Solid day for Johnson, co-owner Gordon

FORT WORTH, Texas -- For the first time this NASCAR Winston Cup season, Raybestos Rookie of the Year points leader Jimmie Johnson and car owner, mentor and four-time NWCS champion Jeff Gordon shared the rarified air of the top of the race rundown.

Monday at Texas Motor Speedway, Johnson’s team owner Gordon was runner-up in the rain-delayed Samsung/RadioShack 500 in the DuPont Chevrolet while Johnson’s Lowe’s Chevrolet was sixth. The achievement broke a career long 14-race string outside the top-five by Gordon.

Even better for him, the result was only the second acceptable finish he’s had in six races at Texas. It nicely backed-up the fifth-place he scored a year ago, unofficially boosted him from 10th to sixth in the standings, a manageable 173 points behind leader Sterling Marlin -- but most importantly came on a charge from 26th on a track on which passing was supposedly gonna be difficult.

“I just thank God for so many things,” said Gordon, who made the 300th start of his career without using a provisional starting position. “He’s blessed me with a great team and a bunch of guys who are awesome to work with.”

Gordon has had to battle the indeterminate distraction in his personal life as he works out a divorce from his wife, Brooke, that was filed before the Darlington race weekend. Though there’s no obvious connection, he qualified 26th at Texas after not testing at the track.

“We’ve had to overcome a few things here lately and get our focus on getting consistent and on our qualifying,” said Gordon, who has four top-10 finishes in seven starts. “It helped us here in the last couple race but it didn’t help us today.”

For Johnson, the run was consistent with what has become the norm for the precocious Californian -- who logged his fifth top-10 of the season in seven races. Johnson unofficially climbed from fourth to third in points, 119 behind Marlin.

“It’s an awesome feeling to compete as we have,” Johnson said. “All in all it was a great performance for the Lowe’s Chevrolet.”

“We became a great team throughout the day,” said Gordon, who has been running at the finish of the last 38 races. “I think this run right here is going to do a lot for the DuPont Chevrolet -- to get a second.”

As much as the run was a landmark for Gordon, he was happier for his shop mate’s success.

“We’re excited for a number of reasons,” said Gordon, who co-owns the team with Rick Hendrick. “We sat in those meetings with sponsors trying to tell them how great a driver Jimmie is and what a great team we were going to put together and not knowing what the heck was going to happen when it all came about.

“It’s nice to see the smiles on everybody’s faces and see how it’s coming together.”