Maybe this Chase isn't quite over

What a wild day at Texas from the finish to the point leader crashing and all sorts of other things in between. Certainly a lot of drama, something the sport hadn't seen as much the last few weeks with Jimmie Johnson seemlingly headed for his record-breaking fourth consecutive series title.

But before we get to the race, I wanted to point you to my one-on-one interview with NASCAR Chairman Brian France where he discusses TV broadcasters, TV coverage, the car and the Chase, among other things. You can read the transcript here. Take a peek and see what the sport's leader has to say on these topics.

OK, as for the race, WoW!

I'll get to race winner Kurt Busch, but let me set up the points situation:

Jimmie Johnson now leads Mark Martin by 73 points heading to Phoenix. Jeff Gordon is third, 112 points behind Johnson. Martin gained 111 points on Johnson with Johnson crashing and finishing 38th and Martin placing fourth.

Let's put this into perspective. Yes, the points race has tightened. Yes, anything can happen BUT this is still a bit of a hill for Martin to climb. Since the Chase's inception in 2004 has the leader's advantage been greater than 73 points and that was last year with Johnson.

Mark Martin admits it will be challenging to catch Johnson:

"It's still a long shot because they have great performance,'' he said. "We can't go outperform them 70-some points. But racing is not over yet. Jeff Gordon is breathing down my neck. Tony Stewart. We'll have to see what happens here.''

However, the one thing Johnson's woes gives his competitors is hope. Martin is feeding off that.

Johnson, though, said he's grateful to have built up so many points so he still has a cushion with two races left.

"All along we've been trying to tell everybody this thing is far from over,'' Johnson said after finishing a season-worst 38th after suffering damage when Sam Hornish hit him on lap 3. "Luckily we've raced for every point throughout this Chase. We still have a decent points lead right now. We need to dust overselves off, head to Phoenix, get a good one in the bank there.''

As for the accident, Hornish said he was hit from behind by David Reutimann and that caused him to lose control of the car and get into Johnson, triggering the accident. Reutimann said after the race: "I might have gotten into (Hornish) and screwed things up.''

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Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch clearly had the two best cars and they combined to lead all but 13 of the 334 laps. But it was Kurt earning his second win of the year and 20th of his career to deny Kyle a chance at history.

Kyle was leading when he ran out of fuel with three laps left. He was seeking to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win a truck, Nationwide and Cup race in consecutive days at the same track. Instead, he finished 11th and left the track without comment. Also, this was the first race for new crew chief Dave Rogers.

Said Rogers: "We were a little short on fuel. We had Kyle back down and we though we'd save enough fuel. We missed the numbers somewhere or we didn't get it full or we didn't pick up all we could pikc up. I can't explain why we ran out. We'll take it back to the shop and have a look at it.''

As for Kurt, he said he didn't really consider it a fuel gamble for him. He only had to save a lap's worth of fuel on the final run, which was 64 laps for him. What made his win a bit ironic was that pit strategy played a role and crew chief Pat Tryson will leave the team after this season. Some have questioned if the team would replace Tryson once Busch was out of title contention but give this team credit for sticking with Tyrson this long. It worked out in helping Kurt score another win.

Tryson on the fuel strategy game starting way before the last stop: "It was pretty much made the stop before the last one. You're sitting there figuring if it stays green how far you can go. We had to stretch it a little bit that first run. I think we picked up just about everything we had in the (fuel) cell.''

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It was a tough day for Jeff Gordon. He fought an ill-handling car, lost a lap and spun. That was nothing to how he felt after finishing 13th and gaining some ground on Johnson in the points:

"I am just really disappointed in this day,'' he said. "A total missed opportunity that completely got away from us. We just didn't have it today. We had more of our typical Texas race (struggling) where we needed our spectacular Texas race like we had (in the spring, a win).''

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Denny Hamlin also made a fuel gamble and didn't pit. It worked. He finished 2nd on Sunday.

"Usually these fuel-mileage races don't go our way,'' he said. "Felt like we had a really, really good car, but we just hurt ourselves real bad on pit road. We lost a ton of spots. Track position meaning so much at this race track, it killed us.''

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SHORT TAKES

# The car of Martin Truex Jr. was found to be too low in post-race inspection. A penalty is expected to be announced Tuesday.

# Richard Childress Racing placed three of its four cars in the top 10. Kevin Harvick was 5th, Clint Bowyer 7th; and Jeff Burton 9th

# Brad Keselowski finished 35th in his first race for Penske.

# Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 25th. He was headed for a top-10 finish when he pitted in the final laps. After pulling away from his pit box, his car stalled. He was too far away for his crew to help him and lingered on pit road for about 3 laps before going again. Another case of a good run turning into a bad finish for him. Days like this make you think he can't wait for the season to end to start anew.

# AJ Allmendinger finished 10th in a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports.

# The Charlotte Observer reports that Jamie McMurray will be the driver in the No. 1 car for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing next year. Foxsports.com reports that EGR will remain with Chevrolet.

# The series heads to Phoenix where Mark Martin won in the spring and Jimmie Johnson was fourth.

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