"What was I supposed to do, go a lap down?" he told reporters after the race.
Both Alonso and Jenson Button, who finished 16th and whose future remains unclear, finished one lap down on Hamilton.
Almost unnoticed, and from half a lap down, "King" Richard Petty won the race with Darrell Waltrip and AJ Foyt right on his bumper.
He was held on pit road for a lap, once again dropping from the top five to 35th, one lap down with 77 to go.
Both Toyotas went a lap down after going off as did the No20 Porsche of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard.
Explaining his decision not to let his team-mate past, Verstappen, who was last and one lap down after stalling on the grid, said: "First of all, if you're one lap down and you manage to be back in the points as the leading Toro Rosso, then for me there is no reason to switch positions.
The unfortunate timing cost Earnhardt dearly; he slipped a lap down and never got back in the mix, though all the trouble at the end boosted him to 15th.
Keselowski did make it hard for Busch to pass him late in the race, when Keselowski was fighting not to go a lap down, but Busch made a clean move around him in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after several attempts.
The other Audi of McNish and Kristensen in the diesel-powered non-hybrid R18 Ultra had seen their challenge thwarted by a slow puncture towards the end of the second hour that was compounded when they were forced a lap down during a safety car period.
In fact, only two weeks before the birth of his second child, his father Michael – with just the two world championships to his name back then – had watched his own little brother, Ralf, take third place in the opening grand prix in Australia, while he finished a lap down in eighth; the crash that would break his leg and ruin his 1999 season was still to come.
He added: "I don't think we need a different rule, if you want to go quick and you are a lap down and there is no chance to win the race, you should respect it and use common sense.
