Johnson’s Win Overshadowed

Jimmie Johnson’s series-high sixth victory of the season Sunday was overshadowed by word that a plane carrying members of the Hendrick Motorsports organization crashed on the way to Martinsville Speedway.

Eight passengers and two pilots died in the crash, a spokesman with the National Transportation Safety Board said.

NASCAR officials informed Johnson and three other Hendrick drivers of the crash after the race.

In Sunday’s Subway 500 at the Virginia track, Johnson pulled away from Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman on a restart with seven laps to go to climb four spots in the season-ending title chase. Kurt Busch was solid again and moved one step closer to wrapping up NASCAR’s first playoff championship.

In a race where leading contenders Jeff Gordon struggled and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was never a factor, Busch finished fifth and expanded his points lead to 96 over Gordon and 125 over Earnhardt, who fell to third.

Earnhardt started the day 24 points off the lead.

Busch started seventh and led a race-high 120 laps, earning an additional five-point bonus with four races left.

“You’ve got to step up to the plate and race hard in each of these final 10” races, he said. “We had a regular season and now we have a playoff and right now we haven’t had a bad finish.”

Busch has finished no worse than sixth in six races since NASCAR separated the top 10 in points for a 10-race championship playoff.

Gordon, seeking his fifth championship, started the day 74 points behind and gave his second straight dazzling show of driving, overcoming a car that ran in the mid-20s most of the day with strategy. He stayed on the track under a caution with about 150 laps to get track position, then remained in the top 10 the rest of the way to finish ninth.

Earnhardt, seeking his sixth consecutive top-five finish here, was among those shuffled back into the field early -- but that proved the least of his problems. After starting third, he had trouble getting his car to turn all day, made repeated trips to pit road and two to the garage area.

The second time came with 34 laps to go when he got run into by Kyle Petty and finally drove his Chevrolet to his hauler.

Jamie McMurray finished second, Ryan Newman was third and Sterling Marlin fourth, giving Dodge the top three spots behind Johnson’s Chevrolet.

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Juan Pablo Montoya won in his final race for Williams-BMW, beating future McLaren teammate Kimi Raikkonen to capture the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo.

In the last race of the season, Rubens Barrichello started from the pole for the second straight year and led early but finished third in his best effort in 12 attempts at Interlagos. Barrichello’s Ferrari teammate, Michael Schumacher, took seventh place.

“It was the first race I led in Brazil in 2001. I thought I could win,” Montoya said. “Now it is nice to finish like this.”

It was a disappointment for Ferrari, which won 15 of the 18 races this year and had Schumacher, with 13 of those victories, claim his seventh Formula One title.

The victory was Montoya’s fourth in his Formula One career and first since the 2003 German Grand Prix. Next year, Montoya will drive for McLaren with Raikkonen, who won the Belgian Grand Prix this year.

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Brazil’s Bruno Junqueira won the Lexmark Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise, Australia, stalling teammate Sebastien Bourdais’ run for the Champ Car title.

Bourdais, second behind Junqueira in the race that finished under caution after Patrick Carpentier of Canada was injured when he crashed into a tire barrier, will take a 22-point lead over Junqueira into the season-ending race Nov. 7 in Mexico City.