Kahne

CONCORD, N.C. — Two things are abundantly clear at the midway point of the Chase for the championship: Jeff Burton can't do anything wrong, and nothing Kasey Kahne does is good enough.

Kahne did everything right Saturday night, leading a race-high 134 laps en route to his sixth win of the year and a season sweep at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

But Burton overcame a pit-road miscue to finish third, and retain his hold on the championship standings. He's 45 points ahead of Matt Kenseth.

Kahne, who finished first and second the past two weeks, is still stuck back in eighth place. The Dodge driver is 160 points out and accepts how hard it will be to chase down Burton.

"It's just tough when you're racing the guys we're racing with. The reason all 10 of us are in the top 10 in points is because we've all run well all year long," Kahne said. "A couple of guys had some hard luck tonight, or things happened to them and the leader, Jeff Burton, didn't."

That was the theme as each Chase driver climbed from their car, looked to the leaderboard and saw the No. 31 Chevrolet still sitting on top.

"I had a good night, but I only made up 10 points," said second-place finisher Jimmie Johnson. "It is frustrating to just gain 10 points."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fourth, is fifth in the standings, and marveled at Burton's run.

"We didn't get to gain on the Ice Man, Jeff Burton," Earnhardt said. "They are there every week doing a great job. You have to pull for them a little bit to win the championship. He's not indestructible, but he has an idea of what it takes."

Suddenly, the driver who couldn't find his way to Victory Lane for five years before this season is the guy to beat. But Burton isn't celebrating just yet.

"We're not going to take ourselves too seriously just yet," Burton said. "We will continue to put a good effort together. I think we're our biggest competition."

But on this night and in this race, no one had anything for Kahne, who also won the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's in May.

He led the most laps, but still found himself in second after a late pit stop. So he had to chase down Johnson, winner of five of the last eight Charlotte races, and passed him with 26 laps go to pull away for the victory.

Only a poor start to the Chase put him in such a big hole, he's been frantically trying to climb his way out and hasn't given up just yet.

"We're making ground now. We had trouble at the start, but we're down to 160, we've cut it just about in half," Kahne said. "We're doing everything we can, but I think we definitely have the team to do it."