Gordon Ties Waltrip, Allison With 84th Win at Ponoco



Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR




By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(June 12, 2011)

LONG POND, Pa. — Jeff Gordon may be starting to feel his age, but he certainly didn’t show it in Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway.

“I’m just so excited to be a part of this sport,” Gordon said in victory lane, after taking the checkered flag 2.965 seconds ahead of runner-up Kurt Busch. “I’m going to be 40 this year (Aug. 4). I’m an old man now.”

Statistically, the old man already is an important part of NASCAR Sprint Cup history. His victory Sunday was his second of the year, his fifth at the tricky 2.5-mile triangular track and the 84th of his career, tying Gordon with Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for third on the all-time list.

As NASCAR’s elder statesman and four-time champion later pointed out, the race was won on pit road. The No. 24 Chevrolet crew got Gordon out ahead of Busch on a stop under caution for debris on Lap 156 of 200, enabling Gordon to streak away from eventual seventh-place finisher Juan Pablo Montoya after a restart on Lap 160.

During a green-flag stop on Lap 177, the No. 24 crew again performed flawlessly, increasing the cushion Gordon held over Busch.

“If we can just get out front, I think we’ll be OK,” Gordon had told crew chief Alan Gustafson before the Lap 160 pit stop — and that’s exactly what happened.

“You guys won that one in the pits—way to go,” Gordon radioed to his crew after crossing the finish line.

Kyle Busch ran third, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Busch’s No. 18 Toyota, however, failed postrace inspection, with the left front being too low when measured by NASCAR’s height stick. If penalties are forthcoming, they will be announced later in the week.

Montoya, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. completed the top 10. Series points leader Carl Edwards suffered an engine failure 58 laps into the race and finished 37th. Edwards’ lead in the standings shrank to six points over second-place Johnson and 10 over third-place Earnhardt.

Clean air proved decisive, as Kurt Busch, the polesitter, couldn’t close on Gordon significantly during the final 41-lap green-flag run.

“It was a great, hard-fought battle with Jeff Gordon at the end,” Busch said. “It started about 130 laps in, about 70 to go, where we were able to take the lead, stretch it out. Then there was a caution (the fourth debris caution of the race, on Lap 155). The 24 beat us out of the pits.

“I thought we could gain on him after 15 laps into the run. We were able to do that most of the day. We were able to do that again at the end, but we just couldn't close the gap far enough. The old ‘Golden Boy’ had it in him today.

“Neither one of us slipped those final few laps. It was just one of those, ‘I'm giving it all I got, and I can’t close the gap.’ ”

Denny Hamlin, a four-time winner at Pocono, led a race-high 76 laps, but a broken valve stem forced him back to the pits after a stop on Lap 160 and relegated him to 19th at the finish. Hamlin lost one position in the standings to 12th, as Gordon jumped past him into 11th, his highest position since winning at Phoenix in the second race of the season.

After a disappointing stretch that started with a crash in Las Vegas in week No. 3, Gordon feels his team is beginning to realize its potential.

“We were embarrassed by the way we were running,” Gordon said. “When I came on board with Alan (the result of a crew chief swap in the offseason), I knew that they were special and amazing. Phoenix came a little sooner than we thought, but I felt like we could do that this year.

“Then we went on a streak where we just weren’t competitive, but what it takes is a team that believes in you, and you believe in them, and you work together to get there. That’s what we did today.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr Amped Up for NASCAR Sprint Cup Atlanta Pole

Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

A pleasing site to the fans of NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr ushered his #88 AMP Energy Chevrolet to pole position at Atlanta Motor Speedway in preparations for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup's Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday. Capturing his first pole since the spring race at Texas in 2008, Dale Earnhardt Jr has been on a tear in qualifying for 2010 placing in a top-4 starting spot for 3 of the first NASCAR Sprint Cup races.

In the Atlanta qualifying session, 3rd driver to qualify Kasey Kahne took his #9 Budweiser Ford around the 1.52 mile oval at an average speed of 191.688 MPH or 28.922 seconds. Kahne held onto the 1st place spot through the following 8 cars until Jeff Gordon rolled to a time just 15 one-hundredths of a second faster than the #9 Ford. Gordon held the top spot for little more than a minute as the next car up, the #18 Toyota of Kyle Busch, bested the #24 Chevrolet's time. The first lap averaging a time faster than 192 MPH, Busch would be denied the pole by Dale Earnhardt Jr .

