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Kenseth took the lead from Ryan Newman on the restart and it took Johnson until lap 313 to move to second. He then began closing quickly on the No. 17 Ford of Kenseth, who had a lead of just over one second.
Once Johnson caught him, the two battled lap after lap, bumping at least once.
“We raced a long time, but he was probably pretty confident I wasn’t going to wreck him,” said Kenseth, who also finished second in Texas in April when he was passed on the last lap by Jeff Burton. “I didn’t get him much extra room at all.
“I felt like I was sideway the whole time. One time, (I) just about spun out. That would have been bad. I’m glad I was able to gather that up and keep going.”
They crossed the finish line exactly even — the timing showing the difference as 0.000 seconds — on lap 328 and lap 332 as Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion, tried desperately to hold off Johnson.
But the determined Johnson, who was shown as the leader on lap 332, finally got some space on Kenseth with two laps to go and raced away to his nine victory of the season, winning by 0.944 seconds — about 10 car-lengths.
It was Johnson’s 32nd career victory and first on the 1.5-mile Texas oval. He led four times Sunday for a total of nine laps.
A disappointed Kenseth said, “He ran me down from a long way back. I don’t know how fast he was, but I was steadily losing grip. Four tires is just too much.”
Third-place Clint Bowyer, the surprise of the Chase, saw his chances for a championship all but end when he had to make two green-flag stops because of a tire vibration, losing two laps and finishing 19th. That left him a daunting 181 points behind Johnson.
The results also mathematically eliminated six of the 12 drivers in the Chase, including 10th-place Kenseth. Busch, Carl Edwards and two-time champion Tony Stewart remain alive in the Chase — barely.
Kyle Busch is 339 points behind Johnson, with Edwards 357 back and Stewart 373 behind.
Pole-winner Martin Truex Jr. finished third, followed by Busch, who led a race-high 143 laps but fell from first to seventh on the final pit stop. Newman finished fifth and Burton held off Gordon for sixth.
“We just flat out got beat today,” Gordon said. “We just weren’t very good right from the start. There at the end was the best we were all day and night. We made the most of it.
“It was a disappointing day, but I’m happy for Jimmie and those guys. They did an awesome job.”
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