In light of recent misfortuntes, Jimmie Johnson was happy to leave Lowe's Motor Speedway with a second-place finish. (Photo: Getty Images/Rusty Jarrett) » More Photos

Even Johnson, the master of Lowe's, knew he had nothing for Kahne and was happy with the runner-up finish after some bad luck of his own in recent weeks. "We're glad to finally get a finish where we've been running, where we deserve to finish," said Johnson. "So that's very refreshing tonight. We're all going to sleep well and be ready for next week."

While Kahne made dispatching the field look easy, it was anything but. For the second Lowe's race in a row, hard-compound tires and smaller fuel cells meant the cars could run no more than 35 to 40 green-flag laps before having to pit for fuel.

And that meant there was ample potential for mayhem along pit road, as Kahne made 14 pit stops during the 500-mile race. Indeed, Kahne nearly collided twice with Kevin Harvick during pit stops, dodging potential havoc to stay on track.

"It was intense," Kahne said. "It was close all night with the short pit stops and everybody still coming in as we were going out. It just made for some close calls."

Avoiding trouble was not something that all of the Chase contestants were able to do. While the top four finishers were Chasers - Kahne, Johnson, Burton and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - some of the other title hopefuls had dismal evenings.

Denny Hamlin got crashed out on the opening lap when Robby Gordon got loose in front of him, setting off a chain reaction that ended with Mike Bliss punting Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy into the frontstretch wall. After lengthy repairs, Hamlin limped home to finish 28th, 69 laps off the lead.

But that was nothing compared to what happened to Mark Martin. On Lap 243, Martin was passing J.J. Yeley on the bottom of the exit of Turn 4, when Yeley suddenly turned left and veered towards pit road, striking Martin's Ford. That sent Martin head-on into the frontstretch wall and airborne at that, a moment that fortunately looked much worse than it proved to be, as Martin was able to walk away. "Yeah, that was a bad one," Martin said. "I wasn't ready to meet my maker tonight." As for the points, Martin simply said, "It don't matter. I'm having fun, man. You know, it wasn't meant to be and if it was, I'd already have a Cup."