Johnson again strongarms Monster for season sweep

DOVER, Del. -- Pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson threw down the gauntlet in Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, but Mark Martin was up to the challenge.

With his fifth victory at Dover and second at the track this year, Johnson affirmed that his No. 48 Chevrolet team is a serious threat to win a fourth consecutive Cup Series championship.

AAA 400

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
2.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet
3.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
4.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
5.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
6.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
7.	A.J. Allmendinger	Dodge
8.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
9.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
10.	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet

• Results | Lap-by-Lap | Photos

Race Video

• Final Laps: AAA 400
• Victory Lane: Johnson
• Post-Race Reactions
• Trouble for Kyle Busch
• Logano OK after wreck
• Rewind: All the higlights

Martin, however, retained the lead in the series standings with a runner-up finish to Johnson, who led 271 laps in claiming his fourth victory of the season. Martin leads his Hendrick Motorsports teammate by 10 points after two of 10 races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Matt Kenseth ran third, his best finish since winning the second race of the season at Fontana in February. Juan Montoya came home fourth -- his second consecutive top-five in the Chase -- and Kurt Busch kept his hopes for a second Cup title alive with a fifth-place run as Chase drivers took nine of the first 11 spots.

Montoya climbed one position to third in the standings, 65 points behind Martin and 10 points ahead of Busch in fourth.

Jeff Gordon, A.J. Allmendinger, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman completed the top 10. Greg Biffle (13th), Brian Vickers (18th) and Denny Hamlin (22nd) all lost significant ground in the Chase standings.

"It's just two races," Martin said. "I still say that there's 12 in and 12 can win. It might be a challenge for a couple of the ones toward the end of the back."

The 10th-place finish did little to satisfy Newman. Though he held the seventh position in the Cup standings, he now trails Martin by 110 points

"I'm happy that we're still validating in some people's eyes that we should have made it in [the Chase], but it doesn't really matter to me," Newman said. "We need to run better. We need to be up there with the 5 [Martin] and the 48 [Johnson]."

Johnson credited crew chief Chad Knaus with adjustments that improved his car after Saturday's final practice session.

"Chad made some great calls [Saturday] night to make the car more comfortable to drive," said Johnson, who earned the 44th win of his career to tie Bill Elliott for 14th on the career victory list. "It was really what I needed [Sunday]. We had plenty of speed in it. I just needed some comfort, and I had that.

"I was able to lead a lot of laps, but the few times we were back in traffic because of strategy, I worked my way up through there, and everything went well."

Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus also won their 15th Chase race. No one is better down the stretch and it's the main reason why the No. 48 team is going for their record fourth consecutive title.

Martin said his car was slightly off, especially on restarts. Characteristically, he would drop positions on the opening laps of a green-flag run and regain them as the run progressed.

"We had a good-handling car on the long runs, but it was a handful on the restarts," Martin said. "I think we did really well by finishing second. We were just off a little bit, and it really showed itself on the restarts, but we were off just a little bit even on the long run, even though we would get where we could beat most of the crowd.

"We didn't hit it perfect, but as competitive as it is, I'm really proud of how well we hit it."

Johnson, who won for the fifth time at Dover to tie David Pearson for third on the all-time win list at the track, beat Martin to the finish line by 1.970 seconds. Richard Petty and Bobby Allison posted seven victories each at the Monster Mile.

The race was stopped for more than 23 minutes after a spectacular crash involving rookie Joey Logano following the first double-file start.

NASCAR threw a competition caution after Lap 25, setting up a restart on Lap 31. Before the field could complete the lap, however, a violent collision in Turn 3 sent Logano's car barrel-rolling seven times down the 24-degree banking.

Logano was unhurt, as were chain-reaction wreck victims Reed Sorenson, Martin Truex Jr. and Robby Gordon.

Hamlin came to Dover having scored more points than any other driver in the previous 11 Cup races, but the second race of the Chase was a disappointment. He fell three positions in the standings to sixth, 108 points behind Martin.

"We're definitely disappointed, but we didn't crash," Hamlin said, accentuating a positive aspect of an otherwise frustrating day. "We didn't have a 35th-place finish, but we just didn't have a car that was capable of running with any speed [Sunday]. We weren't really fast in qualifying. We weren't fast in all the practices. Our car just didn't have a whole lot of speed.

"We definitely came out here thinking we could win the race, just like any other weekend, but as soon as the green flag fell, I knew we were in trouble. It was just a bad day. The tire that we had was so loose that you had to overcompensate so much with the chassis that it just didn't make for good racing, at least from my standpoint."

• Press Pass: Jimmie Johnson | Mark Martin | Matt Kenseth

The Associated Press contributed to this report.