It appeared that Earnhardt, who was running third before the caution, was snookered as Stewart and Johnson waited until the last possible moment to commit to pit lane and Earnhardt wasn’t able to react quickly enough to follow.

“I don’t think we would’ve run third if we’d have gone in,” Earnhardt said. “It wasn’t a bad decision in the end.”

As for his battle to the finish with Kenseth, Junior added, “It was like old times (in the Busch Series). I like racing against him. He’s my good friend.”

Kenseth, who started the day with a 41-point lead over Johnson, said his car was too tight to get by Earnhardt and his old tires.

“We finished fourth and we had a 44th-place car on Saturday, so my team did a great job with it. That’s how we need to run to have a shot at (the championship). All the rest of those guys are going to be running in the top five and we need to be there in order to have a shot at it.”

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Non-contender Carl Edwards took only two tires on the last pit stop and restarted right behind Earnhardt in second, followed by Stewart, Johnson and Kenseth.

Stewart grabbed second on the restart on lap 310 before a multicar crash brought out the last of nine caution flags in the race. The green flag came back out on lap 315 and Stewart shot past Earnhardt into the lead.

Johnson took second place on lap 318, but was not able to challenge Stewart the rest of the way, finishing nearly 2 seconds — about 15 car-lengths — behind the winner.

Two other Chasers had top 10 finishes, with Jeff Gordon sixth and rookie Denny Hamlin eighth. Everyone else in the title chase had a tough day.

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Burton wound up 13th, a lap down, after having to pit under green late in the race with a flat tire; Kyle Busch crashed in the early going and wound up 27th; Kevin Harvick had handling problems all day and finished 31st; Mark Martin got caught up in the late crash and wound up 36th; and Kasey Kahne, who won at Atlanta in March and was the prerace favorite, crashed and finished 38th.

That scrambled the Chase standings, with Hamlin moving from fourth to third, 65 points behind Kenseth, and Earnhardt moving into a tie with Burton for fourth, 84 points back.

Harvick slipped from second all the way to sixth, 121 points behind, while Gordon — who survived getting hit it the rear by Jamie McMurray after slowing with a flat tire — jumped from ninth to seventh but lost ground in the points, from 141 to 146.

Martin, Kahne and Busch, all 201 or more points behind, were all but eliminated from contention.