MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Tony Stewart hadn’t won a race all season and didn’t list himself as a championship contender when asked to handicap the field before NASCAR’s 10-race playoffs got going.

Now, his third championship is there for the taking.

“We’ve had one of those up-and-down years and we’re having a run in this Chase and now we’re hungry,” Stewart said after his third victory in the first seven Chase races moved him within eight points of leader Carl Edwards. “We’re hungry for this. I feel like our mindset into these next three weeks, we’ve been nice all year to a lot of guys, given guys a lot of breaks.

“We’re cashing tickets in these next three weeks.”

Stewart won this one by passing Jimmie Johnson on a restart with three laps to go Sunday. He then playfully called out Edwards.

“He better be worried. That’s all I’ve got to say,” Stewart said in Victory Lane. “He’s not going to sleep for the next three weeks.”

Stewart moved from 19 points behind leader Edwards and in fourth place to eight points behind in second as several contenders got caught up in a season-high 18 caution flags.

Even Stewart had trouble, at one point having to apologize to race leader Denny Hamlin for racing him hard to stay on the lead lap. And that was with less than 200 laps to go.

“I was pretty mad all day, but I was the only guy who didn’t get in a wreck with somebody, so I was kind of proud of that,” Stewart said.

The winning pass, to Johnson’s outside, surprised even him.

“I don’t think anybody has ever passed Jimmie Johnson on the outside,” he said. “I don’t think we had the best race car today, by any means, but we had the most determined pit crew.”

Johnson, for much of the day, looked like he might be the one making a huge gain in the points race, especially as Edwards floundered in the mid-20s and wasn’t getting any better.

The cautions, which slowed things for 108 laps, also a season high, allowed Johnson to weather a call by crew chief Chad Knaus to stay out when all the leaders behind him pitted for fresh tires with just more than 40 laps to go. But he couldn’t hold on with Stewart pressing him at the end.

“I just could not get away from him on the restart,” he said. “I thought about going in there and leaning on him, move him up, but that is just not the right thing to do.”

Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowsk, who started the day second and third in points, were running near the front until getting caught up in late accidents. Kenseth finished 31st and Keselowski wound up 17th.

Kevin Harvick finished fourth and moved into third in the points race, 21 behind Edwards. Denny Hamlin was fourth, followed by Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. Johnson, who started the day seventh in points, moved into sixth with his second-place run, but is still 43 points off the lead in search of his sixth consecutive championship.