Hamlin celebrates, Gordon laments a blown chance

Taking advantage of a late yellow flag, Hamlin got a boost from his pit crew and held off Gordon in a green-white-checkered finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night.

Gordon, like a number of drivers in the race, desperately needed a win to boost his chances of getting into the NASCAR playoff.

He was right on Hamlin's bumper heading into the turn three, right where he needed to be to pull off a dramatic pass for the win. But Gordon didn't stick close enough to the leader to make his car a bit wobbly. Instead, it was the No. 24 car that drifted up the banking, allowing Hamlin to pull away for the victory by a couple of car lengths.

"I guess I'm getting soft in my old age," the 41-year-old Gordon said. "I'm too nice. Fifteen years ago, Ii would have just moved him right up the racetrack. I don't know why I didn't do that."

With a win, Gordon would have been in a strong position to claim a wild card into the Chase. Now, in all likelihood, he has to win next weekend's race at Richmond to advance to the 12-driver playoff.

Either that, or make up a daunting 12-point deficit on Kyle Busch, the guy right ahead of him in the standings.

"It's going to be intense," Gordon said. "Don't get in front of me on that last lap."

Ten drivers have locked up their spot in the Chase, and Kasey Kahne is well positioned to take one of the wild cards (two wins this season, 11th in the points). That leaves Busch, Gordon and three other drivers with a win this season — Marcus Ambrose, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano — essentially fighting for one spot.

"I've been a part of it where I've either been trying to get in like this, or trying to stay in the Chase," Gordon said. "There's so much on the line, trying to win the race. That race is always intense. But when you look at how many guys have to win the points and everything else, it's going to be a pretty crazy night."

After a largely uneventful race, all sorts of subplots developed on the harried dash to the finish.

Coming off a win at Bristol, Hamlin knew a series-leading fourth victory of the season would put him in position to be the top seed after Richmond. Also on his mind was keeping Gordon from getting to the line first, which would have severely damaged the hopes of Busch and Logano, Hamlin's teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing.

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to get as many (Gibbs) cars in there because it helps me," Hamlin said. "We need Kyle in there, we need Joey in there, and if Jeff won that race, it was going to be all over. We had to do what we had to do."

Martin Truex Jr. appeared to be positioned for his first win since 2007 until Jamie McMurray smashed into the wall on the front straightaway, bringing out a caution with three laps to go. The leaders went to pit road, and Hamlin's crew got him back on the track first, just ahead of Truex.

While Truex struggled to get up to speed on the restart, Hamlin pulled away with Gordon right on his bumper. It was still that way when the checkered flag waved, the margin of victory 0.378 seconds.