FONTANA, Calif. -- The race within the race Sunday night at California Speedway was at least as interesting as the battle for the win in the Sharp AQUOS 500.

As Jimmie Johnson was motoring to his fifth victory of the season, tops in Nextel Cup, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was waging a secondary war that ultimately earned him a fifth-place finish.

Lap-by-Lap

Follow how Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead and held off competitors for a fifth-place finish at California keeping his Chase hopes alive.

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That wasn't bad, but it probably was not good enough.

Earnhardt entered the night 158 points out of 12th place in the driver points standings, with only Sunday's 500-miler and next Saturday's race at Richmond remaining before the top 12 are locked into the Chase for the Nextel Cup over the final 10 races. So he knew he had to drive the wheels off his No. 8 Chevrolet, finish as high as he could, and hope some of the others who entered the night near the bottom of the top 12 suffered through difficult nights.

Afterward, he had gained precious little. Kevin Harvick had slipped slightly and dropped to 12th in points, as Kurt Busch, who entered the night in 12th, moved up to 11th. But Earnhardt remained mired in 13th, still 128 points off the pace.

Clint Bowyer, who sits in ninth, can clinch a Chase berth just by starting the Richmond race -- and the same goes for Martin Truex Jr., Earnhardt's teammate at Dale Earnhardt Inc. who sits in 10th.

Kurt Busch needs to finish just 36th or better at Richmond to clinch a spot in the Chase, while all Harvick has to do is finish 32nd or better and he's in -- regardless, in both of their cases, of what Earnhardt does. Basically, Earnhardt has to win at Richmond and hope for Busch or Harvick to struggle mightily to get in the Chase -- and Earnhardt hasn't won since the spring race at Richmond in 2006, more than a year ago.

"I don't know much about the system," a sweaty and obviously weary Earnhardt said after Sunday's 250-lap event. "I never cared to. I just go out and run as hard as I can. It doesn't look like we're going to make it, but we're not going to quit trying until they tell us we're not in."

There were flashes Sunday night when it appeared Earnhardt might actually have the goods to break his winless streak that now sits at 51 races (watch video).

On Lap 70, he was running second. But Kurt Busch wasn't far behind in sixth and had moved from 12th to 11th in the points standings. Harvick, running 17th at the time, had dropped two spots in the points standings and stood in 12th -- just 104 ahead of Earnhardt.

On the restart after a caution, Earnhardt passed Kyle Busch and took the lead. But he held it for only one lap before Busch caught and passed him again.

Earnhardt regained the race lead after a Lap 90 restart following yet another caution -- one of the record-tying 11 on the night. But again, he was unable to hold it for long.

By Lap 125 -- the halfway point of the race -- Earnhardt was running third and trailing Harvick, who was running 16th, by 112 points for the 12th spot. He pulled to within 99 by Lap 157, when he was back up to second and Harvick had fallen off to 19th after cycling through a round of green-flag pit stops.

But time was running out, and Earnhardt knew it.

On Lap 177, he came on his team radio and asked: "Where's the 2?"

He didn't realize that the 2 car of Busch was no longer the foe directly in front of him in the points.

With 65 laps left in the event, as Johnson took the lead, Earnhardt slipped to fifth and was 107 points behind Harvick, who was running 21st.

"The car's starting to drag a little bit. It's real bouncy," Earnhardt complained on his radio.

The No. 17 car of Matt Kenseth was gaining on him -- quickly -- and soon temporarily took fifth-place away.

"It's very, very rough," Earnhardt told his team on the radio of his car's handling.

By Lap 200, with 50 to go, he had lost ground again in the points and was 136 behind Harvick. He did get a run on Kenseth to reclaim fifth shortly thereafter, but on Lap 210, Earnhardt came on his radio and worried that disaster had just struck.

"I think I've got a flat tire," he said.

Fortunately for him, it came at precisely the time he and the other leaders were about to cycle in for green-flag pit stops anyway. He took on two right-side tires and got off pit road as fast as he could, but was all the way back to 10th by the time he got back on the track.

From there, he battled back to fifth -- but it was the best he could do.

It doesn't look like it will be good enough, but at least the effort kept him mathematically alive heading into Richmond. So it could have been worse.

Afterward, Earnhardt made a quick exit. Asked for his post-race thoughts, he was brief and to the point.

"Hot, tired. Real tired," he said, and he looked it after a race that began with temperatures on the track in the 140-degree range.

Then he added: "I would like to thank my team. They worked hard. It's so hot out there, you get aggravated. You're never satisfied. But I'd like to think they can run just as good without me, but I would never be able to run that good without them. I want to thank my team."

And then Earnhardt was gone. His crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., never even saw Junior after the race.

"He probably got out of here pretty quick. As hot as it was today, I don't blame him," Eury said. "I told him good job on the radio, and he seemed pretty happy."

As frustrating as his No. 8 team's situation is at the moment, Eury said mishaps earlier in the season -- such as four races they couldn't finish because of blown motors -- were to blame for the predicament.

"Yeah, it's frustrating," Eury said. "But you've got to look at is as, we put ourselves in that position. You can't fix it in two races. We got here by having errors, have motors blow up, and stuff like that. We'll just have to chalk it up as we've just had too many problems."

And that is all Earnhardt and his team have left to hang onto when it comes to their Chase hopes, which are hanging by the thinnest of threads.

"You've always got a shot until they say it's over," Eury said. "Somebody can have a problem like we've had all year, blowing up motors and just stupid stuff happening. We'll see."