FORT WORTH, Texas -- Three weeks after he led the points standings, Jeff Burton's title hopes are over.

Burton blew a tire and smacked the wall Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. He finished 38th.

"That pretty much does it for us as far as the championship unless something crazy happens," Burton said. "Today was something that I don't think was our fault. If you look at the tire wear, it's worn [more] on the outside edge than it is on the inside edge. Every now and then you draw a lucky tire and we drew it."

Burton radioed crew chief Scott Miller before the incident, asking how long until the next pit stop. Told it was 20 laps, Burton said he'd never make it that far.

"Ten seconds later it blew out," he said.

Burton bounced off the frontstretch wall at the start/finish line, creating a caution on lap 90.

Familiar sight

Tony Stewart scored his third victory in the Chase and fifth of the season by dominating. He led 278 of 339 laps and made his final lap the fastest of anyone all day, holding off Jimmie Johnson in a two-lap shootout.

"In the 27 years I've been racing, I can count on two hands the times I've had a car this good from start to finish," said Stewart, who earned $521,361. "We had such a good car that we could get a straightaway lead at any time."

Kevin Harvick finished third, followed by Kyle Busch and rookie Clint Bowyer.

Stewart has three victories, a runner-up finish and a fourth-place finish since the Chase began at New Hampshire in September.

"Absolutely," Johnson said when asked if he was glad Stewart missed the Chase. "He's looking great."

Stewart won with this car at Kansas and last weekend at Atlanta. He said he wants to take the car to Homestead for the season finale in two weeks.

Tough day

Sick all weekend, Dale Earnhardt Jr. rallied to finish sixth after bouncing off the wall.

"The first part of the race, I was a mess," Earnhardt said. "It was grueling for me. I could concentrate for about three laps and then I'd have two laps where I just couldn't get nothing done, and I was just all over the place, just feeling sick. Hitting the fence sort of woke us all up a little bit."

Bad day

Rookie Denny Hamlin never was competitive, finishing 10th.

"We were counting on sunny weather," Hamlin said, despite forecasts that called for thunderstorms and overcast skies Sunday. "It's just one of those things where we missed the setup a little bit and we were back in the mid-20s most of the race. We ended up with a top-10 day and that was good."

Moving up

Kyle Petty's 11th-place finish, along with Sterling Marlin's 40th-place finish, moved Petty to 35th in the car owner points.

The top 35 in car owner points are guaranteed starting spots each weekend. The top 35 at the end of this season are guaranteed a starting spot in the first five races of next season.

That's important because there could be more than 45 well-funded teams vying for starting spots with Toyota entering the series next season.

Last stop

Terry Labonte finished 36th in his final Cup race.

"It was so bad we had to go to the garage and work on it for a while ... but I was determined to finish the race," Labonte said.

Upset

Kevin Harvick was angry with Scott Riggs' crew after the race. Harvick wrecked Riggs with a tap in the final laps as they raced for third.

Harvick also said a member of Riggs' crew tripped his wife.

"They just acted like a bunch of morons," Harvick said.

NASCAR is investigating.

Pit stops

Tony Stewart has 29 wins in 282 career Nextel Cup starts, an average of one every 9.7 starts. ... NASCAR had the cars of Mike Bliss, Ward Burton, Dave Blaney, Travis Kvapil and Kenny Wallace tested on the chassis dyno after the race. The device measures horsepower to the rear wheels.