INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – It’s an all-star battle that NASCAR and most of the fans would love to see at the front of the pack.

Instead, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr., the three biggest names in the stock car sport, are fighting it out at the bottom of the top 10 with time running out.

The talented trio are racing desperately to stay in the 10-man field for the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship that will begin after the next five races. And, Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, all three may have saved their seasons.

For Gordon, a four-time winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, his 16th-place finish Sunday might have been the best job he’s ever done in the race that is second only to the Daytona 500 in NASCAR prestige.

“When you get three laps down at this place, it’s hard to come back,” said the relieved Gordon. “We were just fortunate to get back on the lead lap. That was one of the hardest 16ths we’ve ever had. But we can’t afford to have those kinds of problems.”

The four-time series champion, who, along with Earnhardt, failed to make the Chase last year and has dedicated this season to getting back into position to win another title, began the race on a disastrous note when a rear sway bar broke on lap seven.

It took three pit stops for Gordon’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team to replace the broken part. By that time, he was three laps down.

“It just snapped in turn four and we had to replace it,” Gordon said. “It’s a shame because we had such a good car and that put us so far behind right from the get-go.”

But Gordon remained patient, taking advantage of the NASCAR rule that allows the first driver a lap or more down to regain a lap each time a caution flag comes out.

With plenty of yellow flags, Gordon found himself back on the lead lap but in 40th place after 86 of the 160 laps on the 2.5-mile oval. He was able to steadily move forward the rest of the way, staying out of trouble and moving to eighth in the standings, eight points ahead of 2005 Brickyard winner and defending Cup champion Stewart and 15 in front of fan favorite Earnhardt.

“We needed to get back onto the lead lap a little bit sooner and get track position, but you’re not in control in that situation,” Gordon said. “You don’t want anybody else to get a lap down and be ahead of you. One car did just that at one point or we would have gotten back on the lead lap one caution sooner.

“Ironically, we gained today,” added Gordon, who began the day ninth in the points.

It wasn’t an easy day for Stewart or Earnhardt, either.

Stewart qualified a disappointing 32nd but sliced through the field in the early going, moving all the way to seventh before a broken air gun prompted crew chief Greg Zipadelli to bring the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy back onto pit road.

The two-time Cup champion stayed on the lead lap but restarted 35th on lap 61 and had to fight his way through the field again before finishing eighth.

“For the most part, it was a lot of fun today. I think I passed 60 cars or more today, so I’m pretty happy with it,” Stewart said. “We had an air gun break and, versus taking a chance, Zippy brought us back to make sure the lugs were tight. We went to the back and battled our way back into the top 10, so I’m pretty happy with this team.”

Earnhardt Jr., coming off two straight last-place finishes that knocked him from third in the points to 11th, was struggling again on Sunday. The son of 1995 Brickyard winner Dale Earnhardt was 28th when the seventh of eight cautions in the race came out on lap 142.

Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. decided to roll the dice and leave Earnhardt’s No. 8 DEI Chevy on the track while all but one of the drivers ahead of him pitted. Even without taking fresh tires, Junior was able to hang on for a sixth-place finish, although he didn’t sound too happy about it.

“We took a chance and we got lucky, but I’d like to have a better car so we don’t have to make those kinds of calls,” Junior said. “We need to do better and get better cars. We can’t make the Chase with 30th-place race cars.

“I just had to drive really hard at the end with old tires, harder than I normally drive. We didn’t have a good car all day. But, after the last two weeks, we’ll take what we can get.”

Gordon pointed out that nobody can relax because there’s still a lot of racing left before the start of the 10-race Chase.

“The next five weeks will be real hard and none of us can have the same kind of problems we had today,” he said.

A multicar crash on the last lap was very costly to Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle, also fighting for spots in the Chase. Kahne finished 36th and fell from seventh to 11th, 37 points behind Earnhardt, while Biffle wound up 33rd and remained 12th but slipped from 44 points out of 10th to 115 behind.

Kurt Busch, who appears to be the only other driver with even an outside chance to qualify for the playoffs, came up with a 12th-place finish after having to start from the rear of the 43-car field because of a crash on Saturday. The 2004 series champion remained 13th in the standings, 174 points behind Earnhardt.