by Nate Ryan , USA TODAY

And neither was necessarily overjoyed about it -- particularly the driver who inadvertently tightened a Chase for the Sprint Cup race that had the makings of a runaway.

"I feel bad," Sam Hornish Jr. said. "Obviously, you don't ever want to detract from the championship when you're not really involved in it."

On a day when teammate Kurt Busch's fuel-mileage victory foiled younger brother Kyle's bid to notch the first sweep of a NASCAR tripleheader weekend, the spotlight found Hornish on the third lap of the Dickies 500 on Sunday.

Hornish's No. 77 Dodge slid up the track in Turn 2, collecting the No. 48 Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson. The points leader slammed into the inside wall and sustained damage that took 113 laps to fix.

Johnson limped to a season-worst 38th-place finish and lost 111 points in the standings. With two races remaining, he leads Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin (fourth Sunday) by 73 points and Jeff Gordon (13th) by 112.

Johnson could clinch a record fourth consecutive championship by notching top-five finishes at Phoenix International Raceway (where he has won three of the last four races) and Homestead-Miami Speedway. He expressed confidence about rebounding ("We still have a decent lead") but also had choice words for Hornish.

"I hate we gave away all those points," Johnson said. "Sam just lost it inside of me. I wish he could have waited a little longer to lose it. I saw he lost it later on in the race. Just one of those things. Not much we can do, just wrong place, wrong time."

Hornish, who finished 40th after another crash on lap 87, laid the blame on a bump from David Reutimann but also said he was mindful that Johnson was on his outside as his car wiggled.

"I didn't want to take (Johnson) out; I was just trying to correct and not get into him," the former Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar champion said. "One of the things we've been trying to work on is patience and doing what we can to make it to the end."

Making it to the finish was critical again Sunday as the November race at Texas became a gas-mileage race for the second consecutive season.

Kyle Busch, who had won the Camping World Truck and Nationwide series races the previous two days at the 1.5-mile oval, led a race-high 232 laps but slowed his No. 18 Toyota to conserve fuel shortly after making his final pit stop on lap 269 of 334. He ran out with three laps remaining, handing the lead to his older brother.

"I thought for sure we were going to make it until Turn 4 on the final lap," Dave Rogers said after his first race as Busch's crew chief. "He deserved to win all three."

Kurt Busch (whose victory awarded $1 million to fan Michael McGee in a contest promotion by race sponsor Dickies) conceded as much, saying, "It's bittersweet to beat Kyle.

"We took it away from him," he said, pausing to smile. "But I don't think he could have picked a better driver to lose to tonight."

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