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NASCAR Sprint Cup’s top 5 are topsy-turvy

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There’s nothing like an unruly road-course race to jumble NASCAR’s championship standings.

When the Sprint Cup Series arrived at the serpentine Infineon Raceway here, the top five drivers in points were Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth.

Harvick finished third in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma on Sunday, and the Bakersfield native maintained his lead in the standings. But Kyle Busch and Hamlin had dreadful days that dropped them each a notch while Jimmie Johnson – seeking an unprecedented fifth consecutive Cup title – won the race and jumped to second behind Harvick.

Johnson is 140 points behind Harvick, Kyle Busch is 141 points back and Hamlin trails by 151 points.

The goal of all the drivers is to be among the top 12 in points after the 26th race on Sept. 11 in Richmond, Va., because that group then competes for the championship in NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup over the final 10 events of the season. The Chase includes an Oct. 10 race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

Sunday’s race at Infineon was a particularly rude reversal for Hamlin, the Virginian who had won five races already this year, including the two that preceded Sunday’s race, but who acknowledged that he wasn’t a strong road-course racer. In addition, his No. 11 Toyota was collected in a multi-car crash, and he finished 34th.

The race also was a reminder that Johnson remained a favorite to win yet another title despite his lackluster results over the prior month. Infineon was Johnson’s fourth win of the season; his initial three victories came in the year’s opening five races.

“At the beginning of the year, we were clicking them off,” Johnson said after his Victory Lane celebration Sunday. “Right now, Denny has been clicking them off. All that said, it’s a long time until September.”

Even before the big crash, Hamlin’s car had been banged up in the rough-and-tumble action around Infineon’s 10-turn, 1.99-mile circuit. But it was the crash that relegated him to such a poor finish.

“It’s frustrating because we were pretty good with points, even with the damage” before the crash, Hamlin said. “We’ll put this behind us,” he added, as the series crosses the country for its next race Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch, too, suffered damage to the front end of his No. 18 Toyota early in the race that kept him sidelined for more than 30 laps while his Joe Gibbs Racing team repaired the damage. He finished 39th in the 43-car field.

Carl Edwards, meanwhile, finished 29th and slipped two spots to 12th in the standings — the cutoff point for the Chase. And only 57 points behind him is Dale Earnhardt Jr., who climbed to 13th from 14th in the standings after finishing 11th Sunday in his No. 88 Chevrolet prepared by Hendrick Motorsports.

Harvick, who drives for Richard Childress Racing, has never won at Infineon in 10 starts, but the points leader isn’t complaining.

“We’re fortunate to be where we’re at in the points right now,” Harvick said at his post-race news conference. “We were able to race hard every lap and really not have to worry about what’s going on with the points.

“I don’t know who is second [in the standings] now. … Just race hard whoever it is,” he said. “How many weeks we got left until the Chase?”

james.peltz@latimes.com

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