Gordon moves past Earnhardt into 6th place
As beer cans bounced around his car, Jeff Gordon crossed the finish line Sunday for win No. 77 – breaking a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt on NASCAR’s career victory list.
It was only fitting that it happened at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, where Earnhardt – who would have been 56 on Sunday – won 10 times in his Cup career.
But it was anticlimactic and confusing, ending under caution to leave Gordon unsure if he’d actually won and taken over sixth place on the wins list.
“Is it over?” he radioed his crew. “Is it over? Is it official?”
Nobody knew after two separate accidents on the first lap of a two-lap shootout to the finish froze the field and had NASCAR scrambling to make sense of the finish.
As the beer cans rained down on his car, Gordon cut short his on-track celebration and drove to Victory Lane.
“I never caused a riot before for winning – well, maybe once or twice,” Gordon said. “I thought Junior had more power. I thought they’d throw toilet paper, which is what he asked them to throw. I saw maybe one roll.”
Jimmie Johnson, Gordon’s teammate, finished second as Hendrick Motorsports cars continued their season-long domination. Hendrick drivers have won six of the first nine races.
Kurt Busch was third, David Gilliland fourth and Jamie McMurray finished fifth.
Indy Racing League
Dan Wheldon, a close runner-up in his two previous races at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, made this one a rare yawner.
Wheldon was 10 seconds ahead of Dario Franchitti late in the Kansas Lottery Indy 300, won under caution when Scott Sharp crashed with two laps to go.
It was Wheldon’s second victory in four races this year, along with the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the 13th of his career.
Milka Duno, whose debut made the race the first North American open-wheel series event with three women in the field, stayed out of trouble all day and finished 14th. Sarah Fisher was 12th.
Wheldon led 111 laps in each of his previous two races in Kansas City, but lost by 0.012 seconds to Tony Kanaan in 2005 and 0.0793 seconds to Sam Hornish Jr. last year. This time, he led 177 of 200 laps on the 1.5 mile tri-oval.
Dario Franchitti was second, followed by Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tomas Scheckter, Sam Hornish Jr., Danica Patrick, Vitor Meira, A.J. Foyt IV and Jeff Simmons.