By Jason Schultz

A miraculous driving job by Jimmie Johnson allowed him and his No.48 team to celebrate in victory lane Sunday afternoon in Martinsville.

Jimmie Johnson drove  the dominant car of the day and some excellent pit road performance by his crew put Johnson out front at the end. Johnson held off Kyle Busch on the final few laps for the victory.

Besides winning the race, Johnson became the new points leader and now leads Brad Keselowski by two points in the championship standings.

Johnson’s amazing performance at Martinsville began with him leading the field to green and leading a good part of the first half of the race.

The first yellow-flag flew on lap 45 for David Stremme who had a tire go down in turn two. Championship contender Denny Hamlin received a speeding penalty during the caution, which proved to be the first of many misfortunes for Hamlin throughout the day.

Johnson’s teammate Jeff Gordon took his first lead of the day on lap 68.

The second caution of the day came out on lap 98 for David Gilliland who blew a tire and slapped the turn four wall. Johnson regained the lead during pit stops.

Travis Kvapil brought out the third caution of the day when he spun around in turn two. Jeff Gordon stayed out under the caution to take the lead once again.

Gordon lost the lead to Brian Vickers on lap 147.

The fourth yellow flag of the afternoon flew on lap 150 for Kyle Busch who spun around in turn three.

Hamlin bounced back from his speeding penalty and took the lead on lap 165, but lost the lead soon after when Hamlin was passed by Johnson on lap 173.

The lead changed hands once again ten laps later when Clint Bowyer passed Johnson.

The caution came out once again on lap 199 for Marcos Ambrose, who spun around in turn two. Jeff Gordon became the new leader on the restart.

Ambrose brought out the caution once again on lap 212 when he got into the frontstretch wall, cut down his tire and spun in turn two.

Clint Bowyer rocketed to the lead on lap 226, passing Jeff Gordon.

A classic Martinsville incident occurred between Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch on lap 228 when Harvick got into the back of Busch heading into turn three and Busch spun up the track and brought out the caution.

Johnson came back to the lead on lap 236 after he got around Bowyer.

With half the race completed on lap 250, Bowyer led followed by Gordon, Kahne, Johnson and Earnhardt Jr.

The only round of green flag pit stops during the race, began on lap 336. The leader coming into pit road was Clint Bowyer, but before exiting to the track, Bowyer stalled his car and lost valuable track position.

Denny Hamlin’s day began to go downhill on lap 371 when his car lost power. Hamlin’s car alternated on and off power for twenty laps before he brought out the next caution for stalling on the track. Hamlin then took his car behind the wall. The issue that may have cost Hamlin a shot at the championship, was a master power switch malfunction.

The tenth caution of the day came out, with 61 laps to go, for Juan Pablo Montoya who spun on the backstretch after slight contact with leader Jimmie Johnson.

Chaser Kevin Harvick ran into trouble when his engine expired with 26 laps to go.

This caution brought a mixed bag of strategy when Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr decided to stay on the track to gain track position, while the rest of the field pitted. On the restart and older tires, Keselowski could only hold the lead for a few laps, before Johnson returned to the lead.

The twelfth and final yellow flag of the day flew, with ten laps to go, when Dale Earnhardt Jr and Carl Edwards wrecked in turn one. Sam Hornish Jr got into the back of Edwards heading into turn two, causing Edwards to get into the back of Earnhardt Jr and turning both  cars.

The final restart left Jimmie Johnson leading and Kyle Busch trying to chase Johnson down. Busch got to the back of Johnson’s bumper in turn two on the final lap but he couldn’t move Johnson out of the way. Johnson held Busch off in the final turn to take the checker flag.

This is Johnson’s first Chase win and his first win since July at Indianapolis. After the race,  Johnson said that today was “no cake walk” and he earned this win.

