IN THE GREEN

Jimmie Johnson (Change: 2nd to 1st)
Johnson went into the Camping World RV Sales 500 four points behind leader Matt Kenseth. After a tango with Talladega Superspeedway, he flipped-flopped with Kenseth and emerged the new points leader in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Johnson is no rookie to Talladega, having already claimed two wins, six top-five finishes and 10 top-10s in his Sprint Cup career. Even though he finished 13th in the field, he led for 47 laps, the most for the race. Johnson now heads to Martinsville, where he’s owned the field in years past to the tune of eight wins.

Kyle Busch (Change: 5th to 3rd)
Coming out of a frightening wreck the previous night during the Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega, it’s understandable to think that Busch might have been a little shaken up going into the Sprint Cup race. Busch, starting 27th in the field, missed his pit stall during the first round of green-flag pit stops on Lap 40, ultimately losing a lap, but regained it as the free-pass driver on the next caution flag on Lap 79. Finishing fifth and leading for nine laps has boosted this Chase contender from fifth in the standings to third as he heads to Martinsville where he’s yet to land in Victory Lane in his Cup career. 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Change: 9th to 6th)
For Earnhardt Jr., Talladega is personal. He holds the third most wins in the Sprint Cup Series at the track, behind his father, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon, respectively. Leading for 38 laps, Earnhardt Jr. seemed to be in position to compete for a win. This was until the final lap when Austin Dillon, driving in place of injured Tony Stewart, lost control of his car causing an intense wreck. That brought out the day’s third and final caution, freezing the field immediately and handing the win to the No. 1 car of Jamie McMurray without a challenge from Earnhardt Jr. or anyone else. Although Earnhardt Jr. didn’t make it to Victory Lane like he had hoped, he still finished second making the most dramatic positive movement in the standings by hopping up three positions to sixth. Earnhardt Jr. is now 52 points behind the leader, Johnson, going into the seventh race in the Chase. 

IN THE RED

Matt Kenseth (Change: 1st to 2nd)
Kenseth’s time at Talladega was anything but ideal. Starting the race as the leader in the Chase, Kenseth endured handling issues, voicing complaints to his crew chief about looseness in his car. Feeling like he was going to crash around every corner, Kenseth eventually pitted and took four tires and adjustments, but that still didn’t seem to help. Kenseth’s rough ride at Talladega resulted in a 20th-place finish and dropped him back to second in the standings, four points behind Johnson. With no career wins at Martinsville, Kenseth will have to use his frustrations as fuel to get him back into the leader position in the Chase. 

Jeff Gordon (Change: 4th to 5th)
With six wins already at Talladega, Gordon knows the ins and outs of the treacherous track. Starting 19th in the field, Gordon had a pretty uneventful race and led for only three laps. Finishing 14th, his lackluster performance dropped him one spot in the standings to fifth. In order for Gordon to stay in Chase contention, he will have to pull off a win at Martinsville, like he’s done seven times before during his Sprint Cup Career. Gordon is now 34 points behind the leader, Johnson. 

Kurt Busch (Change: 7th to 9th)
It would have been almost perfect for Busch to win at Talladega in his Wonder Bread car, but unfortunately that’s not how events played out. Busch found himself in the top five numerous times, even holding the lead for three laps, but he just couldn’t make any substantial waves in the field that would permit a positive move in the standings. Busch’s less than theatrical performance had him finish 18th, dropping him back two positions in the standings. Busch still remains winless this season as he goes to Martinsville next weekend where he’s seen Victory Lane just once.

MISSED CHANCES

Greg Biffle (Change: 6th to 7th)
In Biffle’s 22 Sprint Cup races at Talladega, he has never seen Victory Lane at Talladega. Biffle often ran in the top 10 during the Camping World RV Sales 500 and even led for five laps. His drop to seventh in the standings during the sixth race in the Chase is detrimental to his championship dreams. Biffle missed a chance to make some positive movement in the standings and in order to stay alive in the Chase, Biffle must secure at win at Martinsville, where he still has yet to claim a victory in his career.

Joey Logano (Change: 11th to 12th)
One week Logano is up, and the next he’s down. This time it’s the latter. Dropping back to 12th in the standings after leading for seven laps at Talladega is not what this Chase contender wants to see. Logano finished 16th in the field and missed his chance to be more aggressive in the race that could have been a boost to his standings position. In the past, Logano has given himself the chance to be great, and now it’s time to go out and make good on the opportunity that he’s been given before it’s too late. 

