Close But Not Finished; Jimmie Johnson zeroes in on another Nextel Cup.(Competition)

Byline: AL PEARCE

For the third-straight weekend, Jeff Gordon did not quite measure up. He simply wasn't good enough to contend in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, the eighth stop on NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Cup. He certainly wasn't good enough to beat Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who made a late-race charge to score his third-straight Chase win and his ninth overall this year.

Johnson also regained the Nextel Cup points lead. He came to Texas trailing Gordon by nine points; he left leading by 30 and carrying enough momentum perhaps to win his second-straight Cup. Gordon is the only other driver with a realistic shot at the title. Clint Bowyer trails by 181 points, a huge deficit with only Phoenix and Homestead remaining. (The top six drivers remain mathematically alive, but don't expect any miracles.)

Johnson said all the right things when asked about those precious 30 points. "I've made up 39 in the last two races,'' he said after his 32nd career win, his first at Texas. "And it's possible I can lose that many the next two races. It'll come down to Homestead and be a shootout. Jeff and those guys on the [No. 24 team] aren't going to give it away this late in the season. I'm just happy to be in this position. I just hope this ride we're on stays for a while.''

Johnson passed Matt Kenseth with three laps remaining and won the 334-lapper by almost a second. They'd waged a stirring duel, 10 laps of close-quarter, noncontact, respectful racing seldom seen at the front these days. At a time when many fans and the media carp about drivers racing more for points than for wins, Kenseth and Johnson reminded everyone how good NASCAR can be when done right. "We raced as hard as we could,'' said Kenseth, a Cup race winner at Texas in 2002. "We couldn't have raced any harder without wrecking. It was as hard as I've raced in a while.''

Kenseth finished second, with pole winner Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman completing the top five. After running well much of the day, Bowyer was 19th following a late-race stop for a tire vibration. Denny Hamlin, who led the second-most laps, finished 29th after kissing the wall on lap 274 while racing Kenseth for the lead.

The year's last 500-mile race didn't settle much, but it sent a clear signal that Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet is again king of the hill. Granted, Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte have more poles, more top-fives, more top-10s, more lap-leader bonus points, fewer DNFs and half as many double-digit finishes. But Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus have more wins and, on average, have been slightly better in the eight Chase races. Gordon had better average finishes in the 26 regular-season races, an advantage erased when NASCAR adjusted points for the Chase. Under the old system, Gordon would have clinched his fifth Cup with his seventh-place finish at Texas.