KANSAS CITY, Kan. --- After leading the standings most of the regular season, Tony Stewart finally gained momentum for the Chase for the Championship on Sunday.

A quick decision to save time on pit road to gain track position with 26 laps to go gave Stewart the lead -- and the victory -- in the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway.

It also shot him back into championship contention.

After struggling in the first two playoff races, Stewart moved up one spot to fourth in the standings, 67 points behind leader Mark Martin. Stewart's first-year team seems to be recapturing the same kind of confidence it had throughout the regular season.

"You have to take the bad days and rebound from them," Stewart said. "We're not all the way back where we wanted, but we made gains. This shows this team doesn't have any quit in them."

Stewart came into the Chase with four consecutive finishes outside the top 10. He started the playoffs with a 14th-place finish at New Hampshire and quickly fell more than 100 points behind.

Now he's in striking distance.

"We've still god a shot," Stewart said after earning $332,498. "We've got a great shot at this still."

Stewart was a distant second to Greg Biffle when the caution flag waved late for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s blown engine. Biffle's team changed four tires during the final stop; Stewart's team gambled on two.

"We made our plan and stuck to it and hoped everyone else would stick to four," crew chief Darian Grubb said. "We knew if Tony took two, he could take off in clean air."

Biffle was upset that he overruled crew chief Greg Erwin for a four-tire stop.

"I wanted four tires; the crew chief wanted two," he said.

Biffle settled for third, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin in fifth. The only non-Chase driver in the top 11 was David Reutimann in eighth.

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com.