The No. 48 crew had a steady day in the pits, keeping Jimmie Johnson in the lead pack most of the day at Martinsville. Credit: Autostock

Johnson, Stewart still nip-tuck with four to go

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart are quickly becoming NASCAR's version of the Tortoise and the Hare.

It seems like Stewart is destined to stretch his lead in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, only to have Johnson snap back at the end and leave the points standings basically the same.

Tony Stewart regained the points lead with a runner-up finish at Martinsville. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Chase Standings after Martinsville Pos. Driver Pts. Behind 1. T. Stewart 5,957 -- 2. J. Johnson 5,942 -15 3. R. Newman 5,894 -63 4. G. Biffle 5,874 -83 5. C. Edwards 5,808 -149 6. R. Wallace 5,791 -166 7. M. Martin 5,787 -170 8. Ku. Busch 5,785 -172 9. M. Kenseth 5,785 -172 10. J. Mayfield 5,741 -216 • Race Results, click here • Point Standings, click here • Lap-by-Lap, click here Runner upSmoke talks about his second-place finish Third placeJJ comes home third, falls 15 back in Chase Subway 500Catch all the racing highlights from Martinsville Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Stewart finished second in Sunday's Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway and led the most laps, but Johnson stayed in step with a third-place run, meaning Stewart now leads by 15 points with four races to go. The two were tied after Johnson won at Lowe's and Stewart was 25th after crashing while leading the race.

"I think as the weeks wear on, there's a smaller and smaller group of cars [with a chance at the championship]," Johnson said. "But it's too early to count anybody out. There's still a lot of racing left.

"Right now, we're racing as hard as we can. There's a lot of guys to look at. Tony's been very strong."

Stewart echoed those sentiments.

"At this point, I think everybody looks at Jimmie and I as two of the guys [with the best chance], but as Jimmie said, you can't count out the rest of the guys, either," Stewart said. "We've had two bad races and Jimmie's had one bad race. Everybody kind of has little things that have happened. With four weeks to go, you can't narrow it down yet."

Just like at Lowe's Motor Speedway one week ago, Stewart dominated the early stages Sunday, never falling out of the top 10 and leading all but 60 of the first 343 laps.

But for the second consecutive week, Stewart couldn't pull a winning rabbit of out his hat. When six teams -- including eventual race-winner Jeff Gordon -- stayed out while Stewart pitted following Casey Mears' spin on Lap 343, Stewart was mired in seventh place on the restart and wasn't able to fight his way through traffic to lead again.

"Solid day for us," Stewart said. "Starting on the pole is obviously an advantage because of good pit selection.

"We just never could get it 100 percent right and later in the day when the track started cooling off, Jimmie and Jeff really got going good."

On the next-to-last restart with 14 laps to go, Gordon led Johnson and Stewart. As Gordon pulled away, Johnson stayed low in the corners, forcing Stewart to bump his way by for second place.

"I just did the same thing Jeff did here in the spring and same thing Jeff did to me at Bristol on the last lap, I think, in 2000," Stewart said. "You just get that fender underneath there and that's all you need. It was just enough to get a fender underneath Jimmie and when I came down, I got him loose, and when he went up the track, I drove under him."

A final caution set up a three-lap showdown, but Stewart was never able to get close enough to Gordon to make a pass.

"There was no catching Jeff," Stewart said. "What makes him so fast at the end of the day, I don't have an answer."

While Stewart was showing his early superiority, Johnson was biding his time. Starting sixth, Johnson slipped out of the top 10 at the end of the first 100 laps but steadily worked his way back up the leaderboard.

"We played the game smart," Johnson said. "We did what we needed to do, got some track position to get up there behind [Gordon]. I didn't really think I was better than the 24 but I felt like I was one of the better cars on long runs.

"All in all, it was a good day."