Burton prevails, cuts Johnson’s hefty chase lead

CONCORD, N.C.

Jimmie Johnson might not cruise to his third consecutive championship.

Jeff Burton won Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but Johnson’s sixth-place finish kept Burton 69 points back at the halfway point of the title Chase. Greg Biffle is 86 points back; no one else is within 150 points of Johnson.

That’s a key cutoff point. No one has come from more than 146 points behind after this race and won the title. Johnson managed that in 2006.

It doesn’t get easier as the series heads to Martinsville.

Johnson has won three of the past four fall races at the short track.

“It’s a long way to go,” Burton said of the Chase. “Lot of stuff is going to happen. It’s our job to put ourselves in position and go to Homestead (for the season finale) with a chance.”

Kasey Kahne, who won the all-star race and the 600 in May, finished second. Kurt Busch, driving the new Dodge engine, finished third, with Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray completing the top five. Johnson, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and David Ragan finished sixth through 10th.

Johnson struggled with his car the last quarter of the race, but he has finished in the top 10 each of the first five Chase races.

“Great day to have a bad day and finish like this,” Johnson radioed his crew.

The finish looked as it if was setting up for a Johnson win. He gained three spots, moving to second on a pit stop on lap 298 when his team changed only two tires. He exited behind only Burton, whose team did not change tires.

“You’ve got this,” crew chief Chad Knaus radioed Johnson after the pit stop.

Burton and Johnson dueled, running side-by-side for a few laps as they raced for the lead. Johnson couldn’t get by as Burton looked to score his first victory since the spring Bristol race.

Johnson’s car faded late as Burton went on to his 21st career victory. Not everyone had a good day, though.

Things didn’t start well for Carl Edwards. He and Kevin Harvick met with NASCAR officials a couple hours before the race in regards to their altercation Thursday. A brief argument about last week’s crash, started by Edwards at Talladega, turned physical as Harvick pushed Edwards away. Edwards fell onto the hood of Harvick’s Nationwide car.

That wasn’t the end of Edwards’ woes. On Saturday, he radioed his crew that he had a “huge vibration” and then stopped for right side tires on lap 52. As he exited his pit stall, AJ Allmendinger crashed, bringing out the caution. Edwards lost a lap and restarted 40th.

The team found no problems with his tires but, after they had been replaced, Edwards no longer reported a vibration. During a caution a few laps later, Edwards’ car lost power. His car stopped on the backstretch and had to be pushed to pit road, where he lost several laps as his crew attempted to diagnose a problem with the ignition system.

Edwards returned 16 laps behind the leaders in 40th place. He finished 33rd and is fourth in the standings, 168 behind Johnson. Matt Kenseth was caught in a mid-race accident and finished 41st to drop to 11th in the standings.