JEFF GORDON SNAPS WINLESS STREAK WITH NASCAR VICTORY AT TEXAS

There was a time when Jeff Gordon not winning a NASCAR race on a given Sunday was a newsworthy event.  He’s still a long way from his dominant runs of the late 1990’s with former crew chief Ray Evernham, but he’s back in the winner’s circle following a victory at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.  The victory was the first in 47 races for ‘The Rainbow Warrior’, snapping a career high winless streak.

Gordon won the Samsung 500 by .542 seconds over teammate Jimmie Johnson to put the #24 DuPont Chevy on Victory Road.  It was Gordon’s 82^nd career NASCAR victory which puts him among some impressive company on the sport’s all time win list—Gordon is currently sixth, one victory behind Cale Yarborough for fifth place and two wins behind a couple more legitimate legends in Bobby Allison and Darryl Waltrip who are tied for third place.  After that he’s got a ways to go to catch second place David Pearson—the ‘Silver Fox’ has 105 career NASCAR victories.  And he might as well forget about ever threatening Richard Petty for first place:  “The King” posted 200 career victories in what may be the most untouchable record in all of professional sports. 

Making Gordon’s win more significant is that Texas is one of only two tracks where he’s never won a race (Homestead, Florida is the other).  Gordon has also finished dead last on two occasions at Texas—the only times in his 552 career races that he’s suffered this ignominious fate.  In his postrace comments, Gordon sounded more pleased by the fact that he’d finally tamed Texas than he was about ending his winless streak:

"It was the coolest. It was like winning for the very first time. Things have changed since I won a race ... That's the first time I've ever carried a checkered flag in NASCAR. I used to do that in quarter-midgets when I was 8. This is a huge relief, but also very exciting. If we can win at Texas, I feel like we can win anywhere."

"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. 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."

A humorous moment came during Gordon’s postrace victory interview on FOX TV—he had to look at his car a couple of times during his speech to remember all of the sponsors he needed to thank.  Gordon at one point was so used to winning races that he could reel off his sponsor ‘thank yous’ in his sleep but at this point he needed to use his #24 Chevy as something of a ‘Teleprompter’. 

Greg Biffle was third, Tony Stewart fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth.  Also worth of mention is Juan Pablo Montoya, who finished seventh.  Montoya has quietly matured into a solid NASCAR driver after some rough spots in his first couple of years behind the wheel of a stock car.  The ascendance of the Columbian born driver who has raced in Formula 1 and won an Indy 500 further underscores NASCAR’s status as a truly international sport.

Despite this being his first win of the year, Gordon’s #24 team has been running well this season and currently leads the overall Sprint Cup standings.  Defending series champion Jimmie Johnson is in second followed by Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart.

NASCAR will take Easter weekend off before heading to Phoenix for a race on Saturday, April 18.  They’ll then head back down south for three straight races on tracks that Gordon knows well—they’ll run on the superspeedway at Talladega, Alabama on April 26, head to the short track at Richmond, Virginia on May 2^nd, and then head to ‘the track too tough to tame’, better known as the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina on May 9^th.