CONCORD, N.C. -- There was a brief moment at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday when it appeared the clock had been turned back.

But then, just as quickly as Jeff Gordon passed Jimmie Johnson for the lead late in the NASCAR Banking 500, it was back to the future. Or at least back to the present.

One-race Chase

Thanks to another impressive victory at Lowe's, David Caraviello says as long as Jimmie Johnson survives Talladega, he will win his fourth consecutive championship.

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That the present belongs to Johnson, and not Gordon, cannot be disputed. Even Gordon, his crew chief Steve Letarte and his car owner Rick Hendrick have a difficult time contesting that at the least the immediate future already is in Johnson's firm ownership grip as well.

Yet, there it was on Saturday for the racing world to behold -- like the days of old: Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet passing Johnson's No. 48 Chevy for the lead with just 15 laps remaining in a 334-lap event.

Alas, it was a mirage. Gordon and Letarte and, well, really anyone who had been paying close attention knew it. On Letarte's command, the No. 24 team had gambled on the previous pit stop -- taking on only two tires to gain valuable track position while Johnson and most of the rest of the cars running up front took on four.

So Gordon's breath of fresh air -- or was it a blast from the past? -- lasted a mere two laps. Then Johnson not only passed him, but so did Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne. Those drivers eventually finished one-two-three in the event, leaving Gordon surprisingly upbeat and satisfied despite having to settle for fourth.

"We were able to get to the outside of Jimmie and I thought, 'I don't know, if we're able to get out front, maybe these two tires will hold up,'" Gordon said. "We gave it everything we had. But if we hadn't taken two, we would never have had a shot at him. We just wouldn't have been able to get up through there and pass enough cars and probably would have finished ninth or 10th. So just to be battling up there for the win made for a spectacular night."

Back in the day

There was a time when fourth would not have been considered a spectacular night for Gordon under almost any circumstances.

But then again, there was a time when Gordon regularly won races and championships. Now he contends for them -- or at least this season, he is -- but rarely gets to enjoy the spoils of either because Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, always seems to be getting in his way.

“

I don't want to wish any trouble on them. But really, the only chances we have to win this championship is to go win the next five races in a row -- or if they run into some problems.

”

-- JEFF GORDON

Hendrick admitted it puts him in a difficult emotional state at times. But then he sort of shrugged and admitted that as long as the person beating Gordon also is in his employment, it is up to Gordon and his team to learn to deal with it.

After all, Gordon is the one who recommended that Hendrick hire the unknown Johnson in 2001. Gordon is the one who is listed as Johnson's car owner.

"Jeff's been in this long enough to know that he was that guy that everybody said, 'I can run second to him every week, but I can't catch him,'" Hendrick said. "He's proud of Jimmie, but he wants to beat Jimmie. It's one of those deals where somebody's got to finish second or third or whatever, but I think he's been in that top position before just like Jimmie -- and one day Jimmie's going to have to face that from somebody else. If you're going to do this long enough, you've got to deal with it."

Lord knows, Gordon is trying mightily.

He has finished second eight times this season. His fourth on Saturday snapped a string of two consecutive second-place finishes -- yet he keeps losing ground to Johnson in the Chase.

Changing of the guard

While Gordon has won one race this season -- one in the past two seasons combined, in fact -- Johnson has now won a series-high total of six this season and 13 in the past two. Take it back three-seasons plus and Johnson holds a 28-9 advantage on Gordon in victories.

That's why Gordon can take solace in a fourth-place finish that moved him up to third from fifth in the points standings, even if he dropped further behind Johnson overall -- falling from 105 points off the pace to a more daunting 135 with five races to go.

"We're not gaining on the 48, but we're gaining on everybody else. That's just as important," Gordon said. "I don't think we can beat those guys straight up if they don't have problems. They're just too strong, too fast. We proved that in clean air and with four tires, we can be faster than everybody. But you're still not going to make up 100 points that way.

"I don't want to wish any trouble on them. But really, the only chances we have to win this championship is to go win the next five races in a row -- or if they run into some problems. They're just too strong. They're not going to have a 12th-place day. It just doesn't happen to them."

Letarte tried hard to sound optimistic after the race -- and, in fact, he pulled it off. But he seemed more optimistic about being happy about solid second- and fourth-place finishes in the No. 24 car's future than he did about actually catching Johnson.

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"We did not do all we could do. We finished fourth. We could have won," Letarte said. "I mean, it's frustrating because we're not winning races -- but it's really great to see the team, how motivated they are. Jeff's driving the wheels off it; I felt like I called a great race. I think we could have given him a little bit better of a car -- but is it frustrating?

"It's frustrating anytime you didn't win. It may be a little consolation that we're moving up in the points, even if we're losing ground to the leader. We started off a little slow; it's our own fault. But we're only halfway [through the Chase] so we've still got a chance."

Maybe so, but Johnson's got a far better chance to catch Gordon -- in total Cup titles, that is. Once, not so long ago, it was all the rage to speculate about how Gordon, who won his fourth championship in 2001, might eventually challenge the all-time record for championships held jointly by recent NASCAR Hall-of-Fame selections Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

Now Johnson is poised to win his fourth -- an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship, no less. If someone is going to stop this runaway train into the future, he hasn't yet appeared in the 34-year-old Johnson's rear-view mirror long enough for anybody to get a good look at him, least of all Johnson.

And he shows no signs of slowing down to permit that to happen anytime soon.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.