They say when it's your year, it's your year, and every week it looks more and more like 2007 is Jeff Gordon's year.

Gordon survived two cautions and a red flag in the last 16 laps of the race, a green-white-checkered finish, a sputtering almost-empty gas tank, and threats from some very hungry drivers right behind him, to pull out a win in the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

It was an important win for Gordon for several reasons. Not only did he stay atop the point standings for the Nextel Cup championship, he lengthened his lead over 2nd-place Jimmie Johnson by 59 points and 3rd-place Clint Bowyer by 15 points. In addition, Gordon broke a slump of five straight DNFs at Charlotte.

Perhaps more importantly, the extra 44 points that Gordon gained over 4th-place Tony Stewart, who's now 198 back, means that Stewart would need at least two races to catch Gordon given the 161-point maximum that a driver can gain in a single race. Heading into Lowe's, Stewart was just 154 points back.

"I can't tell you how many times we tried to give this one away," said a relieved Gordon after the race. "I was having trouble with the pickup on the banking. Even on the last (restart), the tires spun so bad, Clint Bowyer could have gone right by me. He gave me a big shot in the rear bumper and got me going again. What an awesome day! This is what we've been looking for - getting us a win at Charlotte."

Early on, it looked like the night might shape up to be another Jimmie Johnson victory at Lowe's. Starting from the outside pole, it took Johnson just 17 laps to get to the front, leading a total of six times during the race for 95 laps. Though TV broadcasters tried to dub this the "Jimmie Johnson Invitational", it was not to be. Johnson spun on Lap 231 and later ran short of fuel as the race was ending.

"We had mistakes through the night that kept hurting us on track position," said Johnson. "Fortunately, I had a good car and I could get back through there. I’d always come out 6th or 7th and get my way back to the lead. Then, at the end there, we had the problem with the vapor locking that really, really hurt me from getting a good finish." Johnson finished 14th, keeping him solidly in the title hunt.

Rounding out the top-five finishers behind Gordon were Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, and Carl Edwards. All of the top five drivers are Chase contenders. While Bowyer maintained his position at 3rd in the standings, strong finishes helped Busch, Burton, and Edwards all move up in points - Busch and Burton up two spots, and Edwards up one. The only other Chase driver in the top 10 at Lowe's was Tony Stewart, who finished 7th despite suffering considerable damage in a pair of strange pit road collisions.

Non-chasers in the top 10 included Dave Blaney (6), Kasey Kahne (8), David Stremme (9), and Michael Waltrip (10). Blaney has been impressive the past two weeks, finishing 3rd at Talladega last week and 6th today. It was also Kahne's second top 10 in three races, including his 9th-place run at Kansas two weeks ago. For both Stremme and Waltrip, it was their second top 10 of the year - Stremme's best finish since Talladega in April, and Waltrip's since Michigan in June.

Several Chase contenders had problems tonight, four of them finishing 20th or worse: Denny Hamlin (20), Kurt Busch (26), Kevin Harvick (33), and Matt Kenseth (34). Harvick took the biggest hit in points of all 12 Chase contenders, falling three spots to 8th after suffering tire and mechanical issues early on from which the No. 29 team never recovered.

But Kenseth had a positively dismal night after collisions involving other cars and the wall. "I don't know where to start," said a disappointed Kenseth after the race. "We had a pretty fast car tonight. We had something weird that we'd run 10 laps and I would get so loose in the corner, I could hardly hang on to it. I have absolutely no excuse. I really feel like an idiot out here tonight. I wrecked twice and it seems like we've wrecked for a month straight, so I really want to apologize to my fans. It's kind of hard to stress how (hard) these guys work on this car. I really feel bad for these guys. I really let them down."

At one point Ryan Newman looked like a lock for the win after seemingly coming from nowhere on a lap 329 restart, getting around the three lead cars in a split second and really taking off in the clean air. But, just as quickly as he took the lead, Newman blew a tire and hit the wall, finishing 28th. “I went around the outside of the No. 07 and the door opened up when the No. 24 and the No. 5 checked up on the bottom," said Newman. "It was a great coincidence for me, but unfortunately the left rear tire blew out after that.”

There were five Chevy's in the top 10 tonight, including the four top finishers, along with one Ford, two Dodges, and two Toyotas. A.J. Allmendinger was the highest finishing rookie at 15th. Also deserving a pat on the back is Ricky Rudd, who finished 11th in his first race back since suffering a shoulder separation at California in early September.

Next week the series heads to Martinsville Speedway for some short-track racing, Car of Tomorrow style. Jimmie Johnson won this race last fall in the "old" car, and also won the COT race at Martinsville in the spring.