MORE:

READ: McMurray rules with late Talladega surge	WATCH: Final Laps: McMurray wins; Dillon spins	READ: Points lead changes hands	WATCH: Busch misses pit stall

That would be the formation of a bottom line on the final lap to challenge eventual winner Jamie McMurray and runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr., streaking at the front of a long lane of cars roaring up against the wall. Working with his spotter over the radio, Kenseth tried to get one together — but it never happened, and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver found himself stuck in 20th place at the finish line.

"I’m still actually just dumbfounded why everybody just rode," Kenseth said. "Once you’re five cars back, you’re a half-mile. I can’t believe nobody even tried. I should have been smarter. I should have thought about points more, and looked at (Johnson) and just rode in that top line. I thought we’d get enough cars in there to try to make a run there toward the front to try to mix it up for the win. I thought that’s what we’re here to do, so that’s what I was trying to do. It just didn’t work out."

Johnson didn’t fare much better — although he led a race-high 47 laps, the middle lane in which he was riding toward the end became the low lane, and then disappeared entirely as everyone moved toward the top. But Johnson’s 13th-place result was still good enough to flip the standings and put him four points ahead of Kenseth, reversing the deficit he carried into north Alabama.

"Excited. Excited to go racing," the five-time series champion said. "(And) to come out of here with a straight race car and a decent finish — or a finish ahead of the car we were most worried about, which was (Kenseth). It’s 13th, which isn’t the best. But mission accomplished. We had a good day, and I really like the final four race tracks on the schedule, and I’m looking forward to it."

While Johnson spent most of the race at or near the front, Kenseth dealt with a car that at its best was able to lead 32 laps, and at its worst was so loose that he had to bide his time near the back. The vehicle seemed to change coming out of a pit stop following a caution caused by a crash involving Marcos Ambrose and Juan Pablo Montoya. "Did you change anything?" Kenseth asked crew chief Jason Ratcliff over the radio. "I’m really loose. Like wrecking loose."

Ratcliff answered in the negative. It took two pit stops and two rounds of changes before the vehicle finally returned to something resembling its previous form. The road there, though, was a stressful one. "I can’t race like this without wrecking," Kenseth said as he fell back to 23rd.

"Once we got off, we were so loose I had to wait two full runs to get up there," Kenseth said afterward. "There were a couple of times I made the move to get up to third or fourth, but with a car outside of me and a car behind me, I was just about crashing every corner, so really we had to come back and get the car right. I don’t know what happened to it."

In the end, the car was good enough that Kenseth was able to drive back toward the front — before getting stuck three-wide at the bottom.

"We’re going to be right in the middle of this fricking wreck. We need to get the heck out of here," he said over the radio. Again he faded back, all the while keeping a constant dialogue with spotter Chris Osborne trying to pull together a low line to rival the one steaming along at the top.

Kenseth asked Osborne to coordinate with the spotters of Joey Logano, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle to create an inside line. "I need more than a couple of cars," Kenseth radioed. "I need four or five." But they never materialized, and Kenseth remained stuck — unable to advance his position on his own, and unable to find the help he needed to make a run at it on the bottom.

"I thought everybody would mix it up at the end and try to make a race out of it," he said. "But everybody just stayed up at the top and pedaled it. That was my bad, I guess. I should have been happy with 10th, but I just have a hard time doing that."

He wasn’t the only one dumbstruck — the winner was as well. "I was really surprised they weren’t able to put something together and make more of a run," McMurray said. "I was shocked by that."

Paul Menard, who finished fourth, said no one wanted to be the first driver to go to the bottom, so everyone was left waiting on someone else to make the first move. "I wasn’t going to be the first guy to do that, because I’ve done that before and been shuffled out pretty quick," he said. "I was going to wait for somebody else to make the first move, and try to piggy-back on."

In the end, it never happened. "They must be still thinking about it," Kenseth said, "because nobody made one."

The finishes by Johnson and Kenseth cracked the door slightly for a few other Chase drivers — Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are now 26 points off the lead, and Jeff Gordon is 34 points back in fifth. But Sunday, it was clear the two top contenders were eyeing one another. Early on, crew chief Chad Knaus told Johnson to pit when Kenseth did, keeping the two lead cars on cycle with one another. And Kenseth once asked Osborne to be wary of new lines coming up behind him, after being hung out because Johnson led a rush up the middle.

