Denny Hamlin was already at home when Jimmie Johnson crossed the finish line for his third victory in five championship races.

Juan Pablo Montoya didn’t have a great view of the victory celebration; he was four laps behind the action.

And Mark Martin? Well, the one guy most people believed could keep pace with Johnson was mired in traffic.

With the closest contenders out of his way, Johnson cruised into control of the points standings with Saturday night’s win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. He did have his hands full late with Chase for the Sprint Cup drivers Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon, but neither could beat him on a series of late restarts, and Johnson ultimately made it look easy.

Only it wasn’t, he insisted, and the cushy 90-point lead he’ll take into Martinsville, Va., next week isn’t nearly enough breathing room for a team determined to win a NASCAR-record fourth consecutive championship.

“Not to sound like a broken record, but you just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Johnson insisted after celebrating his sixth Cup victory at the suburban Charlotte track. "If somebody spins out, you get caught up in it. Contact with another car and there’s a tire rub. Fender is on the tire, you come down pit road. Puncture a tire. Whatever it is, those elements are still out there.

“If we don’t have any problems, I feel that we’ve got a very good chance to win the championship, racing for it. But the unknowns is what we can’t control.”

It’s those very unknowns that have Johnson in such an envious position.

Martin and Montoya, who started the race ranked second and third in the standings, began the night with cars that could run with the No. 48. Then a round of pit stops stacked them in traffic on a lap 125 restart that may ultimately prove to be the moment that ended their title chances.

Montoya, 58 points out of the lead before the race, rammed into the back of Clint Bowyer as traffic stacked in front of him on the restart. Martin, who was 12 points out, ran into the back of Montoya.

Montoya had damage to both ends of his Chevrolet, while Martin was left with a gaping hole in the nose of his car. Although Montoya got the worst of it — he plummeted through the field, fell a lap down and finally got a break when his own spin brought out the caution — the damage to Martin took him out of contention, too.

Montoya’s Chase-record streak of four straight top-five finishes ended with a 35th place, and he’s 190 points behind Johnson.

Martin wound up 17th, his first finish lower than seventh in eight races.

Button clinches F-1 title

Jenson Button clinched his first Formula One title with a fifth-place finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo on Sunday and his Brawn GP team became the first to take the constructors’ crown in its debut season.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber claimed his second race win ahead of Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber and defending champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren.

Fifth was good enough to give Button an insurmountable 15-point lead over Sebastian Vettel in the drivers’ standings ahead of the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 1. Button’s triumph gives Britain back-to-back F-1 titles for the first time since Graham Hill won in 1968 and Jackie Stewart in ’69. Hamilton won last year, also clinching at the Brazilian GP.

Stoner wins Australian MotoGP

Australia’s Casey Stoner led from start to finish in the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Melbourne, holding off world champion Valentino Rossi.

Stoner, riding a Ducati, won his home race for the third straight year. Spain’s Dani Pedrosa was third.