DOWN TO TWO? It looks as if it's Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson fighting for the NASCAR title.(Competitions of automobile racing)

Byline: AL PEARCE

It's come down to the Chase shootout that many series watchers forecast at Loudon in September. The legion of Hendrick haters is railing, and NASCAR and ABC would love another star or two on the big stage. But at the end of the day, it is what it is: four-time champion Jeff Gordon and defending champion Jimmie Johnson going man to man for another Nextel Cup.

That's not to slight or disrespect Clint Bowyer. With only Texas, Phoenix and Homestead remaining, the Chase rookie is ranked third. But he's 102 points behind Johnson and 111 behind Gordon, and it's unlikely those two will stumble often enough in November to gift-wrap Bowyer's first Cup and team owner Richard Childress' seventh.

Things got interesting at Atlanta, where Martin Truex Jr. and the Busch brothers led 310 of the 329 laps of the Pep Boys 500 (which turned into a 506.6-miler). Alas, Truex and Kyle Busch crashed late, and Kurt Busch was eighth in one of the season's most bizarre finishes. Johnson led only the last eight laps, coasting home unchallenged after the last of a record 14 cautions settled the issue as the race went into a green-white-checkered overtime.

Carl Edwards finished second, Reed Sorenson third, Matt Kenseth fourth and Jeff Burton fifth. (Interestingly, none of them led a lap.) The back five were Bowyer, Gordon, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers. (Of that group, only Busch and Kahne led laps.) Kyle Busch was a heartbroken 20th after his late spin, Truex a more heartbroken 31st after his late crash. The crowd left in a funk when third-running Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost a left rear wheel and crashed with Jamie McMurray a few seconds into overtime.

The win was Johnson's eighth this year (including the spring race here), his second in the last two weeks, his third overall here and his 31st in 216 career starts. He went into it trailing Gordon by 53 points and came out only nine behind, with 913 laps of racing left.

"It wasn't a real great performance for us today,'' Gordon said. (Indeed, he often ran in the teens and low 20s before rallying late.) "This track can change a lot, and it did today. We got it turned around, but we were too far behind at that point. Really, I'm happy to be nine points ahead. If we hadn't gotten better late, it would have been much, much worse. We made something out of not much.''