Dodge opens strong with top-heavy finish in the 500 (cont'd)

From there, Gordon was able to maneuver with fellow Dodge drivers, not coincidentally Gillett Evernham teammates Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne, who finished sixth and seventh, respectively, ahead of him.

Dodge driver Reed Sorenson provided a critical push to second-place Bush and leader Newman that secured the 1-2 Penske Racing finish.

"Hats off to all of the guys at GEM and the motors and everybody else that worked on all these cars and hard work, so congratulations to Dodge and obviously the two Penske boys," Gordon said. "They said we were going to run the high line and I have to be honest with you -- I was good enough with a 10th-place finish at that time.

"I didn't think we were going to go from 10th to first after the restart. We moved up a couple spots, which is not bad. We were beating and banging pretty hard."

But the Dodge teams were able to work together, which paid off.

"They know how to work together and they work well together, and I thought that sixth, seventh and eighth was a wonderful finish," team owner George Gillett Jr. said. "Robby showed us some speed and I thought Elliott [Sadler] had the fastest car in the race for a long time, and he got hung out after that pit stop.

"But it was fun to see, though. It's unbelievable, and it shows what a great job our team is doing. Ray [Evernham] is providing us with great leadership and [competition director] Mark McArdle and his crew are doing a fabulous job and they're working together and giving us good cars and good engines.

"This winter, we really started to make a breakthrough on the handling of the cars, which is really critical."

It provided an edge for the Dodge cars at the end, some of them felt.

"There was a nice Dodge train on the top side," Busch said. "I think all of us knew that the top side would help us and in the end it paid off. I had a glimmer of hope of winning the thing until Newman pulled in front of me. I said, 'perfect dude -- here we go.'

"It feels great to push him to the win."

Dodge paid a $1 million bonus to Newman for his win. Mike Accaviti, director, Dodge Motorsports and SRT Marketing for the Chrysler Group, said he wasn't concerned.

"A 30-second TV ad [on the Daytona 500 broadcast] cost $500,000," Accaviti said. "With the exposure we got with Ryan's win and six cars in the top eight, we more than made up for that.

"It wasn't gambling -- we only paid if we won -- and the payoff for this is huge in terms of our exposure. The win is super important [and] it was a great showing by all the Dodge teams.

"For us to get six out of the top eight is just a phenomenal showing for Dodge. It shows the depth of our program and we couldn't be more excited for the 2008 season. We've been telling everybody that we're working better together and the proof is in the pudding."

Newman and Busch's owner, Roger Penske, said he certainly wasn't surprised with the Dodge showing, but it only validated one week of the season.

"We had a good test here and we knew we had a lot more power that we could bring to the race, and that's what we did, with the reliability," Penske said. "But again, it was execution [Sunday], plus reliability -- which we didn't have last year.

"Ryan missed a couple wins last year because of reliability. I think as we go forward, this will give our team a lot of momentum, but I can tell you this -- when we line up with everybody else next week at California, I don't think, because you won the Daytona 500, they give you an extra lap ahead of the field."