With the #88 car of Hendrick Motorsports claiming the first starting spot in the Kobalt Tools 500, car owner Rick Hendrick will enjoy seeing 3 of his 4 cars near the front with Mark Martin clocking in 4th and Gordon settling into a strong 5th in qualifying. Hendrick satellite team of Stewart/Haas Racing was able to place Ryan Newman in 7th and Tony Stewart in a fair 15th position. As for the #48 Chevrolet driven by back-to-back Sprint Cup winner of 2010 Jimmie Johnson, he could only muster a 16th place start. While Johnson lacked the qualifying speed in the late Friday afternoon time trials, the #48 Chevy came from 20th last weekend to win at Las Vegas.

The Richard Petty Motorsports squad also reserves an honourable mention after NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway. With Kasey Kahne resting 6th, an determined run by Elliott Sadler's #19 Ford was a refreshing surprise in 8th ahead of David Ruttimann and Carl Edwards.

As for the teams registering outside of the top-35 in 2009 car owner's points, Dave Blaney drove the #66 PRISM Motorsport to the highest of the cars needing to qualify for Sunday's race. Michael McDowell was the final driver to break into the field for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.


2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup
Kobalt Tools 500
Atlanta Motor Speedway

Top 10:

Pos | Car # | Driver | Sponsor/Car Make

1) 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet
2) 18 Kyle Busch              M&M's Toyota 
3) 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet 
4) 5 Mark Martin         Hendrickcars.com/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 
5) 24 Jeff Gordon         DuPont/National Guard Chevrolet 
6) 9 Kasey Kahne         Budweiser Ford 
7) 39 Ryan Newman         Tornados Chevrolet
8) 19 Elliott Sadler   Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 
9) 00 David Reutimann  Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota
10) 99 Carl Edwards     Scotts Ford


Other Notables:

11) 2 Kurt Busch       Miller Lite Dodge
15) 14 Tony Stewart     Office Depot Chevrolet
16) 48 Jimmie Johnson    Lowe's/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet
27) 66 Dave Blaney      PRISM Motorsports Toyota
31) 13 Max Papis        GEICO Toyota
34) 21 Bill Elliott     Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford
35) 29 Kevin Harvick    Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet
43) 55 Michael McDowell PRISM Motorsports Toyota

Jimmie Johnson Shows His Hand at NASCAR Sprint Cup Shelby American in Vegas

Photo Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images for NASCAR

As a Canadian, I feel my need to apologize to NASCAR for turning my attention away from the 400 mile race Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as I just had to watch the Olympic Men's Hockey finals between Canada and the United States. Judging published accounts of Sunday afternoon's TV Ratings in Canada and the United States, it's fair to say I was not the only one who watched the brilliant 3-2 victory of Team Canada's male athletes in a hard-fought effort through overtime.

Through all the excitement and the sheer volume of the major hockey event, I have to candidly admit that the feeling of watching the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was comparably underwhelming on this afternoon.

Started under a bright sky in front of a reportedly sell-out audience at the 1.5 oval, the Las Vegas native Kurt Busch pole position gave him and his #2 Miller Lite Dodge lane choice for the Shelby American start. Choosing the top side, Busch's decision immediately turned out to be an unwise decision following the drop of the green flag. Holding the lower line, fellow front row starter Jeff Gordon motored his #24 Chevrolet around the #2 Dodge to take the lead. Setting the course of the day, Jeff Gordon would lead often through the 400 mile event.

Gordon led for the first 52 laps until Roush Racing's Greg Biffle was able to sneak by the Hendrick Motorsports #24 car on a restart from a caution. As Biffle claimed the top spot, the green flag period was very short-lived. In fact, according to the track alert lights, the field was still under yellow flag conditions. Wisely acting on the side of driver safety, a yellow flag was thrown by NASCAR so they could correct the signaling error. Taking only 3 laps under caution until the race could be restarted, this signaling problem would creep once more on lap 109 when the issue was fully remedied.

