RICHMOND, Va -- Jimmie Johnson ran away from the field to post his series leading sixth NASCAR Nextel Cup Series win and secure the top spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup with a victory in Saturday night’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond Int’l Raceway.

Johnson led all but one of the final 100 laps to beat out Tony Stewart by more than three seconds to win for the second week in a row, while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fell short on his bid to qualify for the 12-driver Chase lineup, failing to make the Chase field for the second time in three years.

With the Chase standings seeded by number of victories, Johnson will start the 10-race showdown with a 20-point edge over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon.

“We're happy to be hitting our stride at this point in the season,” said Johnson. “The race was starting off good for us and we ran in the Top-5 all day. At the end the car started to come to life and made some great adjustments. Adjustments were spot on and got me in good track position. 
 

“The last hundred laps the car was as good as it's been. I’m happy that we're able to put that together and win back-to-back weeks like this.”

Dave Ragan finished a career-best third in Saturday’s night race, followed by Jeff Gordon and Johnny Sauter.

Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick raced their way into the Chase field, surviving some tense moments when both got caught up in an incident on lap 242, giving the Red Army a glimmer of hope.

Earnhardt, Jr. had to overcome a 128-point deficit to pass Harvick for 12th in the standings and faced the nearly insurmountable challenge of having to win the race and have Harvick finish 33rd or worse in order to pass Harvick for the final transfer spot.

Earnhardt, Jr. and his team put together a string of top-five finishes in the last two races, and put up a valiant effort on Saturday, running in the top five for much of the second half of the race.

Earnhardt slipped past Jeff Gordon to take second place with 47 laps to go and was gaining ground on Johnson for the lead, but it all became meaningless when Harvick crossed the finish line with 22 laps to go, bypassing Jeff Green, who was 22 laps down in 33rd-place, guaranteeing Harvick a finish of at least 32nd and mathematically eliminating Earnhardt, Jr.

Earnhardt, Jr.’s bid for the victory went up in smoke while running third with five laps to go when the powerplant in his no. 8 Budweiser Impala bit the dust, relegating him to a 30th-place finish. It was the third such engine failure in the last seven races for Earnhardt, Jr.

“It’s just disappointing. These dang motors,” said a dejected Earnhardt, Jr. following the race. “I run good every week, we just haven’t been finishing races. We run in the top five every week. We aren’t in the Chase, we deserve to be in the Chase, I wish we were for my fans, but we’ll give them something to cheer about. We race hard, we don’t quit. We love racing, that’s what we do.”

Tony Stewart, who missed the Chase last season, will start third in the Chase behind Johnson and Gordon in his bid for his third Nextel Cup title, but was still disappointed with his runner-up finish in the race.

“We just didn’t end up where we need to be,” said Stewart. “We had a good night, we kept making changes and kept getting (the car) better, but we felt we let one get away from us tonight.

“I’m really proud of how this team rebounded from missing the Chase last year to this year, ending the 26-week stretch second in points. It just shows that this team never gives up.”

Carl Edwards will start fourth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, followed by Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex, Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.

Results

* Denotes Rookie

Feedback can be sent to feedback@autoracing1.com