Jimmie Johnson is back on top at Lowe’s Motor Speedway after winning Saturday night!

It was Johnson’s 6th victory but first in over 3 seasons at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, nicknamed “Jimmie’s House.”

Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

6 wins ties Johnson with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for the most wins at the 1.5 mile track. It was Johnson’s 46th career win, tying him with Buck Baker for 13th on the all-time Sprint Cup Series wins list.

Johnson led a race-high 92 laps. On the final restart with 17 to go, Jeff Gordon was the only one that could really challenge his Hendrick Motorsports teammate for the lead.

“The 9 car I thought was probably the most competitive car all night long,” Johnson said. “Maybe a little slow on some of the restarts, but once we got eight, ten laps into the race he’d have three or four tenths on guys often.  I thought he had the best car throughout the night. I’m aware that Jeff is in third and happy for him, happy for Hendrick Motorsports.  You know, we got some more points on him tonight, which was good.  But even where Jeff is at and the tracks that are coming up are really good for Jeff, as well.  I mean, he can win at Martinsville, he can win at Talladega, he can win in Phoenix.  He won at Texas this year.  If we have a problem, he’s going to be right in the middle of this thing, and that’s why we just can’t have any big problems.”

Matt Kenseth posted a runner-up finish, his 2nd top-5 in the past 4 races. He led 45 of the 334 laps. “For us, our run was really good,” Kenseth said. “All our guys did a good job on Pit Road.  That was the fastest car we’ve had in a long time, qualified exceptionally well for us.  We were able to keep our track position all night and make little adjustments.  I wasn’t fast enough to beat the 48, and Kasey in the long run was a good bit better than us at times.  But we had a really good car and we got the best we could out of it. It feels good for us to run up front.  It’s a good confidence booster for myself and for the team.”

Kasey Kahne led 67 laps. He held on to finish 3rd. “Yeah, we had a really good Budweiser Dodge,” Kahne said. “We were up there, Matt was up there, another couple other guys that seemed to be there all night.  Jimmie was one of them.  And we just weren’t good enough that final run. We were one of the best the best car at times throughout the night, but the final run when it counted we weren’t, and Jimmie showed up and beat us all.”

Kahne moved up 2 spots in the standings. He’s currently 9th, 331 points back. Is it too late?

“I don’t think either of us can stop him at this point as far as points go.  It’s definitely not over.  I mean, anything can happen the rest of the year.  But if it doesn’t, I think Jimmie is the guy to beat.”

Jeff Gordon led 64 laps Saturday night. “You know, all you really wanna do is get maximum points and finish ahead of those guys you’re racing in the points,” Gordon said on pit road. “Other than Jimmie, we’re doing that.  Those guys are an incredible roll. I’m really excited about the effort this team has put out these last 3 weeks especially; through the whole Chase. You know, we just never quit fighting.”

Gordon moved up 2 spots in the standings. He’s currently 3rd, 135 points from 1st.

Several chase contenders had problems.

Leading into the night race at Lowe’s, Mark Martin trailed Johnson by only 12 points. After starting on the front row with Johnson, Martin jumped out in front for the first 6 lap, but after that he never played a contender and instead had to battle of number of issues throughout the night. Martin, Clint Bowyer and Juan Pablo Montoya made contact on a restart on lap 125 which damaged the nose of Martin’s #5 Chevrolet. Battling a damaged race car, Kasey Kahne put Martin a lap down on lap 289. Martin was able to get the free pass on lap 300 to come back for a 17th place finish and on the lead lap.

Montoya’s #42 ride was significantly damaged after the contact with Martin and Bowyer on the restart on lap 125. Montoya checked up for Bowyer causing Martin to hit the rear end of Montoya’s car. After riding in the back of the field, Montoya ended up spinning off Turn 4 on lap 164 resulting in knocking over a commitment cone at the pit road entrance and losing 2 laps. Montoya finished 35th and dropped by 3rd to 6th in the point standings. He lost a considerable amount of points in the championship hunt. Montoya was 58 points out of 1st entering the night race at Lowe’s. He’s now 195 points behind.

“It happens,” Montoya said. “It’s one of those racing things and you’ve just got to move on.”

Denny Hamlin led 54 laps early on before blowing an engine which ended his night with a 42nd place finish. A wreck of his own making knocked Hamlin out early last week at Auto Club Speedway. Two bad weeks in a row has dropped Hamlin to 11th in the standings.

“You run your tail off for 26 weeks, and it just doesn’t matter,” he said. “One bad week, for a driver mistake and a parts failure, and you’re done. That part of it is frustrating.”

With less than 40 laps to go, Carl Edwards also suffered an engine failure. He finished 39th. “You’re going to have nights like this, that’s life, that’s racing,” he said.

Chasers Kurt Busch finished 10th, Ryan Newman was 11th, Tony Stewart finished 13th and Greg Biffle was 16th.

There were 10 cautions for 42 laps and 22 lead changes among 9 drivers: J. Johnson 0; M. Martin 1-6; J. Johnson 7-36; M. Waltrip 37-39; T. Labonte 40; M. Kenseth 41-42; J. Johnson 43-44; M. Kenseth 45-51;  J. Johnson 52-70; D. Hamlin 71-94; M. Kenseth 95-98; D. Hamlin 99-121; J. Gordon 122-164; D. Hamlin 165-170; J. Gordon 171-189; D. Hamlin 190; M. Kenseth 191-222; K. Kahne 223-245; Kurt Busch 246-247; K. Kahne 248-291; J. Johnson 292-318; J. Gordon 319-320; J. Johnson 321-334

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

We’ve now reached the halfway point in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Johnson extended his points lead to 90 points over 2nd place, Mark Martin. Will Johnson win his 4th consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship? It would be the first in NASCAR history.

“We’re only halfway through this thing.  So much can happen,” Johnson said. “Somebody at Martinsville can lose their brakes and clean you out.  With the double file restart there’s going to be a lot of bumping and banging. Someone can get into you and knock a valve stem out or cut a tire. I mean, it’s a nice points lead, but there’s no need for anybody to get too excited yet. We’ve got good tracks ahead for us, so from a team standpoint we’re excited and optimistic, but at the same time there’s a lot of danger out there and we’ve just got to be smart.”

“You know, we’ve got five more to go,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “I think what I try to keep in mind is the same thing that’s happened to the guys that got them behind could happen to us.  I’d rather be this far ahead than be behind, but you look at Denny Hamlin has been running great and he had two problems here that put him in the shape he’s in.  We’ve got Talladega coming up.  You could have a problem at Martinsville.  This double file restart, I don’t think you can have enough points.  It’s just too early into the Chase.”

Johnson’s turned up the heat for another championship title win as he’s won 3 of the 5 Chase races.

“I guess I don’t understand why people would have a problem with it,” Johnson said. “Everybody tunes in to watch Tiger win.  Everybody tunes in to watch Federer do his thing on certain courts.  I’m just doing my thing.  I think there’s a lot of fans out there that are excited to see what this 48 car is doing, and a lot of people are happy and rooting for us to win a fourth.  The rest of them, oh, well.”

Race #6 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
at Martinsville Speedway -- Sunday, Oct. 25th at 1 on ABC