Stewart races back into Chase with win at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- He's back.

After failing to finish better than ninth in his previous six races, Tony Stewart re-emerged as a factor in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with a victory in Sunday's Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Price Chopper 400

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
2.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
3.	Greg Biffle	Ford
4.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
5.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
6.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
7.	Mark Martin	Chevrolet
8.	David Reutimann	Toyota
9.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
10.	Carl Edwards	Ford

• Results | Lap-by-Lap | Photos

Race Video

• Final Laps: Kansas
• Victory Lane: Stewart
• Reactions: Top five
• Reactions: 48 team
• Sound Off: Martin
• Early end for Junior

Race Rewind

• Watch condensed version

Stewart, who led the series through the first 26 races leading up to the Chase, beat Jeff Gordon to the finish line by .894 seconds to trim 39 points from his deficit to Chase leader Mark Martin, who ran seventh. With four victories this season, Stewart is fourth in the standings, 67 points behind Martin.

Crew chief Darian Grubb's two-tire call on the final pit stop of the afternoon, under caution on Lap 238 of 267, put Stewart's No. 14 Chevrolet out front for a restart on Lap 242. In the closing laps, Stewart held off Gordon, who took four tires on the stop and charged from sixth to second in the final 26 laps.

"Darian -- you don't question him when he makes a call," Stewart said. "You know it's the right thing to do, and then you go from there. The big thing was just not driving the tires off the thing, in case we got a [late] caution and a green-white-checker. We had a little bit left, but we didn't leave too much out there.

"We got two tires earlier and were able to go really quick on 'em, so it was pretty much, I think in our opinion, a no-brainer what to do there. The guys who took four never could gain the track position back. We had a really good car on two tires, and Darian and the guys on the pit crew are the ones that got us the win. They got us track position, and I was able to pick which line I wanted on the restart, and that won us the race."

Three-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson restarted third on two tires on Lap 242 but faded to ninth at the finish. Johnson is second in the Chase standings, 18 points behind Martin.

Greg Biffle opened a lead of as many as 9 seconds before NASCAR called the sixth and final caution on Lap 236 because of fluid on the track, but Biffle overruled crew chief Greg Erwin and opted for four tires -- instead of the two Erwin preferred -- before the final restart.

Biffle restarted fourth and finished third.

"I know what I did wrong, I know I made a mistake," Biffle said.

Juan Montoya came home fourth, his third consecutive top-four finish in three Chase races, and trails Martin by 51 points. Denny Hamlin ran fifth and Kasey Kahne sixth, as Chase drivers grabbed the top seven positions, nine of the top-10 places, a record for a Chase race, and 10 of the top 11.

Despite fighting an ill-handling car to start the race, Gordon also gained ground on Martin, moving up one position to seventh in the standings.

"I started really running out of steam toward the end, with the tires," said Gordon, who trails Martin by 103 points. "I had just used them up so much trying to catch him. ... We were really far off when this race started. I thought there's no way we'll ever finish second. ... We just kept tuning on it."

Gordon's runner-up finish was his seventh of the year, a career-high for a season.

Martin wasn't in a celebratory mood despite maintaining his lead: There were only three drivers within 100 points of him at the start of the race, now the field has seven within 103.

"Look at it however you want," Martin said. "What is there, seven more to go? I don't think we should be getting all hyped up about the tally right now, you know? We've got a lot of racing to go."

Martin didn't have a car capable of contending for the victory, but he was able to increase his advantage in the standings, which was at 10 points to start the day.

We didn't quite have it nailed down," said Martin, who had his streak of five consecutive top-fives snapped. "Our car was just a little bit off of some of the guys out there. ... It's the first time we've missed it that much in a while, and you're going to have that.

"But we pretty well peaked at the end. Our car was probably the strongest the last run. So, with that in mind, I've got to say, 'Man, we're still fighting hard as we can go.'"

Dale Earnhardt Jr. led 41 laps early, the first time he has been out front in a Cup race since Aug. 16 at Michigan and only the second time he has led since April 26 at Talladega. But a dropped lug nut forced Earnhardt back into the pits on Lap 58 for a second stop under green, and the day went from bad to worse from there.

Ultimately, his engine failed, dropping Earnhardt to 36th at the finish.

"It's just frustrating," Earnhardt said. "We had the bad start, we left the lug nut off on the one pit stop and lost a lap there. Then we pitted and lost a lap there, so we were two laps down all day. We had a fast enough car to finish in the top 12, I think."

Press Pass
• Tony Stewart | Jeff Gordon | Greg Biffle

Related
• Gordon, Biffle gain on Martin with top-threes at Kansas
• Crew chiefs will determine the outcome of this Chase
• Hendrick cars going back to NASCAR's R&D Center
• Non-Chasers finding it tough to break through in top 10
• Mr. Chairman bored by same 'ol points system talk
• Montoya continues on a roll, remains the one to watch

The Associated Press contributed to this report.