Jimmie Johnson scored a walk off win yesterday, dominating the field for over half of Sunday's AAA 400 in Dover, Delaware, the second race in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Johnson tightened up the Chase with a victory over runner up Mark Martin and has big momentum going into the Price Chopper 400 in Kansas, sitting only ten points behind Martin in the standings with two Chase races in the books.

The Lowe's Impala SS was flawless both on the track and in the pits, with the weather staying cool and the track clean from an overnight shower. Some cars tightened up over the course of the race but Johnson's was too well balanced to be bothered.

An August tire test for Goodyear paid off handsomely for the #48 team.

It didn't look like the weather would cooperate in the hours before the scheduled 2 p.m. start, with chilling wind, overcast skies and sprinkles of rain falling in the late morning. But the clouds held back and the track's equipment did a perfect job of putting the track in shape in time for the sponsor laps...and then the sun showed up.

It got bright and hot for the first few parade laps lead by pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, David Reutimann, and Kasey Kahne in the first three rows.

Behind them rolled Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Sam Hornish Jr., Paul Menard, Joey Logano, and Brian Vickers in rows four through six. Chasers Denny Hamlin, and Mark Martin started in row seven, with Kyle Busch on the inside of brother Kurt Busch in row eight.

A couple of Chasers fared poorly in qualifying with Tony Stewart in row eleven and Carl Edwards in row fifteen.

Rolling out of turn four the flag dropped on a perfect starting line up and Johnson put the Lowe's Impala SS on point immediately, with Ryan Newman's U.S. ARMY Impala SS slipping by Montoya's Polaroid Chevrolet on the first lap.

The top 10 spread out and ran in queue for the first 20 laps with Kasey Kahne's Dodge and Joey Logano's Home Depot Camry showing some speed. A competition caution on lap 25 brought the field into pits and the restart saw the #48 drop four spots with the #39, #2, #9 and #98 jumping ahead of Johnson off pit road.

The green flag run was short as Logano and Bobby Labonte in the #96 DPL Fusion bumped on the backstretch. Checking up, Logano put the #20 into Tony Stewart's front bumper and the mayhem began. As Logano slid up the track to the wall, the car took a right side hit from Reed Sorenson and Logano caught air. The #20 Home Depot Camry rolled for what seemed like forever, finally coming to rest on the apron. No harm, no foul, Logano walked away unscathed. Stewart ended up with a damaged and taped up nose.

With a red flag delay, the sky started to brighten and the track changed. On the lap 36 restart, Newman's #39 jumped out to a strong start with Kurt Busch working hard right behind him. Kahne and Montoya made moves to the front while Menard dropped behind Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch.

The front of the field spread out and ran some steady laps with Newman leading Kurt Busch followed by Biffle, Kahne, Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Menard, McMurray, Bowyer, Martin and Hamlin in the top twelve spots.

Around lap 55 the track warmed up and so did some of the Chasers. Kurt Busch moved past Ryan Newman with a strong move on lap 56 and Montoya began worrying Biffle in 3rd. Jeff Gordon passed Kahne for 5th spot and Montoya finished his pass on lap 61.

As the track continued to change, Montoya took 2nd away from Newman as the #39 faded, Jeff Gordon took Biffle's spot in 3rd. By lap 75, Kurt Busch was cruising and Mark Martin slipped into the top 10 a lap later.

On lap 77, Jimmie Johnson was ready to cut loose, passing Newman for a top 5 spot.

The field rolled into the pits on a lap 81 caution flag for Michael Waltrip's flat tire which caused him to bang off the outside wall in turn four.

After an extensive clean up, the race went green on lap 89 with the scoreboard showing Kurt Busch in the lead followed by Biffle, Kyle Busch, Johnson, Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Newman, Martin, McMurray and Menard holding the top 10 spots.

Kurt Busch showed his strength by pulling away to a substantial lead while Greg Biffle's 3M Fusion, passed by Johnson and Kyle Busch, dropped back lap after lap. By the halfway mark Biffle had fallen behind Montoya and Jeff Gordon also.

Lap 100 saw Chasers in eight of the top 10 spots with non-chasers, 3rd place Kyle Busch and 10th place Jamie McMurray among the championship contenders. Kurt Busch was in 1st, Johnson 2nd, Montoya 4th, Jeff Gordon 5th, Martin 6th, Biffle 7th, Kahne 8th,and Newman in 9th. The front eight being separated by only 9 seconds.

The missing Chase competitors, Edwards, Hamlin, Vickers and Stewart, seemed lost back in the pack, out of the top 15.

The next 15 laps saw some shuffling around and on lap 115 Martin's set up kicked in and he took off after the leaders and A.J. Allmendinger progressed into the top 15 with a very strong run. We'd see some more of A.J. later in the race.

