Brooklyn, Mich. ? With Jeff Gordon closing in and the checkered flag in sight Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, Matt Kenseth was thinking about three races he could have won and didn’t.

“What I thought of was Las Vegas, Bristol and Chicago because we were in a position to win all three and I got run into twice and passed once,” said Kenseth, who held on for his third NASCAR Nextel Cup victory of the season and the 13th of his career.

In all three of those races, Kenseth said an almost sure victory disappeared because he wore out his tires on the final stint. Not this time.

Kenseth easily kept four-time NASCAR champion Gordon at bay in the final laps of the GFS Marketplace 400 by conscientiously taking care of his tires after his final pit stop.

“I just tried to be a little smarter at the beginning of the last run, go slower and make sure I didn’t use up the front tires,” Kenseth said. “I really was thinking about how not to lose the race.”

Though Gordon appeared to have a faster car at the end – he charged from 12th place on a restart with 36 laps to go in the 200-lap race – he ran out of time and finished 10 car lengths behind Kenseth’s No. 17 Roush Racing Ford.

“I wish we had a few more laps,” Gordon said. “I needed maybe three more and I would have been on his bumper.”

Kenseth solidified his hold on second place in the Cup standings, and is now just 58 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson overcame a flat tire on the second lap of the race to finish 13th. Tony Stewart, the two-time and defending Cup champion, finished third, and was followed by Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle, all of whom are still fighting for spots in the Chase.