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BROOKLYN, MICH. - Matt Kenseth survived two brushes with disaster and guided his No. 17 Ford to a 13th-place finish to protect his position in the point standings.

Kenseth entered the 3M Performance 400 just 48 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson and withstood a slight collision with Bill Lester's car in pit road and a spinout on lap 68 yesterday, but lost only 26 points in the standings.

"We wrecked in the pits on the first pit stop and that kind of messed our car up and then we got it fixed," said Kenseth, who pitted two more times to repair the damage.

Then when he entered turn two on lap 68, Kenseth spun out.

"We got running better and made our way most of the way back up to the front and then I spun out and lost a lap doing that," he said.

Kenseth fell to 38th after 80 laps but then continued to make up ground reaching all the way to 13th before the race ended on lap129.

"It could be a lot worse I guess."

JUNIOR JAM: Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the Michigan International Speedway crowd on its feet about midway through yesterday's rain-shortened race when he slipped past Jeff Gordon and took the lead on lap 60. Earnhardt, sporting a special retro paint scheme to honor his father and grandfather on Father's Day, ran near the front all day and finished third. With that third-place finish, he moves two positions higher in the Nextel Cup point standings to fourth after 14 races. It was his best finish in 14 career starts at the two-mile Michigan oval.

"This is a moral victory. It's a like a personal victory for us because we've never had a car that good here," Earnhardt said, "and it makes us really excited about coming back here again and about going to tracks like Chicago where we will be just as good. We've found some things and I think we've really turned the corner."

GORDON FADES: Jeff Gordon started second in yesterday's Nextel Cup race at Michigan International Speedway, and took the lead on the second lap and looked like he would have the car to beat. Gordon dominated the first 70 laps, leading 50 of them, but faded in the final stages of the rain-shortened event, finishing eighth.

"I was happy with the performance, but obviously we fell back there to eighth and some guys used some different pit strategies than we did," Gordon said. "We stayed on four tires all day and that did us in a little bit on the short distances. Hey, the way things have been going for us, I'm happy with eighth."

STREAK ENDS: After selling out 30 straight Nextel Cup races, Michigan International Speedway came up just short at yesterday's 3M Performance 400 and ended that streak. Without releasing exact figures, MIS officials said the race sold slightly fewer than the 137,243 permanent seats it has available. Additional fans view the race from the infield, bringing yesterday's crowd to an estimated 150,000.

SPARK PLUGS: Fords have fared the best at MIS, winning 27 races since 1972. Chevys have won the second most (16). … Before Kasey Kahne won yeseterday's race, polesitters had only won 14 of 73 events at MIS. Drivers who have started from outside the top 10 have won just as many races, or 19 percent of the time. Drivers who qualified within the top 10 have won 59 of 73 races (81 percent). … All three manufacturers have posted at least one victory in the last 10 races at MIS with Ford winning five, Dodge four and Chevy one. … Michigan is the fourth-fastest track on the current schedule based on qualifying speeds. … The total purse for the 3M Performance 400 was $5,037,040.

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