With 7 caution periods overall in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Las Vegas, the incidents are fairly tame for the most part. However, a caution drawn on lap 94 would reflect the only multi-car accident in the race involving three cars which have shown competitiveness through the early stage of the 2010 Sprint Cup season. Creating the 5th caution of the Shelby American race, the Earnhardt/Ganassi Racing #1 Chevrolet of Jamie McMurray slipped up into his teammate, the #42 of Juan Pablo Montoya through turn 4 on the racetrack cited earlier in the race as being slick. Spinning out Montoya, the red #42 car ran up the track striking the turn 4 wall enough to infect serious damage to the car's deck lid area. As Kurt Busch came through the turn 4 area, he became the only non EGR casualty of the situation as he made contact that damaged the right front corner of his blue Dodge. McMurray was apologetic in the aftermath of the accident taking responsibility for the costly day for Earnhardt/Ganassi Racing. All three cars suffered damage requiring extended attention of their crews but finished the event only at most 20 laps down.



Photo Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images for NASCAR


The Hendrick Motorsports duo of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson led all but 30 of the 267 laps of the Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Little else happened through the race as only Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and the odd appearance of Scott Speed were some drivers who mixed up the complexion at the front of Las Vegas Motor Speedway when the Hendrick Chevrolet were pitting or were bypassed on pit strategy. The other Hendrick Motorsport cars were having mixed days in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Shelby American as Mark Martin was able to hold on to the top 10 while Dale Earnhardt Jr fell from a 4th place starting spot to the lower part of the top 15 after 200 laps.

Being a match race between Gordon and Johnson at the end, Johnson who was running 2nd place since the mid-way point of the race out-powered his teammate and part-owner on lap 251. In the final run, Jeff Gordon's #24 Chevrolet also gave way to the #29 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick (who fought his way from a 34th place start) relinquishing the runner-up to the Pennzoil car. With considerable distance to Johnson, Harvick ran out of laps to catch Jimmie Johnson for the second straight week.

Again, Jimmie Johnson's #48 Lowes Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports successfully streaked claim to a 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup race trophy. Requiring a methodical climb from 20th place at the beginning of the event, Johnson wins his 49 career event in the major stock car racing series.

Behind Johnson, Harvick and Gordon was the #5 Hendrick car of Mark Martin followed by the Roush Racing's #17 of Matt Kenseth. Finishing 5th, Kenseth is effectively gelling with his new crew chief Todd Parrott working in their second race together in 2010.

After 3 races in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup series season, Kevin Harvick continues to hold the lead in the early going. Last week at Auto Club Speedway, Harvick chuckled in response to the significance of leading this still infant season an told about his lead. Holding a 47 markers ahead of teammate Clint Bowyer, the #29 car's 32 position improvement in the Shelby American 400 miles race and win in Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide series round should at least keep a smile on the driver's face. A beneficial event to Hendrick Motorsports two lead teams, Johnson leapfrogs 7 positions to 5th but Jeff Gordon also surged by 9 spots in the overall points standing.



2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup
Shelby American
Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Pos # | Car # | Driver | Sponsor/Car Make

1) 48 Jimmie Johnson   Lowe's / KOBALT Tools Chevrolet
2) 29 Kevin Harvick    Pennzoil Ultra Chevrolet
3) 24 Jeff Gordon      DuPont / Pepsi Max Chevrolet
4) 5 Mark Martin      GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
5) 17 Matt Kenseth     Crown Royal Ford
6) 20 Joey Logano      Home Depot Toyota
7) 14 Tony Stewart     Old Spice / Office Depot Chevrolet
8) 33 Clint Bowyer     Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet
9) 9 Kasey Kahne      Budweiser Ford
10) 16 Greg Biffle      3M Ford
11) 31 Jeff Burton      Caterpillar Chevrolet
12) 99 Carl Edwards     Aflac / Kelloggs Ford
13) 00 David Reutimann   TUMS Toyota
14) 47 Marcos Ambrose    Kingsford / Scott Branded Products Toyota
15) 18 Kyle Busch       M&M's Toyota
16) 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet
17) 98 Paul Menard      Moen / Menards Ford 
18) 39 Ryan Newman      Tornados Chevrolet
19) 11 Denny Hamlin     FedEx Ground Toyota
20) 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Gold Filters Toyota
21) 78 Regan Smith      Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet
22) 82 Scott Speed      Red Bull Toyota
23) 6 David Ragan      UPS Ford
24) 34 Travis Kvapil    Long John Silver's Ford
25) 43 A J Allmendinger Valvoline Ford
26) 12 Brad Keselowski         Penske Dodge
27) 19 Elliott Sadler         Stanley Ford
28) 77 Sam Hornish Jr.         Mobil 1 Dodge
29) 66 Dave Blaney         PRISM Motorsports Toyota
30) 38 David Gilliland         Taco Bell Ford 
31) 83 Brian Vickers         Red Bull Toyota
32) 7 Robby Gordon         Monster Energy Toyota
33) 13 Max Papis         GEICO Toyota
34) 1 Jamie McMurray         McDonald's Chevrolet
35) 2 Kurt Busch         Miller Lite Dodge
36) 37 Kevin Conway          Extenze Ford
37) 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet
38) 71 Bobby Labonte         TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet
39) 36 Mike Bliss         Kim Kardashian Fragrance Chevrolet
40) 26 Boris Said        Southern Pride Trucking Ford
41) 87 Joe Nemechek     FrontRowJoe.com Toyota
42) 55 Michael McDowell PRISM Motorsports Toyota
43)     09 Aric Almirola    Phoenix Racing Chevrolet

