MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Tony Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps left in Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway and held off Johnson’s desperate bid for the win on the final lap.

The victory was Stewart’s third in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and vaulted him into second place in the standings, eight points behind leader Carl Edwards. Stewart won for the 42nd time in his career.

“He’d better be worried,” Stewart said of Edwards after the race. “That’s all I can say. He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”

There are three races left in the Sprint Cup season—at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. Stewart has four Cup wins at those tracks, Edwards six.

Miraculously, after twice being lapped on the racetrack, Edwards salvaged a decent run and retained his lead in the Chase standings with a ninth-place finish, as his two closest pursuers entering the race, Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski, both experienced late trouble and finished 31st and 17th, respectively.

Edwards also brushed out Stewart’s trash talk.

“He’s wound up—he won the race,” Edwards said. “We’ll see what happens at Texas. I feel like we’re going to go there and we’re going to have as good a shot to win as anyone. This track (Martinsville) has been really, really tough for me.

“Tony and those guys have obviously won three Chase races. When I sat in here on Friday (in the media center), I told you guys that I thought he was one of the guys that could win this race and be a guy that you have to beat for the championship, and he’s proven that. We’ll have fun. We’ll go race hard. They’re going to have to race us, too. I’m excited about the next three races.”

Stewart’s response? “I don’t care what he says. We’re going to go after him for the next three weeks.”

Jeff Gordon ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick, who climbed to third in the standings, 21 points behind Edwards. Denny Hamlin came home fifth, with Jeff Burton sixth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seventh.

Stewart brought his car to the pits under caution on Lap 416, thinking he might have a flat tire from contact with Harvick’s Chevrolet after a Lap 413 restart. Stewart was 21st when the field took the green flag on Lap 420, but a two-tire call during a caution on Lap 459 got the No. 14 Chevrolet off pit road in the fifth position for a restart on Lap 463.

By the time Brian Vickers wrecked for the fifth time to bring out the 18th and final caution—three short of the track record—Stewart had worked his way to second in time for the three-lap run to the finish.

Johnson led the field to the restart on Lap 498 of 500, but Stewart managed to beat him from the outside. Johnson said he thought about leaning on Stewart through the first corner but thought better of it.

“When I was inside of Tony, I went down in the corner and thought that eight tires would be a lot better than four,” said Johnson, who trimmed seven points off his deficit to Edwards and is now 43 behind. “I changed my mind. With where he is in the points, what’s going on, the fact we raced throughout the day today, (and) he never touched me, I had a hard time doing that.”

“I think it would have been great,” interjected Gordon.

“Jeff probably would have won the race if I would have done it,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t bring myself to do that. He got by. I tried to be smart. That’s typically how I race guys. I don’t run over people to get positions.”

After a wild first half of the race had settled into a 97-lap green-flag run after the midpoint, Hamlin squeezed past Gordon on Lap 320 and stayed out front in traffic until David Gilliland’s spin caused the 10th caution of the race.

That started a spate of cautions that gave Harvick and Stewart a chance to move to the front with two-tire calls—and allowed Edwards to return to the lead lap under the 12th caution with a free pass for the highest-scored car one lap down.

Note: At the drivers’ meeting before the race, NASCAR announced that any driver intentionally causing a caution by stopping on the racetrack will be penalized three laps. The rule is in effect for at least the rest of the season, though the number of laps could vary according to the size of the racetrack.

RESULTS

Tums Fast Relief 500
Tums Fast Relief 500 | October 30, 2011 | Race 33 of 36

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS WINNINGS
1 4 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Office Depot / Mobil 1 47/4 500 Running 198,983
2 7 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet MyLowe's 43/1 500 Running 161,786
3 10 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Drive to End Hunger 42/1 500 Running 142,211
4 5 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Budweiser 41/1 500 Running 139,386
5 11 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground 40/1 500 Running 131,350
6 23 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 38/0 500 Running 91,225
7 9 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Diet Mountain Dew "Paint the 88" / National Guard 37/0 500 Running 89,150
8 24 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 36/0 500 Running 88,425
9 1 99 Carl Edwards Ford Scotts WinterGuard Fertilizer 36/1 500 Running 123,916
10 12 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Haas Automation 35/1 500 Running 118,225
11 16 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford AdvoCare 34/1 500 Running 114,961
12 33 13 Casey Mears Toyota GEICO 32/0 500 Running 82,400
13 26 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 31/0 500 Running 103,445
14 8 22 Kurt Busch Dodge Shell / Pennzoil 30/0 500 Running 119,375
15 15 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M Filtrete 29/0 500 Running 92,575
16 35 38 Travis Kvapil Ford Long John Silver's 0 500 Running 95,058
17 3 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge Miller Lite 27/0 500 Running 100,458
18 22 20 Joey Logano Toyota Interstate Batteries 26/0 500 Running 83,325
19 13 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet American Ethanol 25/0 500 Running 115,158
20 28 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine 24/0 500 Running 102,758
21 34 32 Ken Schrader Ford U.S. Chrome / Southern Pride Trucking 23/0 499 Running 89,183
22 20 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target 22/0 497 Running 111,358
23 32 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet Golden Corral 21/0 497 Running 86,183
24 21 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet Richmond / Menards 20/0 497 Running 81,325
25 14 4 Kasey Kahne Toyota Red Bull 19/0 495 Running 90,597
26 36 71 Hermie Sadler Ford Home Smart 0 493 Running 81,300
27 6 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's Halloween 19/2 493 Running 123,141
28 19 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet Carquest / GoDaddy.com 16/0 491 Running 80,350
29 17 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford Stanley 15/0 488 Running 102,216
30 25 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 14/0 484 Accident 98,864
31 2 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal 14/1 477 Running 106,461
32 29 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota Grilling.com 12/0 464 Running 97,270
33 18 6 David Ragan Ford UPS My Choice 11/0 444 Running 77,750
34 31 34 David Gilliland Ford Front Row Motorsports 11/1 357 Accident 68,750
35 27 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet McDonald's 9/0 85 Accident 107,314
36 37 7 Reed Sorenson Dodge Speed Energy 0 77 Vibration 68,650
37 39 46 Scott Speed Ford Green Stuff Absorbent 0 74 Rear Gear 68,600
38 42 30 David Stremme Chevrolet Inception Motorsports 6/0 52 Brakes 68,550
39 40 66 Michael McDowell Toyota Victory Junction 5/0 45 Brakes 68,500
40 43 55 J.J. Yeley Ford Front Row Motorsports 4/0 40 Brakes 68,450
41 41 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota AMFMEnergy.com / Pellet & Wood Stoves 0 33 Rear Gear 68,400
42 30 51 Landon Cassill Chevrolet Phoenix Construction / Thank A Teacher Today / Security Benefit 0 27 Brakes 68,350
43 38 37 Mike Skinner Ford Max Q Motorsports 0 7 Accident 67,914
44 - 192 Dennis Setzer Chevrolet Blow Bros. / Melling Engine Parts 0 0 No Value 0
45 - 175 Derrike Cope Dodge Stratus Racing Group 0 0 No Value 0

* Denotes Rookie
RACE FACTS
Average Speed:
Margin of Victory: 0.17
Time of Race: 03:49:52
Lead Changes: 23
Cautions: 9-21, 29-35, 48-51, 66-71, 87-96, 106-111, 151-155, 198-203, 259-263, 362-368, 399-404, 409-412, 416-419, 428-432, 459-462, 465-473, 476-478, 494-497