Weekend That Was: The end comes at Homestead (cont'd)

Lap 50

As he prepares to enter the pits, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is whacked from behind by Kyle Busch.

"Kyle was being a jerk early on, running into me, trying to rile me up. I don't know why he spun me out on pit road. I guess he was blinded by the sun -- or else he just can't see at all," Earnhardt said later.

Lap 57

On the restart following his earlier mishap involving Busch and Kevin Harvick, Earnhardt is run over from behind by veteran driver Jeff Burton, who complains that the glare of the sun heading down the frontstretch made it difficult for him to see.

"I got run over by a veteran on a restart. I don't know what in the hell that was," Earnhardt said.

Johnson is back up to eighth shortly thereafter, while Gordon falls off to 11th and now trails by 103 points in the Chase (after beginning the day down 86).

Lap 66

In a scene eerily reminiscent of last year's Homestead race, drivers Ryan Newman and Juan Montoya are dueling for position. Newman runs third and Montoya, a rookie who ran only the season finale last year and was wrecked by Newman at the Miami track, sits in fourth.

There is no such drama this time when Montoya, the former open-wheel star who already has locked up rookie of the year status for 2007 in the Nextel Cup Series, makes a clean pass.

Lap 77

Elliott Sadler slaps the wall, forcing him to head for his pit stall for heavy repairs. It has been a long year for Sadler, whose No. 19 team has not performed up to expectations for Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

"I'm sorry guys," Sadler tells his crew over the radio. "I was just trying too hard. This is not the way I wanted to end the season."

"Let's just ride it out here," replied his crew chief, Rodney Childers, after several crew members take a mallet and a couple of hammers and wide swaths of duct tape to the car.

Lap 80

After making a two-tire pit stop to Johnson's four-tire stop, Gordon moves all the way up to fourth while Johnson falls to 17th. Gordon moves to within 43 points in the Chase. It's as close as he'll get on this day.

Lap 95

The crew is packing up and calling it a season in the pit stall of the No. 36 Toyota owned by Bill Davis Racing and being driven on this day by Johnny Benson. As they fold up the war wagon and pack up all the tools, the crew members' faces are a mixture of relief at the long, mostly frustrating season being over and uncertainty over the future of the BDR operation, which owner Bill Davis has admitted is at least partially for sale.

Lap 118

Johnson has moved up again and passes Gordon for eighth. Letarte talks to Gordon about what he hopes will be the advantages of the sun going down, cooling off the track.

"The harder I get on the right front, the worse it is," Gordon complains over the radio. "Up off the corners, we're good."

A lap later, Gordon adds: "We're real close. I think if we had four [fresh] tires, we'd be a hell of a lot better than we are now."

Lap 132

Both Johnson and Gordon pit. Their stalls are right next to one another, which on the surface might seem strange -- but it is common practice amongst teammates who trust each other more than they trust others even on a night when running into each other could be disastrous for one or the other or both (although no one else is mathematically alive in the Chase).

Gordon beats Johnson out of the pits as Johnson's crew appears to have a little trouble getting left-side tires on. This causes crew chief Chad Knaus to jump down from the pit box to say a few words to the guys that he obviously does not want the rest of the racing world to hear over the radio. (Continued)