FONTANA, Calif. — Elliott Sadler of Emporia, Va., scored his second NASCAR Nextel Cup victory of the season Sunday night at the Pop Secret 500 at California Speedway, as runner-up Kasey Kahne and third-place Mark Martin moved into the top 10 in the standings.

The top 10 in the season standings after Saturday night's race at Richmond will be eligible for the season-ending championship chase.

Kahne and Martin bumped Bobby Labonte and Kevin Harvick out of the top 10. Kahne moved from 11th to ninth in the standings, and Martin went from 12th to 10th.

Jamie McMurrary is 11th in the standings, 25 points behind Martin. McMurray is followed by Labonte (36 points out of 10th), Dale Jarrett (43 points back), Jeremy Mayfield (55 points back) and Harvick (56 points back). A driver can make up as much as 156 points in a race.

Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth became the fourth and fifth drivers to lock in a spot in the championship chase, joining Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sadler, who is sixth, only needs to start at Richmond to assure a spot in the title race.

"We're California dreaming," Sadler said in Victory Lane after his third career series victory.

It nearly was a nightmare, though. Sadler spun in practice Saturday the car suffered no damage and proved to be strong during the race.

The win, though, has Sadler confident he can do more this season.

"I think we've got something for them," Sadler said of the title race. "We might be the sleeper before the year is over with."

Kahne, a rookie, recorded his fifth runner-up finish of the season. He remains winless. It's the second time Kahne has placed second to Sadler in a race, doing it at Texas.

"I thought Kasey Kahne was going to get his first win of the year," Martin said, "but Elliott Sadler sat up in the car and got it done."

Said Kahne: "We needed a few more laps again. That's a great run for our team. I look forward to going to Richmond."

Kahne had a final chance to catch Sadler when the race restarted with 10 laps to go. During the caution NASCAR moved Kahne to second and dropped Martin to third behind Sadler. NASCAR determined that Kahne led Martin when the caution came out for a crash involving Ken Schrader and Earnhardt. Neither driver was injured.

Sadler pulled away on the restart and cruised to the victory as Kahne failed to mount a charge. After Martin, McMurray placed fourth and Ryan Newman fifth. Carl Edwards, making his third career start, placed sixth with rookie Scott Riggs, Jarrett, Robby Gordon and Rusty Wallace completing the top 10.

Johnson finished 14th and took the points lead from teammate Gordon, who finished 37th after blowing an engine with less than 50 laps to go. Johnson holds a 50-point lead on Gordon.

Shane Hmiel, making his first career Cup start, spun on lap 116 after he was hit by Jimmy Spencer's spinning car. Hmiel suffered no damage and continued. Hmiel later led briefly during a cycle of green-flag stops. He finished 39th in the 43-car field.

Rookie Brendan Gaughan criticized J.J. Yeley's driving after Yeley, making his first career Cup start, wrecked. Yeley spun in turn 2 and tried to save the car but spun in front of Gaughan, who made hard contact.

"This is a kid that will go back and drive a sprint car and be a superhero, but he comes out here and won't have a clue how to save a race car," Gaughan said.

Said Yeley: "I think if [Gaughan] might have been able to slow down and go to the bottom like some other cars we could have just fired up and put some new tires on it and gone back out."