After hanging around outside the top 30 for the first 150 laps Johnson and Gordon suddenly appeared in the top ten although the Hendrick teammates still had Penske duo Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman and Joe Gibbs Racing duo Stewart and Hamlin to contend with.
Newman and Busch worked together on the high line as Johnson and Gordon made their move on the low line and on lap 182 Gordon was able to push Johnson into the lead. Johnson clung to top spot for the next five laps, just keeping the Penske duo and Stewart at bay on the low line.
Coming onto the back straight for the final time Johnson and Gordon had a two car length lead over Stewart, the best placed car on the high groove and Gordon took his chance, swinging to the outside of his teammate just in time to get a hefty bump draft from Stewart as the field entered turn three for the final time.
Coming into the tri oval Gordon kept his nose in front and even though Stewart tried to make it three wide in the closing metres the driver of the #20 Chevrolet lost momentum and slipped back. Johnson couldn't get enough help from behind to re-pass his teammate and had to settle for second while Bill Davis Racing's Dave Blaney surged through in the closing laps to match his career best result with third place in the #22 Toyota.
Hamlin took fourth with Newman fifth, Mears sixth, Busch seventh and Stewart a disgruntled eighth after running third coming off the final turn. Tony Raines and Reed Sorenson completed the top ten with Clint Bowyer 11th, Carl Edwards 14th, Juan Montoya 15th after running up front for most of the day and Kevin Harvick 20th after his #29 RCR Chevrolet lapsed onto seven cylinders in the second half of the race.
![Jeff Gordon - DuPont Chevrolet Impala [pic credit: GM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/303453.jpg)
