Johnson

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Jimmie Johnson would gladly have bumped his boss out of the way Sunday, if he could have caught him.

Johnson, whose car is co-owned by Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick, finished second to Gordon in the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, crossing the finish line about five car lengths behind.

"Of course, I want to pass him," Johnson said. "Of course, I want to put a bumper on him. I wouldn't have wrecked him, but that's what I'm out there to do, race for the win. I'm racing him for points.

"I wouldn't have wrecked him, but I wish I could have gotten inside him and put on a good show and ended up the winner."

Gordon, who is sixth in the season standings, moved within 40 points of fifth-place Johnson with four races remaining. But Johnson, in only his second full season, was pleased with Sunday's result after a mostly frustrating weekend.

"I've been struggling ... and the fastest I was all weekend was 24th or 25th," Johnson said. "To be able to get things figured out and sorted out on how to drive the track and finish second is such a cool accomplishment."

Johnson's No. 48 Chevy started 26th in the 43-car lineup and fell deeper into the field after spinning out early in the 500-lap race on the half-mile Martinsville oval.

"This is one of the places that is hardest mentally to drive, and even after being spun out and all kinds of crazy stuff happened to us today, we still ended up with a good finish. It took a lot of patience."

Gordon was proud of his protege, and happy Johnson didn't get too close at the end.

"I was working real hard to keep some room between us there at the end in traffic. I knew he'd do what it takes to beat me," Gordon said. "I just wanted to make sure he didn't get the opportunity."

Tough weekend
Dale Jarrett crashed in qualifying Friday, started from the rear of the 43-car field Sunday and spun twice during the race -- just your everyday 11th-place finish.

"I thought we'd have a hard time running in the top 20," said Jarrett, a former series champion who is 26th in the season points standings. "We just struggled with this car."

Jarrett said the backup Robert Yates Racing Ford was "nowhere close to a short-track car. But we just tried to make the most of it. ... It was just an interesting day, but we were able to have enough car on old tires that we could stay out there towards the end, and that worked in our favor."

Fine tuning
NASCAR is fine-tuning its new "Lucky Dog" rule that gives a lap back to the highest-scored driver not on the lead lap when a caution flag comes out.

Next Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a driver who gets a lap back will still pit with the cars a lap or more down before being allowed to pass the pace car. But he will no longer be allowed to come back in to top off his gas tank before the restart, taking away what was perceived as an advantage in this era of fuel economy runs.

The original rule went into effect Sept. 21 at Dover as part of NASCAR's decision to no longer allow drivers to race back to the flagstand under caution.

Petty production
Director Callie Khouri said preproduction is well under way for a movie telling the story of NASCAR's Petty family.

Lee Petty was a pioneer in the stock car sport, while his son, Richard, became a seven-time champion and the sport's greatest driver; his grandson, Kyle, is a longtime driving star; and grandson Adam was well on the way to stardom before being killed in a crash in 2000.

"It's a very emotional story and we'll have all four generations of Pettys in the script," Khouri said Sunday during a visit to Martinsville Speedway along with the movie's producers Lisa Stewart and Ian Bryce, writer John Warren and production designer David Homba.

Khouri, a longtime screenwriter, won an Academy Award for her original screenplay "Thelma and Louise" in 1991. She made her debut as a director last year in "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

The still untitled Petty family movie, which will be made by Walt Disney Studios, is scheduled to star Dennis Quaid as Richard Petty. Khouri said the next steps will be to complete casting and select locations for shooting.

She said the movie could be released as early as February 2005.

Spark plugs
Ryan Newman finished fifth, his fifth straight top five and sixth in the last seven races. His best previous finish in three Martinsville starts was 15th. ... Gordon now has won at least two races in 10 straight seasons, failing to do so only in 1993, his rookie year. ... Last year's winner Kurt Busch went out with an engine failure and finished 39th, falling to 10th to 11th in the season points. Bill Elliott moved from 12th to 10th with a ninth-place finish on Sunday.