INDIANAPOLIS - Jeff Gordon was on the fast-track to certain success at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He was a young racer living in nearby Pittsboro, destined to move out of sprints and midgets and into the open-wheel cars that could take him to the Indianapolis 500.

Then his career took a detour, and Gordon made a switch to stock cars. NASCAR didn't race at Indy, and it appeared that the kid who grew up idolizing A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr. would never get a chance on the storied track.

But The Yard of Bricks was opened to him in 1994 when Indy invited NASCAR to race in the Brickyard 400. Gordon won the inaugural race, and added titles in 1998 and 2001.

On Sunday, Gordon won another Brickyard 400 to join his three childhood heroes as the only four-time winners in Indianapolis history.

Foyt, Mears and Unser all did it in the Indy 500 and Gordon wouldn't dare place his accomplishment alongside of theirs.

"I don't compare myself to Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt, Al Unser," he said. "To me, the Indy 500 is something unique and totally different than the Brickyard 400. You know, I just will never allow those comparisons.

"I'm very proud to be a four-time winner, but I just will never allow those comparisons to really put us among equals with those Indy 500 winners."

In fact, Gordon revealed Sunday that as a child, he never dared to daydream he was one of them or wish he could someday race alongside of them.

"They were too far out there for me to even comprehend," he said. "To race at that level, and at the Speedway, that was just something I couldn't even comprehend."

Some will always place an asterisk next to Gordon's name in the Indy annals, insistent that the Brickyard is not nearly as important as the Indy 500. They will argue that stock cars are much easier to drive, that Gordon is not nearly the driver the other Indy greats are.

Maybe so.

But on Sunday, Gordon was the class of the field and the most dominant driver Indy has seen in either race in quite some time.

He led 124 of the 161 laps and pulled out to cushy leads after several restarts. He was challenged on every late restart - including the final one that led to one extra lap because a late caution flag led to NASCAR's first implementation of its new green-white-checkered flag that ensures racing at the end.

But runner-up Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler, his teammate, never really challenged Gordon and he pulled away for his fifth win of the season and the 69th of his NASCAR career.

There was a point when he thought his day was ruined.

He was racing out front on lap 142 when he hit a piece of debris on the track. It knocked a hole in Gordon's fender and damaged Matt Kenseth's car as well.

Kenseth, who was in second, forfeited the position to pit and have his tires changed out of fear they were damaged. They weren't, and it cost Kenseth the race.

"I ran over it and I thought we were done," Gordon said. "I thought it got the right front and the fender. And I looked in my mirror and it looked like Matt had gotten it, too."

Gordon had no damage and went on to cross the finish line, yelling into his radio: "Let's go kiss those bricks, yeah."

It's part of NASCAR tradition started in 1996 - the third year the race was held here - by two-time Brickyard winner Jarrett of the victorious driver and team kneeling and kissing the yard of bricks that mark the Indy finish line.

Gordon stopped his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the front straightaway, scrambled out of the car and hugged team owner Rick Hendrick, then stood staring for a long moment at what is left of the original brick track.

"That yard of bricks right there is so special and it feels so incredible to win this race," Gordon said.

A rash of flat tires caused most of the crashes and caution flags throughout the day, and the final yellow came out because Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were all running slowly and losing positions because of flats on the last two laps.

From Jason Leffler losing a tire a few laps into the race, Robby Gordon's bursting apart when he was running in third, to the final one, at least a dozen cars had their day ruined by rubber.

"The left-front went flat," said Martin, who was racing for a top 10 finish before he lost his tire on the final lap and finished 25th. "Evidently, there was some sort of a tire problem today. I know a number of people had that."

Earnhardt's crew was just as angry about their last-lap tire eruption.

Well on his way to a top-10 finish - a much-needed result after weeks of poor runs - Earnhardt ended up 27th.

"It's a hell of a heartbreak to have a tire cut down on the last lap," Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt ran a whole race for the first time since being burned in a sports car crash July 18. Junior said he is still in some pain from the burns to his legs, but was more upset about the flat tire that cost him dearly at the end.

Series leader Jimmie Johnson, coming off a victory at Pocono, had a miserable day and wound up failing to finish for only the third time this season. Johnson survived a spin after a flat tire but went out after just 88 laps with an engine failure and finished 36th.

Johnson, who came into the race with a lead of 232 points over Jeff Gordon, goes to next Watkins Glen next weekend leading by just 97. Earnhardt remained third, 240 behind.