Stewart gets breathing room with third-place run

CONCORD, N.C. -- There were some considerable changes in the Winston Cup Series standings after the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Sunday.

With his third-place finish, Tony Stewart holds a 97-point lead on Jimmie Johnson heading into Martinsville. Stewart entered the event with a 72-point lead over Mark Martin.

Martin dropped to third, 122 points back, after finishing 16th.

Stewart scored his fifth straight top-10 finish.

VIDEO CLIPS Tony Stewart pads his points lead with a third-place finish. Play video Jamie McMurray visits Victory Lane in just his second Winston Cup start. Play video Jamie McMurray gets the better of Bobby Labonte in the final laps. Play video  •  Results  •  Standings

"This car was awesome on the last run," Stewart said. "We were just so far behind that it took us way too long to get caught up. By the time I got about a second away, I burnt the tires up getting to them.

"I wasn't points racing, I can tell you that for sure. I was racing to win this thing and I was running them down.

"Yeah, I'm pretty happy about the points. We're going to win five more races and go from there."

"I really thought we were going to be able to finish in the top-three tonight," said Johnson, who finished sixth. "We had a couple of little issues that hurt us; fuel mileage didn't work in our favor.

"But, in the big picture, it was a great day. It never fails --- we're all sitting here (motioning to Stewart and himself) second, third and second; and nobody can really move.

"So, it's going to be a battle all the way to Homestead."

Even though Ryan Newman finished eighth, he remains in the fourth spot trailing Stewart by 165 points.

Rusty Wallace stayed in the fifth position with his fifth-place run, but is now 182 points out of first. Jeff Gordon finished fourth in the race and moved past Matt Kenseth into sixth.

"We couldn't gain on Tony (Stewart)," Gordon said. "He did a great job. We did everything we could to fight as hard as we possibly could to get track position and score as many points as possible.

"So, I'm pretty happy with it."

If Gordon hopes to win a fifth championship, he has 211 points to make up on Stewart. Kurt Busch re-entered the top 10 spots with his 12th-place run and is now ninth.

Ricky Rudd crashed in the race and dropped to 10th place.

If history is any indication, it would be on Stewart's side leaving Charlotte. Since 1975, when the current points system was put in place, only five drivers have failed to capture the Winston Cup Series title with five races remaining.