Five things we learned at Lowe's

Jeff Burton will have a chance to catch Jimmie Johnson in the Chase if something goes sour for Johnson. Getty Images

Five things we learned over the weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway:

1. Once again, Jimmie Johnson was the race's big winner.

Even though Johnson fell from second to sixth late in the race as the handling on his No. 48 Chevy went away, he's still in control of the Chase for the Championship. He holds a 69-point lead over Jeff Burton and a 86-point cushion over Greg Biffle. More important, he's essentially eliminated Carl Edwards, who had mechanical problems at Charlotte and is now 168 points behind Johnson. This means the top two drivers of the regular season, Edwards and Kyle Busch, are out of the title hunt, and all Johnson has to do to win his third straight championship is out-race Burton and Biffle over the next five weeks, which is something he's done for most of the season without much difficulty.

Expect Johnson to be the driver to beat next Sunday at Martinsville (Va.), where he's won three of the last four Cup races.

2. Jeff Burton is coming on at the right time.

For most of the season, Burton has been solidly in the top-five in the standings, yet he's attracted little attention. Why? Because even though he's been a master at authoring top-10 runs, he rarely contends for wins. It's been as if his No. 31 Chevy has been missing that extra tick of speed late in races. But at Lowe's, Burton held off Johnson late to win his second race of '08. What's more, this team has now reeled off six straight top-10 finishes.

Can Burton catch Johnson? It's unlikely, given that Burton hasn't displayed the consistency of speed this season that Johnson has. But if Johnson has a mechanical problem or gets caught up in a wreck next Sunday at Martinsville -- a track that breeds multi-car crashes -- then Burton will have a chance. He makes few mistakes and is among the most respected veterans in the garage, which means he has plenty of friends on the track. But the only way he'll be within striking distance of Johnson at Homestead is if Johnson falters, which is something he hasn't done for the last two Chases.

3. Carl Edwards had an atrocious, season-killing weekend.

A week after Edwards triggered the Big One at Talladega by wrecking his teammate Biffle -- a crash that took out several Chase drivers, including Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Biffle, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- Edwards had an even worse weekend at Charlotte. On Thursday he approached Harvick in the garage. Edwards was upset that Harvick had uttered a few disparaging words about Edwards on national television after the wreck at 'Dega, and Edwards wanted to speak to Harvick about it.

Predictably, things quickly spun out of control. The two scuffled and a photographer captured the incident, snapping a picture that showed Edwards' hand on Harvick's throat. Harvick is hardly a sympathetic figure in the garage, but it's clear that Edwards was in the wrong here. You simply don't walk into some else's space in the garage and pick a fight, which was what Edwards did.

Edwards didn't get wrecked by Harvick in the race -- this is coming, though, race fans, and it's coming soon -- but Edwards had early mechanical problems and finished 33rd. Combine this with his 29th place run at Talladega, and Edwards has just had his worst back-to-back races of the season. Talk about terrible timing.

4. Greg Biffle must have a top-five finish at Martinsville to stay alive in the Chase.

Biffle finished seventh at Lowe's to remain in third in the standings. But this could be short-lived for Biffle. Martinsville is one of his worst tracks on the circuit. In 11 career starts at the .526-mile oval, which is the shortest track on the Cup schedule, Biffle has just one top-10 run and his average finish is 23.6. If he matches that average next Sunday, his championship hopes likely will be dashed.

5. Tony Stewart will win at least one more race this season.

For the second-straight race, Stewart flashed impressive speed. He led four times for 42 laps and likely would have contended for the win if he hadn't been slapped with a penalty for speeding on pit road late in the race, which caused him to go a lap down. Still, Stewart was able to drive back up through the field and finish 11th.

Let's be clear: Stewart isn't going to win the championship; he's currently seventh in the standings and 228 points behind Johnson. But his No. 20 team, which slumped in the middle of the season after Stewart announced he was leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, is starting to surge. He won at Talladega a week ago and he had a fast enough car to win at Lowe's. While it's too little, too late, this is a team on the rise. Expect Stewart to be extremely fast over the next two weeks at Martinsville and Atlanta, two tracks where he has a total of four career wins.