Two more rounds await fierce Johnson-Keselowski duel

• Johnson wins second consecutive Chase race from pole
• He leads Keselowski by seven points with two events remaining
• Hendrick Motorsports driver passes Penske Racing driver on outside of final restart

FORT WORTH — There were embattled cries of dirty pool, angry finger-pointing before restarts and fierce fender-banging for the checkered flag.

The gamesmanship in the Chase for the Sprint Cup spiked Sunday as Jimmie Johnson outdueled Brad Keselowski for victory in the AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, and it probably won't be letting up until the season ends in two
weeks.

"The gloves are off, and it's bare-knuckle fighting," said Johnson, who leads Keselowski by seven points with races at Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway remaining. "I expect a lot of hard racing. That's what we've seen all year long, all Chase long. You can't count (Keselowski and his team) out.

"They're keeping us honest. They're pressing us hard."

It was the five-time champion who kept the heat on at Texas, though.

For the second consecutive race, Johnson won while leading the most laps (168 of 335) in his No. 48 Chevrolet to earn the maximum 48 points.

"It's a small amount of control, but we're definitely in control," the Hendrick Motorsports driver said after scoring Chevy's 700th win in NASCAR's premier series. "Seven points is nothing to feel comfortable about. We're still going to go into Phoenix and try to sit on the pole and win again."

Keselowski's No. 2 Dodge made contact with Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet while battling for the lead on the 1.5-mile oval on a restart with eight laps remaining. He was pulling away toward his third victory of the Chase before a caution flew for a crash by Mark Martin, setting up the overtime finish.

Though he faces his largest deficit of the Chase, Keselowski remained undeterred that he still controls his fate in the title hunt.

"It don't feel good, but there is a part of you that just feels like you're first in class," Keselowski said. "When you catch the breaks that he caught with the yellows and then you execute like they can, you're unbeatable. I'm confident that we can execute at a high level. He's caught several really good ones.

"I'm confident that that will come back around, and when it does, we'll change these seconds and fifths or whatever they are over the last few weeks into wins."

Keselowski said he probably would need to win one of the next two races. He has only one top-10 finish in six races at Phoenix and none in four starts at Homestead, but he is becoming accustomed to personal bests. Sunday's runner-up finish marked his first top 10 at Texas — the fourth time during the Chase he'd set a career best at a track.

"I'd say it's probably a heads-up match going into Phoenix and probably the same going into Homestead," he said. "We just need to win the heads-up matches. I think there is still plenty of potential to do that."

He nearly beat Johnson in a straight fight at Texas. After catapulting into the lead with a two-tire stop during a caution on lap 312, Keselowski fended off Johnson and third-place finisher Kyle Busch on consecutive restarts. After making contact with Keselowski's No. 2 Dodge on a restart with eight scheduled laps left, Johnson pulled alongside under the final caution and gestured angrily because he (and Busch) felt Keselowski had jumped both restarts.

"Just wanted him to use his head," said Johnson, who tied with Keselowski and Denny Hamlin for the series lead with his fifth victory (wins are the first tiebreaker if the standings end in a tie). "There is no sense in taking us both out in the process. If he was taking me out, you can count on the fact that I would have been on the gas and trying to take him with me."

Mindful of how he'd nearly wrecked with Busch while battling for the lead on a two-lap shootout at Watkins Glen earlier this season, Keselowski elected not to play rough when a final yellow for a Mark Martin spin set up a green-white-checkered overtime finish.

"I felt like we were just going to wreck," Keselowski said. "I wasn't looking to be the guy that wrecked him poorly. I didn't really enjoy the last time that happened with Kyle."

Johnson, running second, actually won the race to the line on the final restart when Keselowski spun his tires. Johnson said he gave back some of the advantage, and the Penske Racing driver didn't take issue.

"I think NASCAR said before they're not going to get out a micrometer and measure that kind of stuff," Keselowski said. "Via that interpretation, I think it was probably fair play on both sides."

Busch, though, saw it differently from third place.

"I think Brad went early the last two times ... but from my experience with Brad it doesn't surprise me," he said. "The second-to-last restart, those guys got side by side, and it seemed like Brad was moving up to force Jimmie into the dirty racetrack, so it makes it slick and slows you down. He's no dummy. He's smart."

Keselowski tried to assuage any hard feelings by congratulating the points leader with a handshake in victory lane, which Johnson called "very classy."

The cool thing about it is we walked right up to that line, got right to the edge, and then it stopped," Johnson said.

But will it stop there at Phoenix and Homestead?

"I don't expect it to be easy to pass any (Chase contender)," Johnson said. "But when you're around a guy that you're trying to beat in the points, it's gloves off in a whole different deal."