Gordon fourth in Stage 5, moves to fourth overall

SANTIAGO, Chile -- American Mark Miller has captured his first stage win in the Dakar Rally, winning the fifth leg to lead a Volkswagen sweep that gave Carlos Sainz the overall lead.

NASCAR driver Robby Gordon finished fourth in a Hummer, 4 minutes, 48 seconds off Miller's pace.

Gordon

"We had an interesting day [Wednesday]," Gordon said. "Since we were the first car on the road due to [Tuesday's] stage win, we made the trail. Unfortunately, we got stuck once in a ditch as we were making our way, costing us about six minutes.

"Things were going along good and then we had an overheating issue near the end of the special. Stopping to replace the belt cost us about couple of minutes. Had it not been for these errors, I think that we could have won the special by about four minutes.

"Regardless, we had a good day and are now within the hour mark and have our sights set on Carlos," Gordon added.

Miller won Wednesday's grueling 300-mile run across the Atacama Desert from Copiapo north to Antofagasta, finishing in 5:6:15. Sainz was 2:10 behind and Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah was third, 4:27 back.

Sainz leads Al-Attiyah by 4:37 overall, and Miller is 9:39 off the pace in third.

Gordon's effort in Stage 4 resulted in a leap to fourth place overall. He is 59:55 behind Sainz.

In motorbikes, Chilean Contardo Lopez won the stage and Cyril Despres was 1:30 behind, allowing the Frenchman to extend his overall lead to 37:37 on Lopez.

Versus will provide coverage throughout the United States. A 30-minute daily program featuring highlights from that day's racing will be aired 3:30 p.m. ET daily. The show is set to air Jan. 3-18. An hour-long recap featuring all 14 stages will air at 3 p.m. ET on Jan. 24.

Robbygordon.com, planetrobby.com, Twitter and NASCAR.COM also will have updates on the teams' performance including a daily recap, photos and videos.

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• Gordon moves up a spot after winning fourth stage