Lap 125 showed the running order as, Kurt Busch, still strong and fast, followed by Johnson, Montoya, Kyle Busch, Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kahne, Biffle, McMurray and Newman covering the top 10 spots. Improving consistently were Clint Bowyer in the #33 BB&T Impala, Matt Kenseth in the #17 Dewalt Fusion, A.J. Allmendinger in the #44 Super 8 Dodge and Casey Mears in the Jack Daniels #07 Impala.

With the top 10 shuffling back and forth behind him, Kurt Busch ran up on lapped traffic and Johnson and Montoya closed in. With dirty air in front of him, Busch was a goner by lap 142 when Johnson took him on the low side in turn one. Jimmie Johnson never looked back after the pass.

At the end of a long run, Kyle Busch had a flat tire and headed to the pits on lap 161, it cost him the race. The caution flew on lap 162 for the tire debris. On the restart Kyle went to the high side and passed a long line of cars in turns one and two, sending marbles flying over the fence. He spent the next 42 laps playing catch up and finally put the Interstate Batteries Camry in the wall on lap 204.

By lap 176 the #48 was back in control and so was the crew on pit road.The Kyle Busch caution on lap 204 brought a round of stops and the #48 team got Johnson out in first place on lap 208 followed by Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Martin and Montoya filling out the top 5 and running strong.

There were 50 laps of back and forth in the lead pack and while they were busy bothering each other, Matt Kenseth slipped into the top 10 while Allmendinger, Stewart, Marcos Ambrose and Carl Edwards all pushed into the top 15.

By lap 253, Johnson had lapped a Chase contender, slipping by the #11 FedEx Camry of Denny Hamlin, and was extending his lead.

With the pit window looming, on lap 272, David Stremme hit the wall in the #12 Penske Dodge bringing out the yellow flag. Chase racer Brian Vickers got back on the lead lap with the lucky dog award. Johnson came off pit road in first again.

With 122 laps to go the order was Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Montoya, Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Stewart, Martin, Bowyer, Kahne and Newman holding the top 10 spots and Biffle, Allmendinger, Ambrose, Mears and Kevin Harvick filling out the top 15.

On lap 290 the weather changed again and it showed on the track. Clint Bowyer edged the top 10 with Allmendinger pushing forward also. The top 7 were running away and looking stout with traffic coming up. Mark Martin got strong and took Matt Kenseth's spot, determined not to let Johnson get away. By lap 320 the order had settled in with Johnson pouring it on and Jeff Gordon, Montoya and Martin evenly spread behind him.

A debris caution on lap 324 brought the field down pit road on lap 326 and that sealed the deal on fuel for the rest of the race.

The green on lap 330 showed Johnson, Martin, Kenseth, Montoya, Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Newman, Biffle and Bowyer covering the top 10 spots, with Johnson jumping far out front. A few laps later Mark Martin stepped it up and took 3rd after losing some ground. Eleven laps later caution #8 flew after Regan Smith in the #78 bounced around taking Martin Truex Jr. and Elliott Sadler with him. Jeff Gordon pitted and it cost him large in the end as he slipped to 12th on the restart before climbing back into the hunt.

On the green flag lap the top 10 order was Johnson, Montoya, Martin, Matt Kenseth in a strong run, Kurt Busch, Stewart, Newman, Bowyer, Biffle, Casey Mears.

Lap 368 brought out the final caution of the day when Sam Hornish in the Mobile 1 Dodge, looped it into the wall at the exit of turn two. The last restart on lap 374 had Kenseth up to 2nd, Montoya in 3rd, Martin in 4th, Kurt Busch in 5th, Bowyer in 6th, Jeff Gordon in 7th and Mears, Newman and Biffle holding 8th, 9th and 10th positions.

The final 26 runs had some jockeying behind Johnson but he had such a lead that he was a non-factor to the rest of the top 10.

The lead cars crossed the line at lap 400 with Johnson on cruise control. Mark Martin held on to the points lead with a 2nd place finish, and a surprising 3rd for Kenseth got a podium finish for Roush/Fenway Racing. The top 10 closed out with a disappointed Juan Pablo Montoya in 4th, Kurt Busch hung on for 5th, Jeff Gordon saved his day with a 6th place finish, and the biggest move on the charts, A.J. Allmendinger brought home 7th place money for Richard Petty Motorsports...or whatever they call it now. Kasey Kahne finished 8th and the Smoke Inc. twins crossed the line in 9th and 10th with Stewart nipping Newman and saving what could have been a disastrous day.

Johnson cruised to the win with room to spare and to give credit where credit is due, Chad Knauss knows how to win this deal...and a little dose of testing for the tire guys never hurts either.

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