Johnson taking control of Chase

Jimmie Johnson continued "doing his thing" Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. That means winning races and making shambles of the Chase for the Championship.

Johnson won for the third time in five playoff races this year to take a commanding lead. While a few haven't given up with five races to go, there was a collective sense of disenchantment after Johnson finished 75 yards ahead of everyone else Saturday night.

After winning the past three races, Johnson is making a possible fourth championship look easy. Like any other blowout, it's becoming more difficult for NASCAR to keep everyone, including the drivers, interested.

"Man, I'm just out there doing my thing," Johnson said. "I think there's a lot of fans out there that are excited to see what this (No.) 48 car is doing, and a lot of people are happy and rooting for us to win a fourth. The rest of them, oh, well."

Johnson now has 17 victories during the Chase since it began in 2004. Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards are tied with the second-most Chase wins, and Tony Stewart is third. Those three have combined to win 17 times.

While Johnson continues to surge, others continue to falter. Denny Hamlin and Edwards blew engines Saturday; Juan Pablo Montoya and Biffle were involved in accidents; and Mark Martin, Brian Vickers and Stewart struggled with their cars.

Montoya came into Saturday's race with four consecutive top-five finishes. He was rear-ended by Mark Martin during a restart after running in the top five during the first half of the race. The crumpled fender dropped him back to a 35th-place finish. More important, it dropped him back to sixth place in the standings, 195 points behind.

"It's racing. If you're expecting to have 10 clean races then you're dreaming," Montoya said. "We knew it could happen, and here, always the restarts are an issue, and I managed to slow down and I just got hit from behind. It happens."

There were seven drivers within 114 points two races ago. Two victories by Johnson later, now there's only one. Johnson leads Hendrick Motorsport teammate Mark Martin by 90 points heading into Sunday's race at Martinsville -- where Johnson has won six times.

Johnson is confident his team can sustain its momentum, but he's not ready to celebrate.

"I'm not trying to downplay where we're at. I'm very, very, very happy where we're at. But there's five races left," he said.

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com.