Late in the race, Brad Keselowski made a risky move trying to salvage a good finish and his effort produced a sixth-place finish. Although Keselowski lost the points lead, he said, that he and his team are “Doing things to be in contention at Homestead.” Keselowski now trails Johnson by a mere two points in the standings.

Clint Bowyer continues to make progress on the leader and had a great run that ended up placing fifth at the checkered flag. Heading to the next Chase event, Bowyer currently trails Johnson by twenty-six points.

The rest of the Chasers finished as follows; Kahne third, Gordon seventh, Biffle tenth, Kenseth fifteenth, Earnhardt Jr twenty-first, Truex Jr twenty-third, Stewart twenty-seventh, Harvick thirty-second and Hamlin thirty-third.

A rough day for Denny Hamlin, just about cost him a shot at the championship. Hamlin will need to go all out in the final three races to regain his championship chances.

Martinsville left some drivers feeling great and some others feeling disappointed – a classic day at Martinsville to say the least.

Next week at Texas Motor Speedway, Chase drivers will plan their strategies to close in on Jimmie Johnson for the championship. The Sprint Cup championship race is coming down to the wire with Keselowski and Johnson within two points of each other – they will be going all out to beat one another next weekend in Texas.

Results and Point Standings via Nascar.com

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	1	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	48/2	500	Running
2	3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M’s Halloween	42/0	500	Running
3	15	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	HendrickCars.com	42/1	500	Running
4	10	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	Gwaltney	40/0	500	Running
5	8	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-Hour Energy Benefiting Avon Foundation for Women	40/1	500	Running
6	32	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	39/1	500	Running
7	11	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Pepsi Max	38/1	500	Running
8	2	55	Brian Vickers	Toyota	MyClassicGara ge.com	37/1	500	Running
9	17	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Pine Sol	35/0	500	Running
10	30	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	34/0	500	Running
11	18	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Quicken Loans	33/0	500	Running
12	9	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Zecol / Menards	32/0	500	Running
13	27	22	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	0	500	Running
14	19	78	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / Farm American	30/0	500	Running
15	6	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Ford EcoBoost	30/1	500	Running
16	14	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depo t / redbeacon.com	28/0	500	Running
17	24	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	McDonald’s	27/0	500	Running
18	23	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Geek Squad	26/0	500	Running
19	34	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	25/0	500	Running
20	25	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	24/0	500	Running
21	20	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Diet Mountain Dew / National Guard / AMP Energy	23/0	500	Running
22	4	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Odyssey / EnerSys	22/0	500	Running
23	12	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	21/0	500	Running
24	33	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Black & Decker	20/0	500	Running
25	22	13	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	19/0	500	Running
26	16	34	David Ragan	Ford	Where’s Waldo	19/1	500	Running
27	7	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Mobil 1	17/0	498	Running
28	26	51	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction	16/0	498	Running
29	28	32	Ken Schrader	Ford	Southern Pride Trucking / U.S. Chrome	15/0	495	Running
30	36	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Long John Silver’s	14/0	494	Running
31	41	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	14/1	492	Running
32	13	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Rheem “Chasing the Cure”	12/0	473	Running
33	5	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	12/1	466	Running
34	42	33	Stephen Leicht *	Chevrolet	Little Joes A utos.com	10/0	253	Running
35	37	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	Mohawk Northeast / TMone Call Center	9/0	193	Running
36	29	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	@TMone Drive Sales Fast	8/0	185	Running
37	43	195	Scott Speed	Ford	Jordan Truck Sales	7/0	116	Running
38	31	26	Josh Wise *	Ford	MDS Transport	6/0	85	Running
39	21	98	Michael McDowell	Ford	Phil Parsons Racing	5/0	61	Running
40	40	30	David Stremme	Toyota	Inception Motorsports	4/0	46	Running
41	38	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	AM / FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves	0	35	Running
42	35	23	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	North Texas Pipe	2/0	22	Running
43	39	191	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	Plinker Tactical	0	19	Running