DOVER, Del. — Carl Edwards ran so far out in front he was able to avoid the kind of crashes and mechanical woes that plagued so many other Chase drivers on the track.

Not until Edwards brought his No. 99 Ford from Victory Lane at Dover International Speedway to the garage did he run into the kind of trouble that could derail his title hopes.

Edwards' victory in the Dodge Dealers 400 on Sunday was spoiled after his car flunked inspection because the right rear fender was too low, meaning a likely fine and loss of crucial points. Edwards is in third place in the Chase for the championship standings, only three points behind series leader Jeff Gordon, so even the lightest penalty could be a brutal blow to his title run.

Edwards knows the only way to make up the deficit is with more performances like Sunday.

"You're really going to have to win races to be leading the points at the end," he said.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Potson said there was no evidence of intentional tampering with Edwards' car.

"This is a height violation. It is not one where we believe the structure of the body has been manipulated," he said.

Edwards had dodged the smoke, the skids and the wrecks to win his first Chase race in two seasons and give team owner Jack Roush his 100th career victory.

The probable penalty will only further jumble a points race that has the top six drivers separated by a mere 18 points. Gordon seized the points lead, with Tony Stewart second. Jimmie Johnson, who led the standings entering the day, fell to fourth.

"It was a crazy day at Dover and somehow we came out of it with the points lead," Gordon said.

It sure was crazy. Just ask Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth or Denny Hamlin. Smoked or smashed cars derailed their pursuit for a Nextel Cup title and the race was a disaster for most of the championship field.

Edwards' late surge at Dover helped him avoid a massive wreck with 14 laps left that affected Chase contenders Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Johnson and a few other drivers in the 400-mile race on the concrete track.

Kurt Busch triggered the pileup after his car hit the wall on the straightaway and ricocheted back on the track. The big crash left Truex's crumpled car on the track while the race was red-flagged.

The cars can be repaired. The damage done in the points race in the pursuit for the Nextel Cup title might be too much to overcome for some of the drivers.

"It's tough when everybody puts a lot of hard work into building these cars, and to just have one little problem like that took out a lot of cars," Kurt Busch said.

Busch was far from the only driver who ran into trouble.

Matt Kenseth's car was smoking and Denny Hamlin was fuming. Johnson and Kevin Harvick had tire woes. One by one, drivers in the Chase dropped back and dropped out.