FONTANA, Calif. — Juan Pablo Montoya is well aware NASCAR veteran Mark Martin leads the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship heading into today’s 500-mile race at Auto Club Speedway (3: 30 p. m., Ch. 7, Radio 1340 AM).

It just doesn’t feel that way.

When Montoya looks at the standings, it’s not Martin’s name that jumps out but three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, who lurks just 18 points behind Martin — and 33 points ahead of Montoya — heading into a stretch the native Californian has turned into his own personal springboard to the title.

Johnson has won three times at California, including a victory last fall that propelled him to his record-tying third consecutive championship. He’s even better at Charlotte and Martinsville, the next two stops, winning 11 times in 31 combined starts.

Johnson has been so dominant during this stretch that other drivers find themselves adjusting their expectations.

Montoya isn’t necessarily concerned about beating Johnson today — the two drivers will start alongside each other in the second row behind pole sitter Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle — so much as staying within striking distance.

“I think last week [at Kansas], this week and probably Martinsville are the three tracks I look forward to trying not to lose as many points as I can against Jimmie,” Montoya said. “The way I see it is if you can go through those three races without getting yourself out of reach of Jimmie, you’ll be fine.”

Sticking close to Johnson isn’t easy, especially in California. He’s never finished worse than 16th at the 2-mile oval and hasn’t missed the top 10 in three years.

In Saturday’s Nationwide event at Auto Club, Joey Logano avoided a late-race collision and held off Brian Vickers to win the Copart 300 for his fifth series victory of the season and second in two weeks.

The 19-year-old Logano started on the pole, but fell well back after an incident with Greg Biffle early in the race.

“You don’t want to get me mad. I just race harder,” said Logano, who steadily worked his way back to the front and caught a break when Biffle and Denny Hamlin collided with less than 10 laps to go.

Logano took the lead following a caution with two laps to go, then pulled away from Vickers.