Results for the 2009 Tacate SCORE Baja 1000 Off-Road Race

Treading through a 672 mile course in the Northern Baja course, the 2009 running of the SCORE off-road series' Tacate Baja 1000 proceeded into its 42th running in late November.

Overall, Class 22 contender Kendall Norman completed the scenic desert course in the quickest time on-board a Honda motorcycle. Class 22 vehicles took the top 3 finishing positions for the 2009 Baja 1000.

The Trophy Truck class win was grasped by Scott and Andy McMillian driving a Chevrolet-powered off-road vehicle. Teammate and truck owner of Andy McMillin in the event NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Robby Gordon (who became 2009 ) struggled with tire issues that knocked him from competition for the Trophy Truck win. Though Robby Gordon fell short of winning the 2009 event, completion of the Baja 1000 race provided Gordon with not only the 2009 Score Trophy Truck championship, but overall honours amongst four-wheel Score Off-Road series competitors.

As Hummer is destined to fall out of the General Motors fold, their ultimate sport utility vehicles placed strong in the Stock categories of the desert off-road challenge. A Hummer H3 Alpha driven by Rod and Chad Hall took the Full Stock class while Chad Hall, Emily Miller and Mike Winkel took a Hummer H3 to Mini Stock honours. For Rod Hall, this class victory became his 21st in the Baja 1000 event.


Photos Provided by General Motors


Class Winners of Baja 1000


Trophy Truck: ANDY MCMILLIN
Baja Challenge: NICK BALDWIN
PROTRUCK: ROB REINERTSON
Score Lite: BRENT PARKHOUSE
Stock Full: CHAD HALL
Stock Mini: JOSH HALL
Sportsman Truck: RANDY SWINK
Sportsman Buggy: RORY WARD
Sportsman Uty: REID NORDIN
SPORTSMAN MOTORCYCLE UNDER: RICARDO DE LA PENA
SPORTSMAN MOTORCYCLE OVER: BRIAN GARRAHAN
SPORTSMAN ATV: FERNANDO AMADOR
Class 1: JERRY PENHALL
Class 1/2: ERIC DURAN
Class 2: WILLIAM ERIKSEN
Class 3: DARREN SKILTON
Class 4: JEFF OFFUTT
Class 5: KEVIN CARR
Class 5 1600: MARCOS NUNEZ
Class 6: HEIDI STEELE
Class 7: DAN CHAMLEE
Class 7SX: JOHN HOLMES
Class 7-2: RICHARD CASSEY
Class 8: JUAN LOPEZ H.
Class 9: PONCHO BIO
Class 10: MIKEY LAWRENCE
Class 11: ERIC SOLARZANO
Class 17: ERIC FILAR
Class 20: JESUS RIOS
Class 21: RONNIE WILSON
Class 22: KENDALL NORMAN
Class 24: TOM WRIGHT
Class 25: WAYNE MATLOCK
Class 26: REID RUTHERFORD
Class 30: MIKE JOHNSON
Class 40: SCOTT MYERS
Class 50: JIM O'NEAL
Class 60: RICHARD JACKSON