It’s an early exit for points leader Jimmie Johnson

Greg Biffle went into the Chevrolet 400 third in the points race and aware his luck could change quickly.

“Short track racing at Richmond on a Friday or Saturday night, it’s real easy to make mistakes and that’s what we’re trying not to do,” he said before starting ninth on the three-quarter-mile oval.

On lap 81, points leader Jimmie Johnson became Exhibit A.

Johnson was running 26th, two spots ahead of where he started, when he was nudged into a spin by Travis Kvapil in Turn 2. The spin ended with Johnson’s Chevrolet slamming rear-first into the inside wall.

“It just was a chain-reaction deal,” Johnson said.

Johnson then tried to hustle his damaged car onto pit road for repairs. On the way, it suddenly took a hard left back into the wall.

“My steering failed,” he said in the garage. “If it didn’t hurt the car bad enough the first time, I killed it the second time.”

A short time later, the team said he was done for the night.

“Night like tonight, it feels good to have a points lead,” Johnson said. He started the night 127 points ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, and earned 43 for his 40th-place showing.

Hornaday on truck pole

Ron Hornaday Jr. won the pole position for today’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ UAW/GM Ohio 250, turning a lap at 110.585 mph on the half-mile Mansfield (Ohio) Motorsports Speedway.

Busch explains himself

Kurt Busch said frustration overwhelmed him last weekend at Darlington, S.C., which led him to his bad-mouthing of NASCAR officials, a two-lap penalty and a trip to the NASCAR hauler after the race.

“To wreck on Lap 1 and then to have the crew work on the car and go back out, and realize our potential with such a disappointing looking car, and then it was disappointing to run those lap times 60 laps down,” Busch, the reigning Nextel Cup champion, said.