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CONCORD — Jimmie Johnson's momentum — and points lead — continues to grow, putting him halfway to an historic fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

Johnson won Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway — his third win in the Chase and sixth this season — and remains in control of this title Chase. Problems to some of Johnson's top challengers also helped him expand his lead.

Only one driver is within 130 points of Johnson at the halfway mark of the 10-race Chase. The series races this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

The top three in points are all Hendrick cars. Johnson leads Mark Martin by 90 points and Jeff Gordon by 135 points. Martin finished 17th.

Matt Kenseth finished second to Johnson with Kasey Kahne third, Jeff Gordon fourth and rookie Joey Logano fifth.

Clint Bowyer finished sixth with Casey Mears, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch completing the top 10.

Johnson completed a perfect weekend, being the fastest in practice, the pole-winner and the race winner.

Problems struck early for Johnson's main title competitors — Martin, who entered the race in second in the standings, and Juan Pablo Montoya, who entered third in the points.

A slow restart by leader Jeff Gordon on lap 125 of the 334-lap race caused cars to run into each other farther in the pack.

Montoya got into the back of Clint Bowyer's car and damaged his right front fender. Martin ran into the back of Montoya's car and put a hole in the front of Martin's car and damaged the right rear quarter panel of Montoya's car.

Montoya's car suffered the most. He restarted 11th but fell to 26th within nine laps and fell a lap behind the leaders about 30 laps after the restart.

"Brian, talk to me please," Montoya radioed crew chief Brian Pattie on what to do.

"We're going to be screwed if we pit under green because we're not going to be able to fix it under green."

Shortly after that, Montoya spun on lap 164 to bring out the caution. The crew worked on the right front fender and also repaired the right rear quarter panel during the caution.

Montoya fell back to 37th on the restart, two laps behind the leaders. Martin, who fell back after the damage to his car, restarted 17th.

Martin's crew finally got a chance to cover the hole on lap 190 when the leaders pitted during a caution for debris — when the replacement quarter panel on Montoya's car fell on to the track.

Montoya never recovered and finished 35th, four laps behind the leaders.

They weren't the only ones to have problems Saturday.

Denny Hamlin failed to finish for the second consecutive race when he was sidelined by engine problems. He said his title hopes are over with his 42nd finish, which came a week after he placed 37th at California a week ago.

"What sucks about this points system, you can run your tail off for weeks and it just doesn't matter," Hamlin said, referring to the 26-race regular season. "You're going to base your performance off 10 weeks. If you have one bad week, whether because of a driver mistake or parts failure, you're done. Your season is over.

"I may not even make the top 10 in points now. We were looking for a championship two weeks ago and that's what's bad about this points system."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is headed for what would be his worst season in Cup, lost nearly 30 laps when his team had to repair his transmission during the race. Earnhardt, who spoke Friday of his frustrations with his season, finished 38th

Carl Edwards blew an engine late to end a tough race in which he was never competitive.

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

NASCAR Banking 500 Results
Saturday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Concord
Lap length: 1.5 miles
(Start position in parentheses)

1. (1) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 334 laps, 195 points, $328,826.
2. (4) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 334, 175, $240,915.
3. (3) Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 334, 170, $198,723.
4. (9) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 334, 165, $172,701.
5. (12) Joey Logano, Toyota, 334, 155, $162,976.
6. (11) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 334, 150, $113,875.
7. (42) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 334, 146, $109,550.
8. (10) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 334, 142, $134,623.
9. (25) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 334, 138, $127,065.
10. (15) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 334, 139, $99,600.
11. (6) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 334, 130, $113,304.
12. (8) Brad Keselowski, Chevrolet, 334, 127, $77,850.
13. (5) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 334, 124, $100,373.
14. (34) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 334, 121, $119,931.
15. (21) David Reutimann, Toyota, 334, 118, $101,548.
16. (23) Greg Biffle, Ford, 334, 115, $90,975.
17. (2) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, 334, 117, $87,375.
18. (32) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 334, 109, $111,178.
19. (27) David Stremme, Dodge, 334, 106, $106,065.
20. (29) David Ragan, Ford, 334, 103, $82,925.
21. (37) Reed Sorenson, Dodge, 334, 100, $109,751.
22. (13) Marcos Ambrose, Toyota, 333, 97, $86,573.
23. (26) AJ Allmendinger, Dodge, 333, 94, $72,550.
24. (7) Mike Bliss, Chevrolet, 333, 91, $71,850.
25. (14) David Gilliland, Toyota, 333, 88, $68,225.
26. (38) Elliott Sadler, Dodge, 332, 85, $78,725.
27. (31) Paul Menard, Ford, 332, 82, $100,806.
28. (16) Scott Speed, Toyota, 332, 79, $82,173.
29. (36) Bill Elliott, Ford, 332, 76, $66,875.
30. (19) Robby Gordon, Toyota, 332, 73, $89,910.
31. (24) Bobby Labonte, Ford, 331, 70, $96,579.
32. (33) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 331, 72, $74,225.
33. (20) Jamie McMurray, Ford, 331, 64, $75,050.
34. (30) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 330, 61, $94,298.
35. (18) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 330, 58, $100,398.
36. (41) John Andretti, Chevrolet, 330, 55, $73,650.
37. (43) Terry Labonte, Toyota, 329, 57, $68,025.
38. (39) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 304, 49, $83,400.
39. (28) Carl Edwards, Ford, engine, 299, 46, $114,131.
40. (22) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 298, 43, $83,910.
41. (40) Max Papis, Toyota, engine, 286, 40, $65,000.
42. (17) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, engine, 192, 42, $87,875.
43. (35) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, rear end, 26, 34, $65,251.

Race statistics
Average speed of race winner: 137.658 mph.
Time of race: 3 hours, 38 minutes, 22 seconds.
Margin of victory: 2.303 seconds.
Caution flags: 10 for 42 laps.
Lead changes: 22 among 9 drivers.

Lap leaders: 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; Ku.Busch 246-247; K.Kahne 248-291; J.Johnson 292-318; J.Gordon 319-320; J.Johnson 321-334.

Leaders summary (driver, times led, laps led): J.Johnson, 5 times for 92 laps; K.Kahne, 2 times for 67 laps; J.Gordon, 3 times for 64 laps; D.Hamlin, 4 times for 54 laps; M.Kenseth, 4 times for 45 laps; M.Martin, 1 time for 6 laps; M.Waltrip, 1 time for 3 laps; Ku.Busch, 1 time for 2 laps; T.Labonte, 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 12 in points: 1. J.Johnson, 5,923; 2. M.Martin, 5,833; 3. J.Gordon, 5,788; 4. T.Stewart, 5,768; 5. Ku.Busch, 5,746; 6. J.Montoya, 5,728; 7. G.Biffle, 5,655; 8. R.Newman, 5,635; 9. K.Kahne, 5,592; 10. C.Edwards, 5,582; 11. D.Hamlin, 5,551; 12. B.Vickers, 5,438.