Kenseth passed Kyle Busch with 25 laps to go then held Busch off on a restart to win his first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

The victory was Kenseth’s third of the season, but first since NASCAR’s title-deciding series began five races ago. It pushed him from fifth to third in the standings. He trails leader Carl Edwards by seven points at the halfway point of the 10-race Chase.

Busch changed his engine before the race and started last in the 43-car field but fought his way through the field for his best finish in the Chase.

Kenseth was pulling away from Busch when Johnson’s crash brought racing to a halt. The five-time defending champion was running seventh with 17 laps remaining when contact with Ryan Newman sent him headfirst into the wall. The hit was so hard, his back tires briefly lifted off the track.

He finished 34th and dropped to eighth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings with five races remaining.

Johnson, winner of last week’s race at Kansas, had started the race ranked third in points and only four points behind leader Carl Edwards.

“That one stung for sure. Pretty big impact,” Johnson said. “Definitely not the night we wanted. This is not going to help us win a sixth championship.”

Kenseth quietly hung near the front all night, but missed several chances to take the lead because of botched restarts. He finally got it right with 25 laps remaining when he sailed past Busch, and held him off again on the final restart with 13 laps to go.

The victory moved Kenseth up two spots in the standings to third, only seven points behind Edwards at the halfway point of the Chase.

“It was tough to get by him and I am glad we could make it by him because it was challenging,” Kenseth said. “I was going to be pretty mad if I was going to lose this thing on restarts. Finally got one on the end.”

Busch, who led a race-high 111 laps, had a late run-in with Edwards, who finished third and leaned into Busch’s car after the race to discuss an incident in the closing laps.

Busch insisted he did nothing wrong and Edwards apparently accepted his explanation.

“There was no malicious intent involved,” Busch said. “It was just a product of what we had at the end, giving everything we had and trying to come home second.”

Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose, two drivers not competing for the championship, finished fourth and fifth. It was the third straight top-10 finish for Ambrose, the first time in his career the Australian has pulled that off.

Kevin Harvick was sixth, and he went from one point behind Edwards to fourth. A.J. Allmendinger was seventh and was followed by pole-sitter Tony Stewart, who overcame late contact with Greg Biffle to finish eighth.

Denny Hamlin was ninth and Ryan Newman rounded out the top 10.

Kurt Busch was 13th, his Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski finished 16th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 18th, Jeff Gordon was 21st and Johnson was the lowest finishing Chase driver.