CONCORD, N.C. -- A brilliant call in the pits before the final segment of Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race propelled Jimmie Johnson to a fourth-place finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the "home" track for the No. 48 Lowe's team.

Johnson overcame a 21st-place starting position that resulted from his time being disallowed during Friday's qualifying for pitting outside the box (the team retrieved and tightened a lug nut missing from the left front wheel).

Gradually, Johnson worked his way through the field, but the call that produced the top-five finish was a gas-and-go on the final pit stop before the start of the final segment of the 100-lap event, which was contested in four segments of 25 laps at the 1.5-mile speedway.

Kasey Kahne, who was voted into the race by fan balloting after failing to qualify in the Sprint Showdown for non-exempt drivers, won the non-points event by 1.327 seconds over Greg Biffle. Matt Kenseth passed the Lowe's Chevy in the closing laps to finish third, and Tony Stewart ran fifth after starting from the back of the field because of an engine change.

"OK, let's go out there and have some fun tonight," crew chief Chad Knaus said on the radio after the command to start engines. "Four 25-lap segments. Remember the (10-minute) break between (segments) two and three. The last pit stop is going to be the key tonight. There's going to be a lot of different strategies playing out, two tires, four tires ..."

As it turned out, Knaus couldn't have been more prophetic.

"We'll go 36," Johnson, radioed as he rolled past pit road on his first pace lap, indicating that 3,600 rpm coincided with the pit road speed limit of 45 mph. "I've got a good mark here."

"That's right -- 3,600," echoed spotter Stevie Reeves. "It's going to be one to go when you get here, Jimmie. The 20 car (Stewart) has to go to the back for a motor change there."

"Have some fun, Jimmie," Knaus said before the green flag.

"OK, boys, let's have a good night," Johnson replied.

Though Kyle Busch ran away with the first segment, Johnson steadily gained ground, moving up to 10th in the running order during the first 25 laps.

"It's rolling through the center, and it's a little free when I'm really aggressive with the gas coming off the corner," Johnson told Knaus, describing the handling of his car during the first competition caution, which NASCAR called as planned after lap 25.

"You're really the only car that passed anybody, for what that's worth," Knaus told his driver. "You and the 99 (Carl Edwards).

"We'll be coming in around the 1 car," Knaus added, anticipating the first pit stop under yellow. "The 18 (Busch) will be gone by the time we're done. Four tires, pull left sides. Nice and easy, guys."

"Jimmie, do you think you're resting your foot on the brake pedal?" Knaus asked after the stop. "On the stop or on the track?" Johnson replied.

"On the track," Knaus said, and then Johnson asked, "No, why?"

"On the stop, your brake rotors were real red," Knaus explained. "And coming down the straightaway they were really red."

Knaus then indicated that the issue of heating the brake rotors was something the team would have to examine.

Johnson had lost two positions by taking four tires on the pit stop as other teams experimented with two-tire calls.

"Double-file restart here," Reeves warned as the cars approached the green flag to start the second segment, indicating a departure from the restart rules for a points race, where lead-lap cars restart from the outside lane and lapped cars are on the inside.

"This run it started off pretty loose," Johnson radioed 10 laps after the start of the second segment. "It's still loose."

"The 18 may be blowing up there, Jimmie," Knaus said on lap 36, indicating engine failure for Busch, who had streaked to a healthy lead over Edwards at the time.

"Ten-four, blowing up," Reeves confirmed, then added on lap 48, "You're catching the 18 up there. He lost a cylinder or something. He's still fast in the corners but not on the straightaway."

With Busch fading to sixth, Edwards won the second segment and paced the field to the 10-minute break after lap 50.

"I feel like we can open up that left rear shock, too," Johnson suggested as he and Knaus discussed the handling under caution. "The car's turning way too strong. We started out loose there, for some reason. "The only change we made there was taking a pound out of the right rear."

"Save as much fuel as you can, if you don't have anybody to race," Knaus added before the start of the third segment.

"But if I can go, do you want me to?" Johnson asked.

"Sure," Knaus said.

"I'm supposed to be on the outside, right?" Johnson asked, with the running order confused by Busch's retirement from the race during the break.

"I don't know where you're supposed to be, now that the 18's gone," Knaus said. "You're running ninth, which would mean you should be on the inside, but I don't know."

Actually, Johnson restarted eighth from the outside row but could make no headway in traffic.

"Running the bottom, the car has decent rear grip, but everywhere else on the track, it's loose," Johnson told Knaus on lap 68 after falling back to the 10th position.

"Jimmie, right now, I'm just planning on taking a little bit of fuel and seeing if we can gain some track position," Knaus replied. "We made some pretty significant adjustments (during the last pit stop), and if that didn't help it much, we'll see if we can pick up a few spots and see if that'll help it."

Biffle won the third segment, and Johnson finished ninth.

"Basically, if we take tires, we're going to lose a boatload of positions here," Knaus explained as the Lowe's crew prepared for a fuel-only pit stop before the final segment.

"Rich, you better be in that freaking hole, man," Knaus said to gas man Rich Gutierrez, urging him to get the nozzle of the gas can into the intake at the rear of the car as quickly as possible. Then, to Johnson he added, "You're going to stop, pause, go."

"OK, Rich, as soon as he comes in, you're just got to get plugged in and go with him," Knaus told the gas man. "But you've got to be unplugged by the time he hits that line (the end of the pit stall, to avoid a penalty)."

Then Knaus added in a tone of voice that was clearly facetious, "If not, you're fired."

The lightning-fast pit stop gave Johnson the lead heading into the final 25 laps.

"OK, it's in your hands now," Knaus told his driver.

"Awesome," Johnson replied.

"Just so you know, the 18 ran his fastest lap in the second segment, on tires left over from the first segment," Knaus told Johnson to reassure the driver that the Lowe's Chevy might perform well on old tires.

Though Johnson lost the lead to Denny Hamlin (who later suffered engine failure) on the first lap of the final segment, the improved track position allowed him to hold the fourth-place finish.

"Guys, I know we don't have everything we want, but we're getting closer," Johnson told his crew after taking the checkered flag. "We're gaining on it. Thank you."