"At the end, it was just focused on just being ahead of him and getting any points I could," Johnson said of Kenseth. "But over the course of the race, he’s so good at drafting that I wanted to work with him. I felt it was the safest environment. … I was very comfortable telling myself that if I finished behind him in second or around him, I wouldn’t lose many points to him in the overall scheme of things. As the race goes on, that mindset goes away and you just want to be greedy and get all you can. I raced with him a lot today, throughout it, but at the end I just wanted to get anything I could."

Sunday marked the first time Johnson had stood atop the points since Labor Day in Atlanta, before the standings were reset by race victories for the Chase. It also marked the fourth time in Chase history that the points lead changed hands after the checkered flag fell at Talladega. Now it’s on to the final four events — at Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead, places where the Hendrick Motorsports driver has won a combined 14 times. Eight of those victories are at Martinsville, where Kenseth has never won.

"I feel that the races forward now are … where the competitors go earn it," Johnson said. "You don’t have this luck issue that can take place at plate tracks. So I am happy to have the points lead, and we went through a lot of work to get there.  We were just getting one point at a time, and we got a few more than normal today and were able to get the lead. We just go racing from here, and that is the thing I am most excited for. Great race tracks, great race cars and it’s just going to be a dogfight to the end.”

And Kenseth certainly has plenty of fight left. Sunday, though, losing the lead in the standings seemed to pale in comparison to not having a chance to win the race.

"I haven’t even looked at them," he said of the points. "You can’t run 20th and win it."

MORE:

READ: McMurray rules with late Talladega surge	WATCH: Final Laps: McMurray wins; Dillon spins	READ: Points lead changes hands	WATCH: Busch misses pit stall

The resulting third caution of the race froze the running order with McMurray in front for his first victory of the season (and first since 2010), Earnhardt second and Stenhouse a career-best third.
 
For the second time in as many weeks, a non-Chase driver went to Victory Lane in a Chase race, the first time non-Chasers have won consecutive Chase races since Tony Stewart won back-to-back at Atlanta and Texas in 2006.
 
That McMurray won at Talladega for the second time in his career, however, should come as no surprise at all. Four of McMurray’s seven career wins have come at restrictor-plate tracks.
 
In the last 20 laps, the field spread out single-file in the top lane, and in fact, McMurray — with his Cessna-sponsored No. 1 Chevrolet adorned in Auburn University colors — had surged into the lead from the outside on Lap 174, moving up the track in front of Stenhouse and Earnhardt as the outside line began to move.
 
"At the plate tracks, to get the right line, it requires a lot of risk, and I felt like I was pretty patient all day, and I saw the 17 (Stenhouse) and the 88 (Earnhardt) coming on the top," McMurray said. "It just seemed the top was the better place to get hung out than if you got hung out on the bottom. Fortunately, I was able to get myself in position.
 
"I don’t know how the last lap would have played out, because I could see the 88 trying to set me up and trying to figure out where he could get a run on me, but then I saw the caution come out behind me. Honestly, I wanted to see it end under green, but at the same time, I said if there was a caution, I would be OK with that right now, too."
 
Paul Menard came home fourth, followed by Kyle Busch. David Ragan, the winner at Talladega in May, ran sixth. David Gilliland, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer completed the top 10.
 
Johnson finished 13th, despite leading a race-high 47 of 188 laps, but took over the series lead from Kenseth, who fought an ill-handling car during the second half of the race and finished 20th after dodging the last-lap wreck. Johnson leads Kenseth, who led 32 laps, by four points with four races left in the Chase.
 
The last-lap move Earnhardt was planning never materialized, thanks to the caution for Dillon’s wreck. Earnhardt, however, said he didn’t want to risk getting shuffled back through the field by making his move too early.
 
"It’s frustrating, because the worst part about it really is (that) you go home and you’ll spend months thinking about what you could have done to not be second," Earnhardt said. "That’s the worst part about it. Actually, the process of it happening and doing it isn’t that bad. You’re kind of happy with being competitive, and it was a good result. But you’ll go back and think of a million things you could have tried different …
 
"We have a last-lap wreck every time, and I guess next time we’re in that situation, we’ll try to go a lap sooner."

MORE:

READ: McMurray rules with late Talladega surge	WATCH: Final Laps: McMurray wins; Dillon spins	READ: Points lead changes hands	WATCH: Busch misses pit stall