Johnson Wins but Gains Little in Chase for Cup

Jimmie Johnson drove a Chevrolet to victory Saturday night in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. -- leading teammate Jeff Gordon to a 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports -- but gained almost no ground in the chase for the Nextel Cup championship.

In a race in which nearly all 10 of the championship contenders had some sort of trouble, Kurt Busch and Gordon rebounded the best.

The two bounced back from a wreck in the first turn of the first lap to salvage stellar finishes and retain their hold on the top of the point standings.

Busch, in a Ford, finished fourth and has a 24-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished third in a Chevrolet. Gordon, who also had a second minor accident midway through the race, is 74 points back.

Johnson, whose victory gave him a season sweep at Lowe’s, gained only one spot in the standings. The Lowe’s-sponsored driver is eighth, 222 points behind Busch, because of finishes of 32nd or worse the previous two weeks

“What a way to come back and right the ship after the bad luck we’ve had,” Johnson said.

Johnson, the most dominating driver for the first seven months this season, is more or less out of title contention. The championship hunt has become a three-man race.

“You know what? We’ve just been enjoying each week and not letting ourselves get too serious and not put too much pressure on ourselves,” Johnson said. “But it’s been tough, no doubt.”

Mark Martin is fifth in the standings, but he had a heartbreaking race in a Ford. He was leading late, until Johnson passed him, but was still on his way to a second-place finish when his bad luck hit.

Jimmy Spencer and Brendan Gaughan got into an accident in front of him and Martin couldn’t avoid it. After stopping to fix the damage, he was able to manage only a 13th-place finish.

Martin is 186 points behind Busch in the standings.

“It’s hard for me to believe some of these guys could pass a driver’s test,” he said of the accident.

Tony Stewart finished 10th in a Chevrolet after fighting all race with a car that was so bad, he once threatened to intentionally wreck it. He’s still in sixth in the standings.

Matt Kenseth, the reigning series champion, finished 11th in a Ford.

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Todd Bodine won his second straight NASCAR truck race, leading the final 38 laps at Fort Worth after a lengthy red flag.

Bodine, the 40-year-old former Nextel Cup driver, finished a full second ahead of Johnny Benson, another former Cup driver also in a Toyota. Bodine’s average speed was 115.179 mph, and he became the first driver this season to win consecutive races.

Bodine regained the lead on the 109th lap, the first green-flag lap after the race had been stopped for 28 minutes because of a crash involving five trucks.

Bill Lester got loose on lap 104, then slid up into David Reutimann. Both trucks slammed hard into the wall coming out of the fourth turn, and three other trucks got caught in the aftermath.

Lester’s truck came to rest on the frontstretch, and Reutimann slid to the inside wall along pit row. Both drivers were alert when they were taken in the same ambulance to Harris Methodist Hospital.

After the delay, during which debris was cleaned and repairs were made to the SAFER barrier on the wall that absorbed the impact, Bodine passed polesitter Mike Skinner and his Toyota after the green flag waved.

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Ron Peterson won the 2004 NAPA Auto Parts Super Truck series title with a ninth-place finish in the shortened 48-lap finale at Irwindale Speedway.

Peterson had been in the top three until a series of accidents forced track officials to end the race at 48 laps. Peterson’s closest opponent, Billy Helgeson, won the race, but finished 14 points behind Peterson in the final standings.

In the 100-lap ASA Speed Truck series feature, Darren Young kept his title hopes alive by earning his first win of the season, holding off Brian Fedderson and Terry Young. Series leader Lee Hatch needed a fifth-place finish to win his second consecutive title, but finished sixth, just behind Spencer Clark.

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Timo Bernhard and Ian James earned American Le Mans Series driving championships, and Johnny Herbert and Pierre Kaffer won the season-ending Audi Sports Car Championships event at Monterey, Calif.