Therefore a seventh place finish for Harvick and a ninth place effort for Busch was more than enough to give them the final two places in the Chase leaving NASCAR's most popular driver the job of playing spoiler, trying to nick as many wins as possible from the remaining title contenders.
Like Johnson, Stewart didn't feature strongly in the opening stages of the race but came good in the final 60-lap green flag run to the chequers to take second place with rookie David Ragan passing Gordon for third in the final ten laps to complete the best run of his short career to date.
Another driver having a career best run on Saturday was Johnny Sauter, who drove from 35th to fifth in the #70 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet.
Denny Hamlin, Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Busch and JJ Yeley rounded out the top ten with Newman recovering from his spin to take eleventh, Clint Bowyer 12th, rookie David Reutimann a career best 13th in the leading Toyota, Matt Kenseth 14th and Martin Truex Jr rounding out the top 15.
No less than eleven caution periods slowed the action including a pair of multi car accidents that both resulted in brief red flag stoppages. The first, for Newman's spin resulted in Montoya's car splitting an oil line that briefly engulfed the car in flames while the second, for Jamie McMurray's tangle with David Stremme, Dale Jarrett, John Andretti and Dave Blaney left a hole in the back straight wall that track officials needed to refill.
The Chase for the Championship begins next weekend in New Hampshire and will see Johnson go into the race with a 20-point lead over Gordon and at least a 30-point margin over everyone else.
![Jimmie Johnson (#48) races Kurt Busch (#2) in the NASCAR's ever Car of Tomorrow event [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/303479.jpg)
