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CONCORD -- Jeff Burton showed that Jimmie Johnson might not cruise to his third consecutive championship.

Burton won Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, but Johnson's sixth-place finish kept Burton 69 points behind halfway through the title Chase. Greg Biffle is 86 points back. No one else is within 150 points of Johnson.

That's a key cutoff point. No one has come from more than 146 points behind after this race and won the title. Johnson pulled the trick in 2006. It doesn't get easier for Burton, as the series heads to Martinsville Speedway next weekend. Johnson has won three of the last four fall races at the short track.

"It's a long way to go,'' Burton said of the Chase. "Lot of stuff is going to happen. It's our job to put ourselves in position and go to Homestead (for the season finale) with a chance. We have nothing to lose. We're just hanging it out and seeing what happens.''

Kasey Kahne, who won the all-star race and the 600 in May, finished second. Kurt Busch, driving the new Dodge engine, finished third with Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray completing the top five. Johnson, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and David Ragan finished sixth through 10th.

Johnson struggled with his car the last quarter of the race, but he has finished in the top 10 in each of the first five Chase races.

"Great day to have a bad day and finish like this,'' Johnson radioed his crew.

The finish looked as it if was setting up for a Johnson win.

He gained three spots, moving to second on a pit stop on lap 298 when his team changed only two tires. He exited behind only Burton, whose team did not change tires.

"You've got this,'' crew chief Chad Knaus radioed Johnson after the pit stop. "You're bringing home the trophy!''

Burton and Johnson dueled, running side-by-side for a few laps as they raced for the lead. Johnson couldn't get by as Burton looked to score his first victory since the spring Bristol race.

Johnson's car faded late as Burton went on to his 21st career victory.

Not everyone had a good day, though.

Things didn't start well for Carl Edwards. He and Kevin Harvick met with NASCAR officials a couple of hours before the race in regards to their altercation Thursday in the Nationwide garage.

A brief argument about last week's crash, started by Edwards at Talladega, turned physical as Harvick pushed Edwards away. Edwards fell onto the hood of Harvick's Nationwide car.

That wasn't the end of Edwards' woes Saturday. He radioed his crew that he had a "huge vibration'' and then stopped for right side tires on lap 52. As he exited his pit stall, AJ Allmendinger crashed, bringing out the caution. Edwards lost a lap and restarted 40th.

The team found no problems with his tires, but Edwards no longer reported a vibration after they had been replaced.

During a caution a few laps later, Edwards' car lost power. His car stopped on the backstretch and had to be pushed to pit road where he lost several laps as his crew attempted to diagnose the problem with the ignition system.

Edwards, who had never finished worse than 15th in seven previous starts at this track, sat on pit road while his crew dissected the issue. He returned 16 laps behind the leaders in 40th place. He finished 33rd.

Edwards wasn't the only title contender to have problems.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. blew a right front tire and hit the wall, ending his slim championship hopes. He lost 45 laps as his crew repaired his car. Earnhardt finished 36th.

"It is pretty disappointing because I was just taking it pretty easy,'' Earnhardt said. "We just got some bad luck.''

Matt Kenseth also crashed after he was hit by Travis Kvapil as they tried to avoid a spinning car. It's the third time in five Chase races he's failed to finish because of an accident.

"Just got ran over from behind,'' said Kenseth, who finished 41st. "It's just been one of those months.''

Gordon bounced off the wall twice in the first five laps and made a pit stop 10 laps into the race, yet he came all the way from last to lead the race. He moved into first on lap 204 and stayed near the front most of the race.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com