Stewart wins Banquet 400; Johnson hit with penalty

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Tony Stewart was on fumes.

Jimmie Johnson was fuming.

Eliminated from championship contention, Stewart and his crew decided to gamble on fuel mileage. It paid off -- but just barely, as Stewart crawled across the finish line Sunday to win the Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Meanwhile, Johnson tried to play it safe to remain in the hunt for the Nextel Cup, giving up the race lead to pit for an extra splash of fuel with four laps to go. But he was penalized for speeding on pit road and finished 14th.

Johnson was upset about the penalty after the race.

"I was just trying to get off and get on and get back in the race, and I got a speeding violation," Johnson said. "I wasn't doing anything differently."

Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, saw his championship momentum evaporate a few laps earlier when his fuel unexplicably dropped. Gordon was running eighth at the time.

developed an apparent fuel-pressure problem with 29 laps to go, causing him to slow to a crawl on the backstretch.

After getting a push back to the pits from former Hendrick teammate Terry Labonte, Gordon's crew tried to fix his car but couldn't get him back on the track. He finished 39th.

"We don't know what it was," Gordon said. "I don't like to speculate. I know I didn't have any fuel pressure, but I don't know what it was."

Casey Mears also gambled on gas and finished second, zigzagging his way to the checkered flag to try to force the last drops of fuel from his tank into his engine.

Chase contender Mark Martin finished third.

Jeff Burton, who broke a five-year winless streak and grabbed the points lead last weekend at Dover, also used a conservative fuel strategy and finished fifth. Burton was running second when he pitted for a splash of fuel with nine laps to go.

Sunday's race caused a major shakeup in the points standings, with Burton leaving with an unofficial 69-point lead over Denny Hamlin, who managed to climb two spots with an 18th-place finish.

Martin moved up to third in the standings, 70 points behind Burton.

Gordon dropped four spots to sixth, 120 points behind Burton.

NASCAR's postseason-style Chase for the Nextel Cup championship format again was affected by a non-Chase driver on Sunday, as three of the top five championship-eligible drivers had to swerve to avoid an early spinout by Ryan Newman.

But the incident wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Newman, who failed to qualify for NASCAR's season-ending 10-race championship showdown, spun out by himself on lap 15 -- directly in front of Burton. Burton quickly swerved to the right, driving through a blinding cloud of smoke to narrowly miss hitting Newman.

Gordon and Kevin Harvick were right behind Burton, and had to juke to the left to avoid Newman's car as it slid down the frontstretch. Gordon and Harvick both ended up sliding through the infield grass.

Harvick and Gordon were shuffled back to 37th and 38th for the restart. Gordon rallied quickly, working his way back into the top five before the race's halfway point. Harvick struggled to stay on the pace and was lapped by race leader Kyle Busch on lap 118, but climbed to 12th with 83 laps to go and finished 15th. He remains fifth in the standings.

Sunday was rougher on Matt Kenseth, who came into the race third in the points but struggled with his car's handling all afternoon and spun out on lap 145. Kenseth was able to rejoin the race but finished 23rd and dropped from third to fourth in the standings.

Hamlin also spun out with 115 laps to go, and had to make another unscheduled stop with 55 laps left.

Busch ran in the top five for most of the race, but was penalized for speeding on pit road before a restart with 68 laps to go and dropped to the back to the back of the pack. He rallied in the closing laps to finish seventh.