Martinsville, Va. ? Jimmie Johnson’s celebration of his series-high sixth victory of the season was cut short Sunday when he learned that a Hendrick Motorsports plane had crashed on its way to the race, killing all 10 people aboard.

Shortly after the Subway 500, Johnson and Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers received word of the crash.

Eight passengers and two pilots died in the crash, a spokesman with the National Transportation Safety Board said. State police said the dead included the son and brother of Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick, two of his nieces, the company’s chief engine builder and five others.

Johnson did a burnout on the front stretch in front of the fans after winning. Upon learning that the plane was missing, several members of the Hendrick teams huddled on pit road.

NASCAR officials learned of the crash during the race at Martinsville Speedway, but waited until it was over before telling the Hendrick drivers or fans. The Victory Lane celebration was canceled.

Johnson pulled away from Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman on a restart with seven laps to go and climbed four spots in the season-ending title chase, but another solid performance by Kurt Busch moved him one step closer to winning NASCAR’s first playoff championship.

“You’ve got to step up to the plate and race hard in each of these final 10,” Busch said after finishing fifth, his sixth top-six run in as many races since the playoff started. “We had a regular season, and now we have a playoff, and right now we haven’t had a bad finish.”

While Busch led a race-high 120 laps, leading contender Jeff Gordon struggled, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was never a factor, allowing Busch to build his lead to 96 points over Gordon and 125 over Earnhardt. Earnhardt started the day just 24 points off the lead.

Neither Gordon nor Johnson was available for comment.

Jamie McMurray finished second, Ryan Newman was third and Sterling Marlin fourth, giving Dodge the top three spots behind Johnson’s Chevrolet.