TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Talladega Superspeedway, the Chase's "wild card" race, delivered -- but not as expected -- in Sunday's Amp Energy Juice 500.

All three championship contenders led the race -- part of a near-record 87 lead changes -- and all three led the points at various stages as their positions in the running order ebbed and flowed.

“

We felt like we had a shot to win the race. We did a good job -- played our strategy out right. We got into the lead with four or five [laps] to go, maybe a touch too early, but I had a good shot at it.

”

-- JIMMIE JOHNSON

But after 500 miles of thrust-and-parry racing, that was punctuated at the end by an absolutely frantic rush to the front by all three title contenders, the margin from first-place point-man Jimmie Johnson to third-place Kevin Harvick is only 38 points.

Harvick ensured his place in the closest Chase with three races to go by rushing to the race's conclusion in a virtual dead-heat with ultimate race-winner and Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer. Harvick was second by inches.

And according to Denny Hamlin -- who's second in the championship and saw his six-point deficit to Johnson expand to just 14 after Hamlin went from leading with 30 laps to go to finishing ninth, two spots behind Johnson -- the perfect scenario is set for both fans and competitors.

"It's what I asked for. I asked for nobody to really get killed [in the points] here this weekend and to let us settle it on the race track where our cars and our teams can make a difference and us drivers can make a difference," Hamlin said. "That's what we got. We've got a tight one and I'm looking forward to the last three [races]."

After a restart with four laps to go, Harvick was sixth and perfectly-positioned to take advantage of one of his best drafting partners all day in David Reutimann. Reutimann's spotter had told Harvick's spotter that Reutimann wouldn't leave his bumper, so they teamed up in a two-car draft that carried them, on the outside, to the front of the field and put Harvick alongside Bowyer, who was being pushed on the inside by Juan Montoya.

"I just have to thank David Reutimann -- he pushed me all day and he was really good behind us," Harvick said. "Our car was kind of beat up in the front there, but it was just going to be a drag race there to the end. We did what we needed to do and we kept it 1-2 in the right house there."

After the leading Richard Childress Racing duet took the white flag, a melee broke out behind them on the frontstretch and, after A.J. Allmendinger flipped to the inside of the track, the sixth and final caution flew, freezing the field.

And that's when several long moments -- not of the typical, metal-tearing kind that's all-too-typical of Talladega -- but of the uncertainty created when a caution flag on the last lap necessitates analysis of scoring loops and video clips ensued before Bowyer was declared the winner.

Harvick had sat quietly near the start/finish line, saying "I'm not doing a burnout unless we won," while Bowyer did a smoke show just beyond the stripe, because Harvick's crew chief, Gil Martin, had said "light 'em up, because one of us won."

"I knew it was close," Harvick said. "We came to the start/finish line, I thought I had beat him but I didn't know if the caution had come out at that particular time. Good day at RCR.

"I just want to thank everybody on this Chevrolet [for] all the repairs and work. You just never know how it's all going to wind up here at Talladega and [Sunday] we were on the good end of it.

"I mean, that's what we came here to do. We came here to obviously lead some laps, run up front and try to win the race. Obviously we came up one short of that, but we beat the guys that we needed to."

That wasn't what it looked like earlier in the race for any of the championship contenders.

Harvick was in the middle of two of the race's four relatively minor accidents, first having to abruptly drive off the 33-degree high-banks between Turns 3 and 4 when teammate Jeff Burton collided with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and when Bowyer later turned Marcos Ambrose sideways on the backstretch, Harvick lightly T-boned Ambrose in the right-front wheel.

"I knew we had some damage on the front," Harvick said of the second incident. "The side-skirt [was damaged in the first]. I just saw the cars wrecking in front of me and we were able to just jerk left and try to stay out of the wreck. As the day went on, I could see the bear bond and tape start to fly off the front so I knew we had a big dent up there. It's a little bit worse than I thought it was, actually -- with the hood detached from the nose. Good day for us. They did a good job fixing it."

Hamlin, running near the back, got separated from the lead draft, lost a lap and worked a long time to regain it.

"I was a little disappointed [to go a lap down, at Lap 104]," Hamlin said. "I knew we could get it back. I was hoping we were going to stay out and get the pass around, but Mike [Ford, crew chief] wanted to make the safe call and get the [free pass]. We got that and just had a good car -- just never ran all day.

"I hate that I had to race like that. Unfortunately with our points format, it's how you have to race." (Continued)