Winless skid over at 47
FORT WORTH, Texas That Texas-sized drought ended for Jeff Gordon in the most unexpected place.
After 47 races without a NASCAR Sprint Cup victory, the longest winless span in the four-time champion's career, Gordon finally found Victory Lane at one of the two active tracks where he had never won.
"This is probably the best place we possibly could have won, because it's eluded us for so long," Gordon said. "To break the streak not only here at Texas, but over the last 40-whatever races, it's pretty cool. ... I'm telling you, at Texas, I'm just lost."
Until Sunday, when he held off Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the Samsung 500 on the 1Z\x-mile, high-banked track.
Not only was it Gordon's first victory in the Lone Star State, it was the first time he had won anywhere in the No. 24 Chevrolet since October 2007 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte.
"I thought he was past his prime," third-place finisher Greg Biffle said with a smile. "I'm just kidding. No, there was never a doubt in my mind whether Jeff Gordon would win races again. The guy's a phenomenal driver."
Still, it took Gordon 17 tries to finally win at Texas, site of the only two last-place finishes in his 552 career starts. And one of those was last spring.
"This is a huge relief, but also very exciting," Gordon said. "If we can win at Texas, I feel like we can win anywhere."
The only remaining track Gordon hasn't won at is Homestead. He will have to wait until the season finale in November for a chance to change that.
Carl Edwards, going for his third straight Texas victory, was leading and Gordon was in third when the final caution came out because David Stremme spun coming out of the third turn with 30 laps to go in the 334-lap race.
But Edwards' crew had problems changing tires and he dropped 10 spots to 11th coming off pit row. Gordon had a flawless stop, restarted first and stayed there the rest of the race.
"They don't yell at me when I hit the wall so it is not my position to be mad at them," Edwards said. "We just have to do whatever we can to fix it."
Gordon held on by 0.542 seconds over Johnson, who took two of his Sprint Cup season championships while Gordon, the owner of Johnson's No. 48 car, couldn't even win a race.
It was Gordon's 82nd career victory, one behind Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time list. Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip are tied for third on that list with 84 victories.
