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Sunday, April 5, 2009

After 48 races, Jeff Gordon wins at TMS!

And Jeff Gordon wins at Texas Motor Speedway. It’s been 48 races since he and the #24 team won. This is one of two tracks, that the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion has never won at. Well, he can finally cross TMS off the list. The last track on the list is Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.

Gordon ended the drought by beating his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson at the 1 ½ mile, high banked track. Today was the 17th Cup race at Texas, a track where Gordon has only two last-place finishes in his 522 career starts. His last 43rd place at Texas came in this race last year.

“How ironic is this that when we go into this streak and we end it here in Texas, a place that’s just eluded us for so long,” Gordon said. “Incredible team effort. This whole year has been amazing. What a great car. I’ve never had a car like this at Texas. We finally had one and put it in position.”

Jeff Gordon is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader with four top-five finishes in the first six races. He did a few burnouts on the front stretch before grabbing the checkered flag and going around the track for a long awaited victory lap, his first since October 2007 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina.

During the Victory Lane interview on Fox, Gordon had to sneak a peek at the logos on his car to remind himself of everyone he needed to thank. It’s been a long time since he’s done a Victory Lane interview.

Gordon won by 0.542 seconds over Jimmie Johnson for his 82nd victory, one behind Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time win list.

Carl Edwards was going for his third consecutive Cup victory at Texas, and was leading when the final caution came out because David Stremme(in the 12) got loose and spun coming out of the third turn.

However, Edwards’ crew had problems changing tires and he dropped to 11th coming off pit road. The 24 made flawless stops in the pits all day and moved from third to first and stayed ahead for the entire race.


Dale Earnhardt Jr took only two ride-side tires and went from 12th to first on a restart with 76 laps to go. But quickly lost the lead between turns one and two when Kyle Busch trying to get a lap back, got loose and bumped him. Earnhardt, Jr was then pushed to the top of the track allowing Gordon to reclaim th elead.

Gordon was holding the lead with 39 laps to go when he got caught in traffic and Edwards slid under him for first. Tony Stewart, in the 14, got past Gordon a few laps later and that was still the running order when Stremme led.
Top 10:
1. Jeff Gordon
2. Jimmie Johnson
3. Greg Biffle
4. Tony Stewart
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Mark Martin
7. Juan Pablo Montoya
8. Kurt Busch
9. Jeff Burton
10. Carl Edwards

Other Notables:
11. David Reutimann(Pole Sitter)
12. Denny Hamlin
16. Brian Vickers
18. Kyle Busch
20. Dale Earnhardt, Jr
22. Clint Bowyer
23. Brad Keselowski
30. Joey Logano
34. AJ Allmendinger
38. Jamie McMurray

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