Gordon’s sixth win on season gets him closer to fifth title
CONCORD, N.C. – first he conceded the race to a team mate fearing a fuel issue that wouldn’t let him finish the race on Saturday night. However, luck had something else in plan for him as he managed to cross the finish line despite all his concerns. This was his sixth win of the season which brings him closer to the fifth NEXTEL cup title. He is now 68 points ahead of team mate Jimmie Johnson, the win has also helped him widen the points gap between the two and further his claim on the title.
“Just an incredible day for the team,” Gordon said. “We needed to get to the finish. We had such a hard time getting to the finish, whether we were wrecking or having a mechanical problem.”
At first Gordon’s Chevrolet developed a pick up problem that had him worried about losing large amount of fuel and running out of fuel all the time during the race.
“I can’t tell you how many times we tried to give this one away,” Gordon said. “Jimmie Johnson, I’m not sure what happened to him. He had the field covered. But when I saw he had problems, I thought it was an opportunity for us.”
After Johnson’s spin Gordon had the race to himself as he passed Busch with 50 laps to go, however right before the end Rick Hendrick had to radio in the drivers and lecture them on how important it was not to wreck each other and stay in the competition which ended in Gordon being assured that Busch would race him clean.
The standings after the Saturday race are:
Pos. +/- Driver Points Behind
1. — Jeff Gordon 5880 Leader
2. — Jimmie Johnson 5812 -68
3. — Clint Bowyer 5802 -78
4. — Tony Stewart 5682 -198
5. +1 Carl Edwards 5640 -240
6. +2 Kyle Busch 5600 -280
7. — Kurt Busch 5565 -315
8. -3 Kevin Harvick 5552 -328
9. — Denny Hamlin 5531 -349
10. +2 Jeff Burton 5514 -366
11. -1 Martin Truex Jr. 5502 -378
12. -1 Matt Kenseth 5438 -442
Filed under: Points Chase, Racing
