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Nascar and Racing

Gordon Snaps Losing Streak in Texas

Posted Apr 05, 2009 5:47PM By Geoffrey Miller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports

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For the first time since October 2007, we don't have to hear about Jeff Gordon's winless streak.

Gordon went from worst a year ago at Texas Motor Speedway to first on Sunday to win the Samsung 500 and cement the No. 24 as a legitimate championship contender.

"How ironic is this that we go on this streak and end it at Texas?" asked Gordon in victory lane following the win in which he led a race-high 105 laps.

Ironic, indeed.

Before Sunday, Jeff Gordon had two tracks on the Cup Series schedule he had never won at including TMS and south Florida's Homestead-Miami Speedway. And a year ago, Gordon endured one of his worst-career races at the Fort Worth track with a 43rd-place finish after crashing a car that wasn't even in the same performance zip code as the rest of the field.

Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson completed a HMS 1-2 sweep for the ninth time in their careers with Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle coming home third. Tony Stewart finished fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth.

Teammate Johnson didn't make things easy for Gordon in the closing laps, despite taking a win of his own just a week ago at Martinsville Speedway. When the green flag fell on what ended up being the 500-miler's final restart, Johnson looked ready to pounce after Gordon shot out to a lead of nearly 1.5 seconds.

Johnson, though, started to close until the lead stabilized as the laps wound down. Then, Gordon caught some lapped traffic that allowed Johnson to close within a half-second of the leader. The lap counter, though, was in Gordon's favor as he managed to keep a winning distance until the checkered flag fell on an afternoon that might serve as a warning shot to the rest of the field that 2009 will mark a serious effort to get the No. 24 back in championship form.

Now, heading to the season's second off-weekend thanks to the Easter holiday, Gordon holds a lead of 162 points in the point standings over Johnson with Kurt Busch third, 180 points back. More importantly, Gordon would now start the Chase for the Sprint Cup just ten points behind Kyle Busch [two wins in 2009] and tied with the rest of the season's one-race winners.

The race marked a nice turnaround for the Roush Fenway group after tumultuous run in the past two weeks at Bristol and Martinsville with two cars in the Top-5. It could, though, have been better, until a pit road blunder for Carl Edwards on the final pit stop sent the No. 99 from the race lead to deep in the lead-lap pack. He managed just a 10th-place finish to continue an otherwise mediocre season.

Kyle Busch was a non-factor all day (except when he nearly took out then-leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. on an ill-advised four-wide move on a restart) after cutting tire early under green flag conditions. The cut seemed to have occured after Busch got irritated with John Andretti and sideswiped the No. 34.

Busch finished 18th after finally earning his way back to the lead lap late in the race.

Stay with FanHouse for plenty more coverage about all of the happenings at Texas Motor Speedway.

Tags: Greg+Biffle, GregBiffle, Hendrick+Motorsports, HendrickMotorsports, Jeff+Gordon, JeffGordon, Jimmie+Johnson, JimmieJohnson, Samsung+500, Samsung500, Sprint+Cup, SprintCup, Texas+Motor+Speedway, TexasMotorSpeedway

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