needed."

The battle for second place between Dale Earnhardt Jr, Gordon, Stewart and David Ragan eased Johnson's second win of the year at Richmond. In the end it was Stewart who came out on top with Ragan in third ahead of Gordon.

"I could hear that they were racing side-by-side and I knew that was good for me," Johnson added. I just tried to take care of my tyres in case we had a late caution. Luckily it stayed green and we were able to stretch out the lead."

"We've had a great first 26 (races) this year. Now it's about the final 10 and we'll see what we can do."

Statistics say only once in Nextel Cup history a driver who won both races of the season at Richmond failed to win the title in that year. With Johnson's current form and momentum, it's hard to bet against him being the eighth driver to achieve the feat.

But while was all joy for Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr finally had to face the fact that he will not be in the Chase for the Nextel Cup this year. He did his best to try to get a much needed win, but for the sixth time this year his engine gave up while he was fighting for second place with seven laps to go.

"I was having a whole lot of fun there racing with Tony and Gordon and I though we actually had a good enough car that if we could go by Tony, we would've raced the 48 a little bit," Earnhardt said.

"But we broke another motor. They seem to come apart when they plug them into my car. I don't know what it is about it. Just really frustrating.

"Congratulations to all the guys who made the Chase. We'll try to get in there to win a couple of races and we're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to race hard, no matter who we're racing."

For a moment it seemed like the stars were lining up for Earnhardt to get into the Chase when drama unfolded for the drivers involved in the fight for the last couple of spots to fight for the Nextel Cup title.

On lap 241 Ryan Newman spun going out of turn four and as Kurt Busch braked to avoid crashing into his Penske teammate, a chain reaction triggered a multi-car wreck along the front stretch.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who was running well in tenth place, got hit from behind by Dave Blaney and got pushed into the rear of Kurt Busch's Dodge. An oil line apparently broke in the Colombian's car in the impact and a few seconds later it burst into flames.

"I don't know what happened," Montoya said. "I think the 12 car spun and then everybody started hitting me. I just got wrecked from behind and pushed I don't know into what car. It was just smoke everywhere and I the only thing I heard was my spotter saying (on the radio) 'get out, get out, it's on fire'."

The race had to be red flagged for the first time to clean up the track. This came as worrying news to Kevin Harvick, whose car was overheating after he had to go through the grass to avoid the wreck. To make matters worse for him, his main contender for a place in the Chase, Dale Earnhardt Jr, was running second at the time.

But in the end neither the damage to the left rear fender on Kurt Busch's car, nor the overheating car of Harvick, were enough to bump them out of the Chase and they will be contending for the Nextel Cup title in the last ten races of the season.

"It was pretty eventful for us," said Harvick, after finishing seventh. "We had all those things happen to us that normally don't happen. We had a great car, but it just stinks having to race with one eye on the scoreboard and one eye on the Chase. Not really my style."

Of the Chase contenders, Denny Hamlin was sixth ahead of Harvick, while Kurt Busch was ninth. Clint Bowyer finished 12th after recovering from a spin while fighting for the lead with Hamlin early on.

Matt Kenseth was 14th ahead of Martin Truex Jr, Jeff Burton was 18th and Kyle Busch was the lowest Chase finisher in 20th. Carl Edwards retired from the race on lap 182 after the engine on his Ford blew up spectacularly while he was comfortably leading the race.

Nextel Cup rookie David Ragan had his best race of the year and was the highest finishing Ford in third, setting an impressive pace in the last part of the race which saw him finish right on Stewart's tail.

"We had a great night on pit road," Ragan said. "The car was handling well and when you have a good car it just makes everybody's job a lot easier. It's probably one of our best races of the year. It's good to get in the top five."

The biggest wreck of the night came with 107 laps remaining when David Stremme got spun by Jamie McMurray when the former slowed down to avoid contact with Elliott Sadler. McMurray crashed hard into the wall and was out on the spot, while also involved were Dale Jarrett, Johns Andretti, Dave Blaney and Jeff Green.

Next week the Chase for the Nextel Cup starts at New Hampshire with Johnson in the lead of the championship with 5060 points, followed by Jeff Gordon. The four-times Nextel Cup champion has seen his massive points lead transformed into a 20 point deficit to his teammate due to the Chase's points scheme. Tony Stewart will be third with 5030 points.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Jimmie Johnson          Chevrolet    400
 2.  Tony Stewart            Chevrolet    400
 3.  David Ragan             Ford         400
 4.  Jeff Gordon             Chevrolet    400
 5.  Johnny Sauter           Chevrolet    400
 6.  Denny Hamlin            Chevrolet    400
 7.  Kevin Harvick           Chevrolet    400
 8.  Kasey Kahne             Dodge        400
 9.  Kurt Busch              Dodge        400
10.  J.J. Yeley              Chevrolet    400
11.  Ryan Newman             Dodge        400
12.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet    400
13.  David Reutimann         Toyota       400
14.  Matt Kenseth            Ford         400
15.  Martin Truex Jr         Chevrolet    400
16.  Bobby Labonte           Dodge        400
17.  Casey Mears             Chevrolet    400
18.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet    400
19.  David Stremme           Dodge        400
20.  Kyle Busch              Chevrolet    400
21.  Mark Martin             Chevrolet    400
22.  David Gilliland         Ford         400
23.  A.J. Allmendinger       Toyota       400
24.  Brian Vickers           Toyota       400
25.  Kyle Petty              Dodge        399
26.  Paul Menard             Chevrolet    399
27.  Elliott Sadler          Dodge        399
28.  Kenny Wallace           Ford         399
29.  Bill Elliott            Ford         395
30.  Dale Earnhardt Jr       Chevrolet    394
31.  Dale Jarrett            Toyota       394
32.  Reed Sorenson           Dodge        393
33.  Jeff Green              Chevrolet    380
34.  Dave Blaney             Toyota       353
35.  Tony Raines             Chevrolet    345
36.  Robby Gordon            Ford         335
37.  John Andretti           Dodge        299
38.  Jamie McMurray          Ford         292
39.  Greg Biffle             Ford         261
40.  Scott Riggs             Dodge        251
41.  Juan Montoya            Dodge        241
42.  Carl Edwards            Ford         182
43.  Joe Nemechek            Chevrolet    130