Sonoma, CA (Best E Casino) - Jeff Gordon captured Sunday's Dodge/Save Mart 350 Nextel Cup race on the road course at the Infineon Raceway. The No.24 Hendrick Motorsports driver crossed the finish line 1.250 seconds ahead of Ryan Newman.
The victory was Gordon's first of the season and 74th of his Cup career. The win, a record fifth at Infineon, was his first since the fall race at Martinsville.
"I didn't know if we were ever going to win another one of these races," said Gordon. "I knew this team was something special, we just hadn't had a chance to really show it."
Kurt Busch led the 43-car field to the green flag for 110 laps of road course racing. An rare early three-car wreck brought the race to a halt just two laps into the event. Tom Hubert, Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin made a huge mess in turn eight and NASCAR brought out the red flag.
It appeared that Schrader got loose and was sitting in the middle of the track when Marlin came around the turn and "T-boned" the No.21 Ford. Hubert had no escape route and hit the back of Marlin.
When the race finally restarted, Busch quickly built a 1.475-second lead as Ryan Newman passed Kahne for second place.
The man on the move was Robby Gordon, a great road course and off-road driver.
Gordon started 14th, but made his way into the top-five by the fifth lap. Tony Stewart and Gordon, the other two pre-race favorites, were also in the top-10.
Though people always say there is no passing on road courses, Gordon, Gordon and Stewart were proving them wrong.
Busch held 2.410 seconds over his Penske teammate Newman after 10 laps, but the "road racers" were coming quickly.
Robby Gordon slid past Harvick for third place on lap 15 and took aim at the two Penske teammates. He caught Newman on lap 21 and began to pressure the No.12 Dodge. But it was Gordon who blinked and went way too wide in turn four falling back more than two seconds on Newman.
Meanwhile, Jeff Gordon made a slick move in turn seven around Boris Said for sixth place, just behind Stewart.
The first round of stops began on lap 29 with leaders Newman and Harvick the first in. Robby Gordon was the next in leaving Busch, Stewart and Jeff Gordon among the early top-five to remain on older tires. They came in on lap 31.
But when they returned to the track, the new leader was Harvick.
Stewart was caught for speeding on pit road and given a drive-thru penalty which left him in 12th place.
Newman, not known for his road course prowess, slipped underneath Harvick in turn 11 for the lead on lap 39. Behind them were Busch and Jeff Gordon.
The No.24 Chevrolet was on the move again and on lap 44 passed Busch for third place. He didn't stop there, passing Harvick on the same lap to move into second.
A caution flag brought out by the stalled Ron Fellows Chevrolet left Newman with no margin for error. Gordon didn't wait long, taking the inside route in turn 11 of lap 49 for the lead.
Behind the leaders, Stewart and Boris Said were having a fender-rubbing duel that lasted a couple of laps. While they were playing tag with each other, Robby Gordon went past both of them in turn 11.
Jeff Gordon began to stretch his lead and after 55 laps it was 1.440 seconds over Newman.
Gordon took his final pit stop at lap 70 and after everyone had cycled through Gordon was second behind Terry Labonte, who had pitted later than everyone else and could go until about lap 100 before making his final stop.
Labonte had a 11.305-second lead on Gordon after 75 laps, but Gordon was taking huge chunks out of the lead on every lap. By lap 80 the margin was just 5.354 seconds.
Along with Gordon, Stewart moved into third about five seconds behind the No.24 Chevrolet.
Gordon caught Labonte on lap 89 and easily passed the No.96 Hall of Fame Racing Chevrolet which was trying to conserve fuel. His margin over Stewart was 5.507 seconds with 20 laps remaining.
Stewart didn't appear to have anything for Gordon as the margin continued to increase. In fact, the No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver reported that he was "down a cylinder" and was just trying to make it to the checkered flag.
Newman, Greg Biffle and Busch all passed Stewart on lap 93 as the defending series champion began to fade.
Labonte was staying close to Gordon despite trying to stretch his fuel all the way to the finish line.
Newman was in third place, but 7.635 seconds behind Gordon with a 14 laps remaining. A convenient but debatable caution flag on lap 97 for a Joe Nemechek spin closed the field up and promised a more exciting finish than a "Gordon parade."
The restart with 12 laps to go was a beauty for Gordon and he built a 0.885- second lead after one lap.
Another caution flag left just eight laps for Gordon to hold off Labonte and company.
And hold it he did for the ninth road course win of his stellar career.
"They gave me such an awesome race car this weekend that I had to get them this win," said Gordon. "If we didn't win with this car we couldn't ever win."
Labonte, Biffle and Busch completed the top-five.
The next race in the series is scheduled for Saturday night, July 1st at the Daytona International Speedway for the Pepsi 400.
