Chuck Burton / AP

Jeff Gordon celebrates after winning the Bank of America 500 on Saturday night.

Indeed, the damage was minimal. But it prevented Johnson from racing for the win and he settled for a 14th-place finish.

The race was almost a disaster for Stewart, who was clinging to his title hopes at the start of the night, and it was awful for Matt Kenseth, who was pretty much eliminated from contention before his many misadventures.

Stewart’s car was off early, and his Joe Gibbs Racing team needed more than 100 laps to get him moving toward the front of the field. But his night was ruined during a mid-race pit stop, when he nearly collided with Paul Menard as he exited his stall, had to drive around him and moved directly into Kasey Kahne’s path.

The two cars collided and Stewart’s Chevrolet suffered enough damage to force him back to pit road for numerous repairs. He was furious after, complaining to his crew that “31 ... guys that aren’t in this (Chase) can dictate it.”

Although he eeked out the seventh-place finish, he dropped from 154 points out of the lead at the start of the night to 198 out.

“It’s not over til you tell me that mathematically we can’t do it,” crew chief Greg Zipadelli said.

Kenseth came into the race in 11th-place in the standings, then had three separate incidents ruin his run: He spun early through the grass and into the wall to cause slight damage to his Ford, then later was hit by John Andretti as he slowed for a caution, and finally spun and hit the wall hard because his handling was off from the earlier incidents.

He wound up 34th, and is 442 points out.

Kevin Harvick also had a long night because of an early tire problem, but the crew guessed incorrectly on which tires were in trouble and had to stop twice to fix the issue. It put him two laps down very early in the race, he never recovered and finished 33rd. It dropped him three spots in the standings to eighth and he’s 328 points out.