Chester, stung by their midweek home defeat started the brighter and menaced the Notts goal with a series of dangerous attacks at the end of which they failed to provide any sort of finish.
The goalless first half drifted into added time when it suddenly all boiled over. Steve Scoffham was involved in an incident with Chester central defender David Artell who slumped to the pitch clutching is face and needed attention.
Scoffham became the first player to see a card and it was red reducing Notts to ten men for the whole of the second half.
Notts reorganised by withdrawing Chris Palmer from midfield and putting Andy White up front to partner Glynn Hurst, but it was Chester who provided the first real threat when Sean Hessey went through and finished with a powerful effort that skimmed goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington's left-hand post.
After 56 minutes, however, Notts took the lead with a lot of the blame attached to Chester goalkeeper Chris MacKenzie.
Robert Ullathorne crossed from the left and Matt Gill got in an effort, MacKenzie parried it and the ball fell right to the feet of Hurst who scored for the fifth time this season.
Chester stormed back and sub Ben Davies levelled on 70 minutes with a fierce drive from inside the area.
Only a minute later Hurst had a chance to put Notts back into the lead in a one-on-one but MacKenzie got a leg in the way of the shot to divert the ball for a corner.
In mounting excitement Ryan Lowe missed a simple 80th minute header and with time running out Davies almost gave Chester all three points with a shot that cannoned against the angle of post and bar.