Gordon's rebound true sign of championship formula (cont'd)

The car was never great. But it was good enough so that toward the end, when contenders like Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin started falling to the back for a variety of reasons, Gordon could take advantage. Letarte took only tires on the event's final pit stop, and Gordon emerged in the unlikely position to win. As the cars approached the final time, only teammate Busch loomed ahead of him.

Gordon radioed his crew to remind Busch that there was a teammate behind him, and not to wreck him if he got a fender inside him entering Turn 1. Hendrick issued a reminder to both drivers to remember the big picture.

"I've been in situations where my two teams were fighting on pit road. It's tough riding back to the airport in the van and trying not to get hit in the middle. I don't enjoy that," the team owner said. "We said after that race, we'd talk about it. But I don't expect the guys not to race, either. There's a way to race, and race clean. I mentioned both to Kyle and Jeff over the radio, 'Think about the big picture,' and they did. I'm thankful there wasn't any problem."

But Gordon never had a real shot at Busch at the end. Spoiling the Hendrick party was Burton, the Richard Childress Racing driver, who zoomed past on the high side as Gordon considered a move on his teammate. Gordon radioed that he had made a mistake by not going to the outside.

However, he was still more than pleased about where he wound up. The finish was good enough to give him the series lead by three points over Burton heading to next weekend's race at Martinsville, Va.

"I didn't think we had a shot at the thing anyway," he said. "I'm just happy to finish third."