After the smoke cleared Saturday night from the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Jeff Gordon finished sixth and moved up a position to eighth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. But that does not begin to tell of the story of the fireworks and the wild ride the No. 24 Chevrolet driver faced -- during just the final four green flag laps.

With two-car tandem racing becoming the norm on restrictor-plate tracks, Gordon -- who started fourth -- paired up with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin early in the scheduled 160-lap race. The two, who share a shop in Charlotte, N.C., each led a lap early before falling back to around 30th by lap 32. They raced there for much of the night in an effort to avoid any multi-car accidents that might occur in the lead pack.

Gordon and Martin were able to keep the leaders in sight, though, with the gap a manageable seven-to-eight seconds for much of 400-mile event. But that gap ballooned just prior to their final scheduled stop at lap 134 when they were slowed by a pair of cars racing side-by-side.

After stopping for right-side tires and fuel, Gordon and Martin returned to the track well behind the leaders in 17th and 18th, respectively. But while Gordon believed there was now not enough time to catch the leaders, the Gordon-Martin tango were, at times, lapping the 2.5-mile track one second-per-lap quicker than the other pairings.

With eight laps to go, Martin had pushed Gordon up to 13th and, with seven to go, Gordon was up to 11th. But there was still a gap to the lead group of 10 -- a deficit that was erased in just four laps.

With three laps to go, the No. 24 and No. 5 Chevrolet train were scored seventh and eighth with a head of steam. Gordon was carving holes while Martin was providing the push, and Gordon entered turn three with his sights on the leaders -- and in the middle of a three-wide battle for third. But Kasey Kahne's Toyota moved up the track into the side of Gordon's Impala, sending the No. 24 Chevrolet into a sideways drift in turn 4.

Unbelievably, Gordon was able to avoid the wall and other cars, and his car suffered only minor damage during the incident. The biggest damage was on the scoring pylon as he fell to 30th after stopping for repairs during the ensuing caution.

Since the race would now restart past its scheduled distance, the first green-white-checkered flag attempt began on lap 162 with Gordon now separated from his dancing partner Martin. But it was Martin who may have ignited a 15-car pileup after the restart, with Gordon gaining 13 positions -- in just a quarter of a lap -- by avoiding the carnage.

On the second attempt at the two-lap sprint to the checkered flag, Gordon decided to push former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Busch. Busch found the holes -- maybe sometimes even creating them -- and the pair incredibly picked off 11 positions in the final two laps.

"It was time to go, and we were three wide going into turn 3," Gordon said after the race won by David Ragan. "I don't know if somebody got in the back of the No. 4 (car driven by Kahne), but it pushed him up into me and I had nowhere to go. The car came around and luckily I straightened it out somehow.

"We fixed it and got four tires on it and, miraculously, we avoided two more wrecks on those last two restarts. I was pushing Kyle Busch there at the end and he made some great holes on that last run.

"It was awesome. How we finished sixth is unbelievable."

Next Saturday night, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits Kentucky Speedway for the Quaker State 400. TNT and PRN Radio will broadcast the 7:30 p.m. EDT race live.