Marlin finishes fourth, still keeps points lead

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Point leader Sterling Marlin failed to win the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, but he did a good job of protecting his lead.

While Jeff Gordon won a record-tying fifth Labor Day weekend classic, joining hall-of-fame driver Cale Yarborough at that plateau, Marlin made perfect use of the pole starting position he earned Friday when Bud Pole Qualifying was rained out.

	Jeff Gordon

By virtue of his lead in the standings that he's held since the second race of the season, Marlin led the first 19 laps under caution to earn five bonus points in his No. 40 Coors Light Dodge. He eventually paced 113 laps before finishing fourth.

"Jeff looks like he's really on a roll here," Marlin said. "We had him beat early, but we just didn't finish. You've got to run good all day to win this thing."

Gordon did not lead the race until lap 240, but he led 125 of the last 128 circuits of the 1.366-mile oval including the last 64, to grab 10 bonus points for leading the most laps.

After his second consecutive victory that came on the heels of a career-high 31-race losing streak, Gordon said he was enjoying the feeling.

"We've done everything to be a threat for the championship except to perform really well at certain tracks, where we've either run badly -- like when I crashed at Bristol and the other wreck we were involved in," Gordon said. "For whatever reason, the last couple weeks, those things haven't happened.

"This legitimizes us in the garage area as a threat for the championship, but I don't expect everybody else to stand down and let us go."

In the end Sunday, Gordon unofficially jumped into second after 25 of 36 races, 91 points behind Marlin. Mark Martin, who fell to 11th at the finish, dropped to third. Martin, who came into Darlington 95 points behind in second, fell to 125 points behind despite taking the lead from Marlin at lap 20 and eventually leading 27 laps.

Gordon is now seriously eying his fifth Winston Cup championship, after being as far out as 232 points behind Marlin after 10 races and 150 points behind just two races ago.

"Last year we had a fire in our eye and we kept our faith in one another," Gordon said. "Now, not only do we have the faith back in each other, but we've got that fire back and it's awesome to come to the racetrack and see that in each other's eyes."

Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson remained in fourth and fifth, 162 and 167 points behind Marlin, respectively.

SOUTHERN 500 • Gordon wins fifth Southern 500 • Southern 500 Results • Winston Cup Standings • Photo Gallery

Richard Childress Racing's three teammates figured in the largest shifts in the standings. Both Jeff Green and Robby Gordon, who rebounded from banging into Darlington's walls to finish 12th and 17th, respectively moved up to 17th and 20th in the standings.

Kevin Harvick, who had moved into the top 20 for the first time this season after last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, got caught in the oil from John Andretti's car's blown engine and crashed out of the race after 193 laps to finish 40th. He fell back to 21st in the standings.

Gordon appears to be back in the zone and, heading to Richmond International Raceway -- a track he's won twice at -- for Saturday night's Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400, he says he hopes that doesn't signal any kind of letdown.

"I hope we're not in a comfort zone because that can cost us the championship," Gordon said. "We cannot take these wins for granted. We've got to enjoy them and (enjoy) the feeling you get when you pull into Victory Lane -- but as much as you need to enjoy that, we need to keep that same (hungry) attitude.

"We're certainly in a position now we're comfortable with and enjoying -- but we know how much hard work is left and there's a lot of hard racing still to go."