The final 12 miles of Saturday night's Bank of America 500 may have been the longest 12 of Jeff Gordon's 2007 season in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

Gordon survived a green-white-checkered finish despite a testy car low on fuel and the hard-charging Chevrolets of Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch on his rear end to win at Charlotte for the first time since 1999 and build his advantage in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup.

After taking the lead for the first time at lap 212 of the 334-lap event, Gordon dominated for much of the late stages of the race under the North Carolina lights. Teammate Jimmie Johnson was prepared to be Gordon's greatest challenger down the stretch, but a minor damage-inducing spin on lap 230 moved the No. 48 down to 29th place and out of contention for the win. It seemed as if the race - and a tighter lead in the Chase - was Gordon's for the taking.

Gordon moved his lead to about six seconds until there were approximately 25 laps remaining, but the Hendrick car of Busch closed in to cut Gordon's margin in half. Still, the four-time champion had a decided advantage on the field.

But when Johnny Sauter spun in Turn 4 with 12 laps to go and it was discovered that the reason for his spin may have been a smattering of oil on the track, a red flag brought the field to a stop, and unfortunately for Gordon, much closer to him.

Things became interesting with five laps to go in regulation, when the race was restarted.

Never mind that going into the event, Gordon hadn't finished a race at the 1.5-mile oval since October 2003.

Never mind that Gordon was running out of gas and his car sputtered so badly during the restart that it would have been no surprise if Busch spun him into the wall simply because there was nowhere else to go.

Never mind that Ryan Newman made good on his "Rocketman" nickname on that very restart, with a charge to the front unseen since the days of Dale Earnhardt, putting Gordon several seconds behind.

This was not the past. Gordon's Chevrolet was not totally out of gas. And just two laps after taking the lead, Newman hit the wall, forcing the sixth green-white-checkered finish of the season and adding three laps to the race's length. This raised Gordon's fuel concerns, and the veteran feared that his night might end somewhere on the backstretch, with his car slowing off of the pace out of his control.

That just wasn't the case. Gordon got to speed when the green flag dropped, and then held on to the low line over the final two laps, pulling away from second-place Bowyer and third-place Busch to hold the lead for his 70th and 71st laps of the race. The win was his sixth win of the year and the 81st of his career.

Jeff Burton finished fourth, followed by Carl Edwards. Dave Blaney backed up his third-place finish at Talladega last week with a sixth-place effort, and Tony Stewart finished seventh. Kasey Kahne, David Stremme, and Michael Waltrip rounded out the top 10.

Gordon's win places him just two behind fifth-place Cale Yarborough (83) on NASCAR's all-time wins list. Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip are close as well, sitting in a tie for third at 84. The win was Gordon's fifth at the Charlotte track, the place where he clinched the first victory of his career in May 1994.

The remainder of the Chase competitors finished in the following positions: Jimmie Johnson, 14th; Martin Truex Jr., 17th; Denny Hamlin, 20th; Kurt Busch, 26th; Kevin Harvick, 33rd; Matt Kenseth, 34th.

With 5880 points to his credit, Gordon's lead over second-place Johnson extends to 68 points, and Bowyer is now 78 back. Stewart is the only other Chase competitor within 200 points, sitting in fourth with 5682 points.

Here are the standings of the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup with five races remaining in the 2007 season, one of which will be the November 11 Checker Auto Parts 500 Presented by Pennzoil at Phoenix International Raceway:

Point Standings (through 31 of 36 races)

The next action in the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup will take place at Martinsville on Sunday, October 21. The race telecast begins at 10 a.m. (Mountain Standard Time/Phoenix time) on ABC.

With just four weeks remaining until the green flag, get your NASCAR tickets for the Checker Auto Parts 500 Presented by Pennzoil at PIR today! Call 1-866-408-RACE (7223) or visit www.racetickets.com!