Gordon earns historic win at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa.

Jeff Gordon is a big-picture kind of driver. So while he was thrilled to return to Victory Lane in winning Sunday's 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway, his thoughts were also on the larger impact of the race.

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Gordon's victory is the 84th Cup win of his career, which ties him for third with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip on the all-time list, and his fifth win at Pocono. It was his 89th victory overall in NASCAR national series competition.

"I really can't even express in words what it means to tie Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison at 84 wins because I just never thought it would ever happen for me, or really when I got in this sport for anybody to win that many races is amazing," Gordon said.

But with the victory, Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports' team may have locked themselves into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Gordon is not inside the top 10 in the standings which is guaranteed a spot, but he now has a pair of wins. And that may be enough for one of the two wild-card spots that will go to race winners between the 10th and 20th position in the standings.

"Our focus has to be the same thing all the time, and that's just trying to win races," he said. "If you can't win the race, get the absolute best finish you can to try to lock ourselves in.
I'm just more excited about the momentum that's coming for us and getting into that stride at this point in the season. The conversations that (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) and I have had prior to the season, as the season has unfolded here, and starting to see those conversations come to fruition, I'm just excited about that because the things that we've talked about and believe in with one another are starting to come true."

Penske Racing's Kurt Busch started from the pole position and led laps throughout the race, but in the end could not get into position to battle Gordon for the final lead. Busch led 37 laps in the race compared to 39 for Gordon.

"It's pleasing to see that result," Busch said. "I'm exhausted. It was a great, hard-fought battle with Jeff Gordon at the end. 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 24 (of Gordon) beat us out of the pits. It was a great battle.

"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. He ran strong. It was a very genuine battle that we had."

Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch finished third, but failed postrace inspection and his car was taken to the NASCAR research and development center. Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick fifth.

While rain threatened throughout the race, it never hampered the outing. It might have put more pressure on drivers to stay at or near the front, but never halted the action. Instead, it was fuel mileage that was on teams minds as the laps wound down.

It was a race where many of the top performers endured some hard breaks. Denny Hamlin had a flat tire, then a tire rub from the damage. Greg Biffle spun, but managed not to hit anything. Jeff Burton limped down pit road at one point. Jamie McMurray had a transmission issue. And points leader Carl Edwards suffered a huge setback when he endured an engine failure during the race, sidelining him early in the race.

Edwards maintained the points lead with a six-point edge over Johnson.