Johnson sees Brad Keselowski as toughest rival yet

• Martinsville win gives Johnson points lead, but he says Keselowski won't give up
• Two of the final three Chase races will be at 1.5-mile tracks that favor Keselowski's speed
• Johnson on the No. 2 Dodge team: 'They have that tenacity to stay after it and they're doing a great job.'

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Jimmie Johnson outraced, outsmarted and outmuscled Brad Keselowski to seize the points lead Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

But the Hendrick Motorsports driver wasn't ready to proclaim his victory from the pole position in the Tums Fast Relief 500 as a statement that the momentum in the Chase for the Sprint Cup had shifted to him.

Instead, the five-time champion saw it as more evidence that Keselowski might be his toughest rival yet for capturing the crown in NASCAR's premier series.

"The championships I've won, I saw a lot of amazing things out of my competition," Johnson said. "I'm certainly seeing that with Brad. You can't count him out. I knew they had a poor qualifying effort, but they would be there when the checkered fell. They're a good team. I have to expect that. We all do. That goes for the rest of the year.

"I see a familiar, never quit, fight‑to‑the‑end attitude out of (Keselowski's) team that I've seen with some of the best in the sport, if it's Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon. They have that tenacity to stay after it and they're doing a great job."

After entering Martinsville with a seven-point lead, Keselowski now trails Johnson by two with three races remaining. But the Penske Racing driver's No. 2 Dodge team again proved its championship mettle in many ways Sunday:

Despite a dire 32nd starting position at a track where it's easy to fall a lap behind, Keselowski capitalized on a two-tire stop to gain 10 positions during the first yellow flag and stayed in the top 25 the rest of the way.

He avoided getting tangled in any of 11 caution flags despite racing in traffic for most of 500 laps.

Crew chief Paul Wolfe again rolled the dice by keeping Keselowski on track during a caution with 25 laps remaining (when Johnson pitted from the lead with 15 other cars). Though he couldn't stave off Johnson from bumping past into first with 15 laps remaining, Keselowski gained a bonus point by leading for eight laps and still hung on for sixth — his third career best at a track during the Chase.

"It shows the potential we have together," said Keselowski, who thought he had a 10th or 11th-place car. "I believe that we can do this, I really do. We've got work ahead of us, but we're doing all the right things. If you do that long enough, good things will happen to you and good things are happening to us."

The prospects are positive for more good fortune. Two of the final three races — this Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway and the Nov. 18 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway — are at 1.5-mile superspeedways, and Keselowski showed in a Chase-opening victory at Chicagoland Speedway and at Charlotte Motor Speedway that he was faster than Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet.

"I feel really confident going into Texas and Homestead," he said. "I feel those are two races that we can race the 48 car heads-up and maybe even be a little bit better than them. I'm not quite so sure about Phoenix, but the execution we have in this team right now is second to none. If we'd have had just a little bit more speed this week and last week, I think we could have been in victory lane. Like I say we've got a couple races coming up where I know we're going to have speed, and I'm feeling great."

Johnson shouldn't be feeling too badly, either. He was faster than Keselowski at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway last week and has four wins at Phoenix International Raceway, which hosts the Nov. 11 race.

"I think it's going to be pretty even," Johnson said. "(Keselowski) for sure is going to be a factor at those (1.5-mile) tracks."

Keselowski, though, knows he'll have to be more than just a factor as he was at Martinsville and Kansas, where he was eighth last week.

"We need to do more than survive to win the championship," he said. "We've done that the last two weeks, but we know we need to win. Over the next three weeks, we need to make sure we have the speed to match the execution. If we can do that, then we can win this thing.

"I feel like we've got a great shot at it."