Johnson wins … and gets the lead

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jimmie Johnson was caught between his competitive urge to win and the big-picture reality that a mistake could cost him a shot at another NASCAR Nextel Cup championship.

The urge to win won … and so did Johnson.

The reigning Cup champion came out on top after a dramatic side-by-side duel with Matt Kenseth, grabbing his third straight victory and, more important, wresting the series points lead from Jeff Gordon on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

The race with Kenseth was breathtaking at times, with both cars wiggling dangerously as they came off the corners nearly touching.

"That was tough racing," Johnson said. "Matt was crowding me and I was trying to move him up a little bit and we were doing all that at 190 miles an hour. It was pretty intense."

The entire time Johnson was well aware a crash would have taken him right out of the championship battle.

"I feel like I was doing a good job balancing those emotions in the car," he said. "When I got inside of Matt and tried for a lap or two to get by him and he was crowding me, I actually backed off and let him go. So I just checked those feelings and regrouped and then went back after him.

"But, after seeing the video when I was doing the Victory Lane interview, I was more sideways than I felt like I was," Johnson added, laughing. "I think I was too focused on the prize and I was pretty crossed up a couple of times."

Even team owner Rick Hendrick was unnerved by the side-by-side racing.

"We've got an awful lot at stake here," Hendrick said. "You know Jeff was running seventh and I thought, 'We don't need to do this.' But I felt like Jimmie was under control. I was nervous and I was wanting to hit the (radio) button, but I didn't."

Johnson, who began the day 9 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Gordon, moved out to a 30-point lead with two races remaining in the Chase.

Gordon, a four-time champion, led early in the race but was no factor in the late going, struggling with handling before managing to squeeze out a hard-earned seventh-place finish that kept the points battle close heading to Phoenix next week.

Johnson, who took the points lead for good at Texas last year on the way to his first and only title, said, "I do know we're racing for the championship and now we have control of it, I guess."

Kenseth was one of four drivers who moved to the front on the final pit stops by the leaders on lap 301, taking only two tires. Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, decided to change all four on the No. 48 Chevrolet and his driver came out fifth for the restart on lap 306 of the 334-lap race.

"I felt like four tires would be better than two with that many laps left, but I also knew that we needed to be the first car that changed four tires to get out of the pits," Knaus said. "The guys did a great job getting us out there where we needed to be."

Kenseth took the lead from Ryan Newman on the restart, and it took Johnson until lap 313 to move to second. He then began closing quickly on the No. 17 Ford of Kenseth, who had a lead of just more than one second.

Once Johnson caught him, the two battled lap after lap, bumping at least once.

"We raced a long time, but he was probably pretty confident I wasn't going to wreck him," said Kenseth, who also finished second in Texas in April when he was passed on the last lap by Jeff Burton. "I didn't get him much extra room at all.

"I felt like I was sideway the whole time. One time, (I) just about spun out. That would have been bad. I'm glad I was able to gather that up and keep going."

They crossed the finish line exactly even -- the timing showing the difference as 0.000 seconds -- on lap 328 and lap 332 as Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion, tried desperately to hold off Johnson.

But the determined Johnson, who was shown as the leader on lap 332, finally got some space on Kenseth with 2 laps to go and raced away to his ninth victory of the season, winning by 0.944 seconds -- about 10 car-lengths.

It was Johnson's 32nd career victory and first on the 1.5-mile Texas oval. He led four times Sunday for a total of nine laps.