Gordon wins at Kansas as points race tightens

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Jeff Gordon defended his championship in the Protection One 400 Sunday at Kansas Speedway when he drove away from Ryan Newman after a restart with three laps remaining.

Gordon, whose No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet had fallen 190 points off the championship lead in fifth place coming into this race, was .618 seconds ahead of Newman at the finish.

After being involved in an accident last week at Dover International Speedway, Gordon knew a big performance at Kansas was necessary if he hoped to defend his Winston Cup championship -- which would be his fifth crown.

"I kind of put my foot in my mouth last week by saying we had to win (and) I had to back it up," Gordon said. "This team, what an amazing job they did. They really did a lot of work coming into this event, went off a lot of notes from last year and they never gave up.

"I wish I could be more excited but I am just completely worn out right now."

Gordon ended up leading a race-high 116 laps of the final 121 laps in the race, and won for the third time this season and the 61st of his career. He dominated the field in two restarts in the last 15 laps to give new car chief Steve Letarte his first victory since assuming the position this weekend.

Newman's Penske Racing teammate Rusty Wallace was third, Joe Nemechek was fourth and Bill Elliott was fifth.

After a restart with 14 laps remaining, Gordon's lead over Newman had grown to nearly a second when a multi-car accident in Turns 3 and 4 caused the race's 11th caution flag to fly.

The red flag was immediately thrown after Gordon took the caution to conclude lap 262. After a delay of 13:16 the final green flag flew at lap 265 of 267. Once again, Gordon easily pulled away.

"I had great, great horsepower underneath the hood," Gordon said. "Man, I'm exhausted. I was fine until they threw that red. I knew they were going to throw it but I didn't realize how hot it was until I sat over there (off Turn 2).

"I think all of us (drivers) are pretty exhausted but what a great victory."

Three of the top-five drivers in the point standings managed to finish in the top-five and the other two had major problems as the race created a jumble at the top of the standings, with four of the top-five positions shifting.

Gordon's teammate Jimmie Johnson, despite suffering a flat tire on his Chevrolet, came back to finish 10th and unofficially took the point lead, by 11 over former leader Mark Martin, whose engine failed after 250 laps, knocking him to 25th.

Tony Stewart finished eighth and remained third in the standings, 36 behind Johnson. Gordon jumped up to fourth, 109 behind the leader.

Sterling Marlin, who earlier this season led the points for 25 races, was involved in an accident, finished 33rd and fell to fifth, 121 points back. However, the unprecedented point race tightened as now, Wallace is sixth, 137 points out and Newman is seventh, 154 behind.

"Every time those guys have had trouble, so have we," Gordon said. "So I didn't want to put too much into it. I just wanted to run our race and what a great race it was -- I'm just so proud of these guys.

"Thank God for just a safe day -- that thing was just on rails."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth, who both fell out of the top-five on the final three-lap run, ended up sixth and seventh. Jeremy Mayfield held onto ninth despite getting caught up in the final accident.