Half of the NASCAR schedule had elapsed before the flag dropped Saturday, and while that chronology alone did not necessarily thrust the championship picture into vivid Technicolor, if you were in trouble, if you needed to do something soon, you knew who you were.
Whether substantial shuffling was even possible at the speedway remained the issue. A caution on Lap 39 provided the first significant change, as a shaky stop for then-leader Johnson dropped him six spots and allowed Martin to grab the lead when green-flag racing started again.
Off a restart after a five-lap caution that ended on Lap 136, Martin got an early challenge from Johnson but pulled away in due time. Same for the green-flag pit stop with less than 80 laps to go: Martin went in with the lead and came out with it.
The last obstacle was the late caution with seven laps to go when Kyle Busch "blew up," in his words, and Martin had to fend off a Jeff Gordon car with four new tires on yet another restart.
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bchamilton@tribune.com
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The standings
Sprint Cup Series standings after the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. The top 12 drivers qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The Chase begins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 20 and is the last 10 races of the season.
*--* RK DRIVER PTS BEHIND STS POLES WINS TOP 5 TOP 10 1 Tony Stewart 2,884 Leader 19 0 2 11 15 2 Jeff Gordon 2,709 -175 19 0 1 10 13 3 Jimmie Johnson 2,672 -212 19 0 2 8 13 4 Kurt Busch 2,526 -358 19 0 1 6 10 5 Denny Hamlin 2,457 -427 19 0 0 6 8 6 Carl Edwards 2,438 -446 19 0 0 5 9 7 Ryan Newman 2,385 -499 19 1 0 5 9 8 Kasey Kahne 2,336 -548 19 0 1 3 7 9 Juan Montoya 2,321 -563 19 1 0 0 9 10 Kyle Busch 2,298 -586 19 1 3 4 6 11 Mark Martin 2,296 -588 19 3 4 5 9 12 Matt Kenseth 2,295 -589 19 1 2 4 7 13 Greg Biffle 2,285 -599 19 0 0 5 8 14 David Reutimann 2,219 -665 19 2 1 4 5 15 Clint Bowyer 2,169 -715 19 0 0 3 7 16 Brian Vickers 2,149 -735 19 5 0 2 8 17 Jeff Burton 2,113 -771 19 0 0 2 6 18 Marcos Ambrose 2,078 -806 19 0 0 2 5 19 Jamie McMurray 1,960 -924 19 0 0 0 3 20 Joey Logano 1,956 -928 19 0 1 1 4 *--*
