History shows Atlanta win leads to Texas victory (cont'd)

"We finally have caught up now," Stewart said. "We all wish that we could turn back the hands of time and get on this streak three months earlier. But our stress level is a tenth of what those guys in the Chase are facing. We can go out and try to win races without the fear of losing points."

Interestingly enough, Johnson also finished second at Atlanta that season -- and with his runner-up finish at Texas, took control of the points lead from Kenseth. He would go on to record another second-place finish at Phoenix and a ninth at Homestead.

"We've had so much fun racing for this since we got down [in the points] early," Johnson said. "We just want to keep having fun."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered from the effects of the flu, a hard hit with the wall that forced him to make multiple stops for repairs, and a pit-road speeding penalty to finish sixth.

"Not too bad," Earnhardt said. "The first part of the race, I didn't feel good at all. I drank so many fluids, I had heartburn and all kind of bad stuff going on in there. Then, as the race went on, I got to feeling better.

"I'm just sorry we couldn't do any better than we did."

NASCAR also celebrated what was to be Terry Labonte's final race. He was the last driver introduced and drove a special No. 44 Chevrolet paint scheme that included images of his career highlights. In addition, son Justin drove several pace laps in the 1978 car that his father used to record his first victory.

"It was a really awesome day," Labonte said. "I looked over at Justin, looked at that car and was, 'Man, be careful. It doesn't look like it could go that fast.' They have come a long way in safety features."

Labonte finished 36th and wondered what his future might bring.

"I've been very fortunate in my career," he said. "I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing."

Since Stewart's back-to-back victories, wins by non-Chase drivers during the final 10 races of the season have been few and far between. The last came at Kansas last season when Greg Biffle won despite appearing to run out of fuel while coming to the checkered flag.

Labonte's "retirement" turned out to be temporary. He drove three races for Michael Waltrip in 2007 and teamed up with younger brother Bobby as a fill-in for Kyle Petty at Petty Enterprises this season.