FORT WORTH, Texas -- Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon split the difference on an unexpected chance to get back into the 2009 Chase on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, with Martin cutting point leader Jimmie Johnson's margin more than in half.

“

When it comes right down to performance you know you can't beat those guys -- Jimmie Johnson and those guys [but] it's not over yet. We can go head-to-head with them.

”

-- MARK MARTIN

Their Hendrick Motorsports teammate Gordon, on the other hand, finished 13th and partially squandered the opportunity presented by Johnson's accident early in the Dickies 500.

Martin, who came to Texas 184 points behind Johnson, finished fourth and goes to the season's penultimate race at Phoenix only 73 points out. As usual, he chafed at the media's fixation with the race for first.

"I still have got my hands full for the top-six positions [in the points] with all those guys -- two guys that knocked me out of championships [Texas race winner Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart] are breathing down my neck, so the race is still on," Martin said. "I don't know why everybody tries to cap this thing out and doesn't just wait and watch. There are still two races to go and still things that can happen."

Gordon hit Texas 192 points behind and goes to Phoenix -- where he broke a career winless skid in the spring of 2007, the first race there for the new car -- unofficially 112 points back. However, considering he was leading the race when Johnson crashed, his reaction was no surprise despite winning here in April and being second in this event a year ago.

"It was just a total missed opportunity," Gordon said. "All we could do throughout this whole Chase is fight, fight, fight -- and when [Johnson] put together the string of runs that they did, you just gotta keep pushing and if you make a mistake or if a problem happens, you've got to capitalize on it.

"It was a missed opportunity [Sunday] -- we just didn't capitalize on it. We just really didn't do a good job. I'm just terrible at this place. I don't know what it is. I can qualify and the guys gave me a real good car on Friday but I just don't have the feel for this place. I don't know what it is.

"It just challenged us all day. We seemed to be the best at the beginning of the race and we made some adjustments trying to make it better based on what I was telling them and we just went backwards from there and lost some track position. So it was a frustrating day."

Gordon did dodge one bullet when Juan Montoya and Carl Edwards brought out a caution at Lap 176 with a wild wreck in Turn 2. Proving it wasn't a totally bad day, Gordon spun just as wildly, but never hit anything. Martin Truex Jr. also did a great job not to collect Gordon (watch video).

“

It was a missed opportunity [Sunday] -- we just didn't capitalize on it. We just really didn't do a good job. I'm just terrible at this place.

”

-- JEFF GORDON

"I just saw two cars get together and head up the race track and into the wall," Gordon said. "I was trying to avoid 'em and the car came around, so I just stood in the throttle to try to keep it out of the wall. Luckily I did."

Other than leading the first 11 laps and an alert pit call at the very end, it was about all that went well for Gordon.

"It was the same issues we have every other time I've come to Texas, except for the last time -- when we had some miracle happen and we won the race," Gordon said. "I'm just not good here and I don't know what to tell them to make it better, and the car definitely wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. Kind of a more typical Texas day for us rather than what we had in April."

Gordon could have used that performance Sunday, as in two blinks of an eye -- and less than three laps into the race -- the runaway that Johnson had made of this Chase had become a race again.

Johnson came into Texas with a definite chance to clinch his fourth consecutive title at Phoenix. But Johnson dinged all four corners of his No. 48 Hendrick Chevrolet when he was an innocent bystander to an altercation between David Reutimann and Sam Hornish Jr.

He went directly to the garage to effect repairs and just like that, race leader Gordon had cut the deficit to about 36. Martin, in the other Hendrick car from the top three in the Chase, was only about 50 points behind that.

But 331 laps later, the outcome ended up being a bizarre version of business as usual, and Johnson's teammates -- really his only two rivals for the title -- were left wondering if they hadn't lost the chance to make a decisive run at the crown.

Displaying the calm, systematic methods that's won them three consecutive Cup titles, Johnson's team picked up five spots (and 15 points) to finish 38th. It left Martin thankful for what his team had done and Gordon wondering what to do next.

"Alan Gustafson [crew chief] and everybody on the No. 5 team were on it [Sunday]," Martin said. "We were junk [Saturday] in practice and they threw some new stuff at it [Sunday]. It wasn't very good the first half and then magically, mid-way the car became a top-five car. That was what it was, the last three runs."

Gustafson played the role of empathetic teammate perfectly when he talked about the newly-spun Chase race.

"It's definitely a lot closer than it was, but either way I hate to see that [accident] happen to [Johnson's team]," Gustafson said. "I know how bad I felt when it happened to me at Talladega and how hard you work -- all the effort that these guys put in, how hard these drivers drive and then it all goes away.

"You can lose so much in such a short period of time, I know that feeling and I don't wish that on anybody. That being said, I'm really proud of this team. That's what we needed, is a good run after we had the wreck at Talladega after we'd run really good and up front all day long. That was a little deflating and we needed to come back here and run strong, regardless of what happened to anybody else, and this team did it, it was a real good fight and I'm proud of that."

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Gordon, on the other hand was in the top 10 for the first 100 laps before he wallowed into the mid-pack for the next two-thirds of the race. He credited his team and crew chief, Steve Letarte, for that.

"Our finish is thanks to the hard work by Steve and this team never giving up," Gordon said. "I'm just really disappointed in this day. Steve did a great job getting us to 13th -- the whole team did with a great call there at the end."

In the very end, Martin waffled a bit, but said there was no question he'd go down fighting.

"When it comes right down to performance you know you can't beat those guys -- Jimmie Johnson and those guys [but] it's not over yet," Martin said. "We can go head-to-head with them. No doubt about it. In Phoenix we led the most laps and won the last time there and we have no reason to think we can't run strong at Homestead.

"There could still be swings in the points. There's two races left, you never know what's going to happen. I'm really blessed to get to drive [Hendrick's] stuff and be in this position. No matter what the outcome is we've raced our guts out and I'm so proud of this team."