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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Tony Stewart took advantage of a stunning mistake by Jeff Gordon with two laps to go Sunday and won the Centurion Boats at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Gordon, who started from the pole and led a race-high 51 laps, seemed to have his 10th road-course victory in hand, but he spun out on his own heading into the first turn with Stewart a couple of car lengths behind and finished ninth.

“I was driving hard,” Gordon said after climbing from his No. 24 Chevrolet. “I just overdrove going into one. It was just stupid. I knew I had to push because Tony was really good.”

For Stewart, who spun out in the same place while leading earlier in the race and dropped to 19th, it was his third victory in four races and sixth on a road course, tying him for second behind Gordon. Stewart has won four of the last five races at Watkins Glen and finished second to Kevin Harvick a year ago.

“I saw Jeff lose it just like I lost it,” Stewart said. “I had to keep fighting back.”

Denny Hamlin finished second, Jimmie Johnson third, Canadian road-race ace Ron Fellows fourth and Robby Gordon fifth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a big blow to his chances of making the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship with four races remaining before the cutoff.

After complaining in practice about how bad his car was handling, Earnhardt turned things around in the race and was running up front much of the day. But while running third behind Gordon and Kurt Busch, the engine in the red No. 8 Chevrolet blew, ending his day on lap 63. He finished 42nd.

It was the fifth DNF of the season for Earnhardt, and four have been engine-related.

He entered the day trailing Kurt Busch by seven points for the 12th and final spot in the standings. Only the top 12 after the first 26 races qualify to race for the title over the final 10 races of the season.

“We had an issue with the motor,” Earnhardt said.

“I think it was due to some of the downshifting I was making during practice. We had been having trouble with the car all week. We were doing well in the race, but I was downshifting to try and get some more power out of the car.

“I was hoping for a good showing and have something to be proud of. I’m kind of disappointed. We have a couple of races left, and there’s no telling what will happen in those.”

Busch was caught speeding on pit road on his final pit stop but rallied to finish 11th.

Rookie Juan Pablo Montoya, who won a Busch Series race in Mexico and the Cup race at Sonoma in June, was bidding to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win three road races in a season.

He failed in Saturday’s Busch race, finishing 33rd after being involved in an accident, and on Sunday he had another altercation.

Montoya and Harvick got together with fewer than 20 laps remaining in the 90-lap event while both were running in the top 10, and ended up in a shoving match after their cars got banged up. Harvick finished 29th, and Montoya was 39th.

Elsewhere

Sebastien Bourdais won the Generac Grand Prix, starting from the pole in the Champ Car event at Elkhart Lake, Wis., and overpowering the rest of the 17-car field in picking up his fifth victory of the season. He led 51 of 53 laps. Dan Clarke was second. Bourdais has a 37-point margin with five races to go.

Bourdais had failed to win on the 4.028-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course three times.

John Force won his 125th Funny Car event, at Brainerd, Minn., by beating Kenny Bernstein by about 2 feet in a meeting of drag-racing legends. It was their first meeting in 18 years. Force’s 4.794-second run at 316.60 mph was faster by .0048 seconds in the National Hot Rod Association’s Lucas Oil Nationals.

Bernstein’s son, Brandon , won the Top Fuel, and Jeg Coughlin took the Pro Stock.