One moment just made the title battle relevant again

Who knew?

Who knew Sam Hornish Jr. and David Reutimann would play such a huge role in the 2009 Chase?

Who knew Mark Martin still had a chance? Or that even Jeff Gordon still had an outside shot?

Championship effort

When most drivers would have packed it up on Sunday, Jimmie Johnson and crew picked themselves up, worked together and salvaged a wreck in the garage, writes David Caraviello.

• Complete story
• Chase battle gets tighter
• Video: 48 slams Texas wall
• Video: Crew hard at work
• Sound Off: Jiimmie Johnson

Who knew, outside of Jimmie Johnson, that the three-time defending Cup champion was right all along when he repeatedly insisted this thing wasn't quite over? Even as he kept building what the rest of the racing world figured was an insurmountable lead in the first seven races of the 10-race Chase, Johnson kept saying that anything could happen at any point in time during any race.

And on the third lap of Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, anything finally did when Reutimann touched Hornish from behind, sending Hornish's No. 77 Dodge into Johnson's famed No. 48 Chevrolet.

It looked for a moment as if Johnson would save the 48 without much damage. But after brushing the wall, Johnson made contact with Hornish again and that was it. The 48 went spinning, and then slamming, into the inside retaining wall -- suffering the kind of damage that would have rendered lesser cars (or rather lesser teams) done for the day.

More than an hour and 112 laps later, Johnson returned to the track after extensive repairs that were nothing short of heroic by crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the No. 48 team. The end result of their remarkable efforts was a gain of 15 points after Johnson picked up five positions in the finishing order.

That may not sound like much -- but with Martin grabbing fourth in the race and moving to within 73 points in the points standings (when it would have been to within 58 if Johnson hadn't gotten back on the track), it suddenly could mean a whole heck of a lot in the coming two weeks. (Continued)