Johnson wins at Martinsville

There's a new leader in NASCAR's Chase for the championship, and a whole bunch of drivers who are very much back in contention.

Jimmie Johnson took the lead from Bobby Labonte with 55 laps to go Sunday and held it through several restarts to win the crash-filled Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, while 2003 champion Matt Kenseth jumped ahead in a tightened points race.

Kenseth assumed the points lead when Jeff Burton called it a day after just 217 laps because of engine trouble, and most everyone took advantage.

''I'm just happy to finish where we should have,'' said Johnson, who was denied at least a second-place finish at Talladega two weeks ago when he was spun out on the last lap, then finished second last week at Charlotte. ''We've been running up front the last three of four races and haven't been able to close the deal. Today we did.''

Johnson moved from seventh to third in the standings with four races left.

Next week in Atlanta, seven drivers will start within 99 points of Kenseth, who finished 11th on Sunday and seemed more concerned about his performance than excited.

''We've still got to go four more weeks and we've got to run good,'' Kenseth said. ''We haven't ran good in this Chase. ... It's great to be the leader, but we've got to start running good.''