With the victory at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Johnson took command in the Chase by padding his lead to 90 points over Mark Martin, who finished 17th, and 135 ahead of Gordon.
Johnson, who is marching towards his unprecedented fourth straight Cup title, won last weekend’s 500-mile race at California and grabbed the points lead for the first time this season. He had a dominant week at Charlotte, capturing the pole on Thursday and leading the way in practices.
Despite his 90-point advantage, Johnson wasn’t ready to claim a record fourth consecutive title.
“We’re only halfway through this thing,” he said. “So much can happen. Somebody at Martinsville [next week] can lose their brakes and clean you out. With the double-file restarts, there’s going to be a lot of bumping and banging. Somebody can get into you and knock a valve stem out or cut a tire.
“It’s a nice points lead; there’s no need for anybody to get too excited yet. We’ve got good tracks ahead for us, so from a team standpoint, we’re excited and optimistic. But at the same time, there’s a lot of danger out there, and we’ve just got to be smart.
“If we don’t have a problem, I feel we have a very good chance to win this championship—racing for it.” Auto Racing Daily
RANK DRIVER POINTS STARTS 1 Jimmie Johnson 5923 31 2 Mark Martin 5833 31 3 Jeff Gordon 5788 31 4 Tony Stewart 5768 31 5 Kurt Busch 5746 31 6 Juan Montoya 5728 31 7 Greg Biffle 5655 31 8 Ryan Newman 5635 31 9 Kasey Kahne 5592 31 10 Carl Edwards 5582 31 11 Denny Hamlin 5551 31 12 Brian Vickers 5438 31 13 Matt Kenseth 3774 31 14 Kyle Busch 3755 31 15 Clint Bowyer 3699 31 16 David Reutimann 3644 31 17 Marcos Ambrose 3371 31 18 Casey Mears 3269 31 19 Jeff Burton 3256 31 20 Joey Logano* 3197 31 21 Kevin Harvick 3141 31 22 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2986 31 23 Martin Truex Jr. 2985 31 24 A.J. Allmendinger 2959 31 25 Jamie McMurray 2941 31 26 Elliott Sadler 2891 31 27 Sam Hornish Jr. 2850 31 28 David Ragan 2776 31 29 Reed Sorenson 2758 31 30 David Stremme 2753 31 31 Bobby Labonte 2684 31
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