FORT WORTH, Texas | Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage has pulled off several successful publicity stunts. </p><p> Having a fat lady sing in Victory Lane after Sunday&rsquo;s Dickies 500 wasn&rsquo;t one of them. </p><p> It turned out to be premature. </p><p> Jimmie Johnson&rsquo;s seemingly insurmountable 184-point lead entering the Sprint Cup race was cut to 73 after he was caught up in an early crash and finished 38th. </p><p> Kurt Busch won the event for the first time in his career, but the battle with two races remaining is between Johnson and teammate Mark Martin, who finished fourth and made up 111 points. </p><p> &ldquo;All along we&rsquo;ve been trying to tell everybody this thing is far from over and what our mind-set&rsquo;s been,&rdquo; said Johnson, who spent more than an hour in the garage with the No. 48 Chevrolet and finished 129 laps down. &ldquo;Luckily we&rsquo;ve raced for every point throughout this Chase. We still have a decent points lead right now. We need to dust ourselves off in Phoenix and get a good one in the bank there.&rdquo; </p><p> Sam Hornish Jr., who was tapped by David Reutimann, hit Johnson exiting turn two on the third lap. Johnson slapped the wall and then hit Hornish, sending the No. 48 to the garage in last place. </p><p> Crew chief Chad Knaus contemplated putting the car on the truck, but the team was able to get it back in the race. By that time Johnson was in scramble mode and was as much a spectator in Busch&rsquo;s battle against his brother as the estimated 167,000 in attendance. </p><p> Kyle Busch, who had the dominant car for most of the race, led 232 laps but ran out of gas with fewer than three laps to go, finishing 11th and ending his bid to become the first driver to win all three NASCAR races on the same weekend. </p><p> Kurt Busch had just enough fuel to cross the finish line and beat Denny Hamlin by more than 25 seconds. </p><p> While other drivers vying for the win stopped for fuel in the final laps, Kurt Busch was able to conserve fuel and avoided pitting. </p><p> &ldquo;I knew it was the 18 (Kyle) and the 2 (Kurt) and to have him going for his sweep of the weekend, I was rooting for him,&rdquo; Kurt Busch said. &ldquo;It was bittersweet. We took the sweet part, which was the victory in the Cup. You want to win on Sundays. We raced him hard and it felt like old times.&rdquo; </p><p> Martin and his No. 5 Chevrolet were in 15th place 100 laps into the race. But his car was at its best at the end of the race, and Martin goes to Phoenix next week with a shot at his first Sprint Cup title. </p><p> &ldquo;We can go head-to-head with them, no doubt about it,&rdquo; Martin said. </p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">Chase Standings </span></strong><br /> <span style="line-height:0"><br clear="all" /></span><table border="0" class="story-table"> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td><strong>Driver</strong></td><td><strong>Points</strong></td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>Jimmie Johnson</td><td>6,297</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Mark Martin</td><td>6,224</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>Jeff Gordon</td><td>6,185</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Kurt Busch </td><td>6,126</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>Tony Stewart</td><td>6,119</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Juan Pablo Montoya</td><td>6,061</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>Greg Biffle </td><td>6,050</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Denny Hamlin</td><td>5,975</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>Ryan Newman </td><td>5,973</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Kasey Kahne</td><td>5,898</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>Carl Edwards</td><td>5,857</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Brian Vickers</td><td>5,777</td></tr> </table> </div>