Stewart wins, Johnson takes Chase lead at TMS

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- While the tense battles of NASCAR's Chase for the championship rage on, Tony Stewart is driving in a world of his own.

It just so happens that Stewart's world is way out in front of all the drama.
Having fun and driving for wins -- not a championship -- Stewart overpowered the field Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, and he made this one look almost too easy:

"Smoke" led 278 of 339 laps, including the five extra laps because of a late caution, and often was so far ahead that he appeared to be all by himself on the track.

Most of the action was well behind him, where Jimmie Johnson quietly grabbed away the point lead from Matt Kenseth by 17 points with a second-place finish. Stewart easily raced away to his second straight victory and third in the eight Chase races run so far this year.

"I thought we had the perfect car all day," Stewart said. "It was just an unbelievable day. I've been racing for 27 years and I can count on my hands the number of times I've had a car like that."

Sunday's race tightened up the championship, with Johnson, Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., rookie Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick separated by just 105 points with two races remaining. All of them finished among the top 12 on Sunday.

"This was a wild night, but a good one for us, all in all,'' said Johnson, who came into the race trailing Kenseth by 26 points. "We just have to keep working, keep running hard and scoring points.