LONG POND, Pa. — With dark clouds looming at Pocono Raceway, so was a crucial decision for Jeff Gordon's crew chief, Steve Letarte.

Gordon's No. 24 was running out in front when Letarte called the car into the pits for an early service call. Gordon relinquished the lead on the stop, but Letarte figured his driver would cycle back to the front after everyone else made their scheduled stops.

The gamble worked and Gordon was soon back in a soggy Victory Lane.

"I guess it was incredibly stupid," Letarte said. "Sometimes stupid works."

Gordon held off a Ryan Newman in the rain to win the abbreviated Pocono 500 Sunday night and to give the points leader his fourth win this season.

"Steve made that great call," Gordon said. "Everybody had that same opportunity to make that same call. We were lucky, fortunate, whatever you want to call it, the rain came when it did."

Letarte assumed it would start raining while Gordon was leading. It was a gamble, because an earlier pit stop had put Gordon off sequence with the rest of the field. If it didn't rain quickly, he'd have to pit much earlier than everyone else and would fall deep into the field after the stop.

But if it did rain in that short window, they'd be out front and inherit the win when the race was called.

"Once we got in front, I think we showed what we had," Gordon said.

The race was red flagged after 106 laps of the scheduled 200-lap, 500-mile race with darkness and rain falling. The cars went back to pit road and waited about 35 minutes for NASCAR to call the event, handing point-leader Gordon his fourth win at Pocono and first since 1998.

It all played out perfectly, as the sky opened seconds before Newman closed in on Gordon and NASCAR stopped the race.

"Steve made a gutsy, great call based on looking at the radar," Gordon said.

Hendrick Motorsports recorded its 10th win in the last 12 Nextel Cup races.

"A lot of what people see is luck," Letarte said. "Today with the weather, it was a lot of luck."

Newman's late charge put him second, extending his miserable run of having no wins to show for all his poles. The race pole sitter seemed poised to catch Gordon right before the caution came out and instead stretched his winless drought to 59 races.

Newman has eight poles — including four this year — since his last win in September 2005. He finished second last week at Dover.

"I'm not mad by any means," Newman said. "I won my first race because it rained out and got too dark. I guess it's only right I lose one that way at some point."

After last week's race at Dover was pushed back a day because of rain, drivers had this one delayed three hours.

The Pocono 500 became a race to the 101st lap to make it official, leading to some hard and frantic racing early on a track more known for some leisurely stretches in the first half.

Martin Truex Jr. was third and Casey Mears fourth in the first Nextel Cup race since former NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. died on Monday. A moment of silence was held before the green flag dropped and a prayer was said at the end of the driver's meeting to "remember the France family and continue to comfort them."