Jimmie Johnson, the series points leader, came back from a lap down to finish third, followed by Vickers and Stewart.

“It’s been a long time coming, man,” said Earnhardt. “It’s a lot of emotion, more than I can handle right now. For these guys, all the darts they’ve had thrown at them this year. It’s just awesome.

“I thought we had a top-10, maybe a top-five car,” he added. “My guys on pit road won the race for me. Got me out front with two tires.”

Kenseth, who has not won since March 2004 at Las Vegas, was bitterly disappointed.

“Our car was awesome,” he said. “I’m trying to be a gracious loser, but it’s a tough one.”

The call to take on four tires was made by his crew chief, Robbie Reiser, but Kenseth wouldn’t criticize him.

“I can’t really blame Robby. We were kind of a sitting duck. A lot of guys were going to either stay out or take two tires,” Kenseth said. “Overall, it was a great day, just a tough one to lose.”

Stewart, still aching from a crash on Friday that forced him to go to a backup car and start from the rear of the 43-car field, was also disappointed that he couldn’t pull off a third straight victory and defend his win here last year.

“If we’d have stayed out like I wanted to, we’d have won the race,” said Stewart, who has now finished third, second, first and fifth in his last four starts at Chicagoland.

Greg Biffle, second in the season standings, finished 11th Sunday and fell from 73 to 108 points behind Johnson. The victory moved Earnhardt up to 13th place, 115 points behind 10th-place Kurt Busch and 491 points behind Johnson.

The top 10 drivers and any others within 400 points of the leader following the 26th race of the season will be eligible to race for the series championship over the final 10 events.

For four-time series champion Gordon, who finished 33rd, it was his sixth finish of 30th or lower in the last eight races. He fell to 15th place in the standings, 502 points behind Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

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