Jeff Gordon Breaks Winless Streak at Phoenix

Racin’ with Russ -

It took Jeff Gordon 66 races to get back in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Victory Lane and what better place to do so than the final outing at the current Phoenix International Raceway layout on Sunday afternoon.

The tricky one-mile track is about to get a radical transformation with a different final turn and progressive banking, so there may be an asterisk next to Gordon’s name as the final winner with the current configuration.

The latest win is the four-time champs 83rd, tying Cale Yarborough on the overall win chart.

The race began with Carl Edwards breaking his own track record in a very strong Ford Fusion race car. Kurt Busch led for a while as did his brother Kyle, but it was Edwards taking over the point until the first caution flag.

Emerging mid-pack because of some teams taking on less than four tires, Edwards ran a foul of a loosely wild Kyle Busch as he sideswiped the Subway Ford onto the curbing and into Gordon and the outside wall. Gordon managed to make minor repairs, yet Edwards’ crew needed more than 50 laps to repair the car to return to the track.

A couple of laps past the lap 66 incident saw the largest wreck of the day kicked off by a tangle between Matt Kenseth and Brian Vickers, sidelining no less than 13 cars.

Some of the strong runners involved were Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Jeff Burton and Bobby Labonte.

Several drivers took turns out front including Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer, but it wasn’t difficult to see Gordon had a stout Hendrick Chevy for the rest of the field to deal with.

On the final restart, Kyle Busch bolted out ahead of leader Stewart until Gordon hunted down the Toyota of Busch and took the lead with eight laps remaining and went on to claim the checkers.

Kyle Busch, Johnson, Harvick and Ryan Newman made up the top-five finishers.

Kyle Busch now sits atop the Cup points with his brother Kurt not far behind.

Last week's Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne had a tough weekend. First, he wrecked in practice due to a brake problem, then crashed out of the main event on Sunday by lap 50, netting a 40th place finish.

Nationwide - Busch, Busch and more Busch would suffice the report on this boring race. Kyle Busch led all 200 laps with only Carl Edwards mounting any kind of challenge late in the go.

The rest of the field was more than 10 seconds back all race long.

I often think the car can’t be legal and agree with Clint Bowyer’s comment from a while ago, saying, “A monkey could drive that car!”

Whether it’s monkeys, people or aliens wheeling that No. 18 Toyota, the car is a winner and wheeled most of the time by Kyle with amazing results.

Rounding out the top five included Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Reed Sorensen. Danica Patrick wound up 17th, some three laps down.

Current points leader is now Sorensen followed by Ricky Stenhouse and Jason Leffler.

Camping World Trucks - Clint Bowyer led the opening segment until Kyle Busch took over the top spot for the remainder of the Phoenix race.

There were several wrecks and restarts, but each time, Busch pulled away like he had an extra 30 hp with only Bowyer in the same speed neighborhood.

Crossing the line behind Busch were the trucks of Bowyer, Ron Hornaday Jr., Johnny Sauter and Austin Dillon.

Matt Crafton heads the points with Clay Rogers and newbee Clay Whitt among the top three.

From Rumorville - Tony Stewart in F-1? Well, not exactly, but he will be swapping rides for a day with F-1 champion Lewis Hamilton as the two check out each others normal rides at Watkins Glen later this summer.

-Look for veteran race Ken Schrader to wheel the Frank Stoddard No. 32 Ford Cup car at least twice later this season, probably Martinsville and Bristol.

-The Indy Car Series is making a $5 million offer to any non-Indy regular to win the last race on the schedule in Las Vegas. Possible candidates to entertain this idea are Juan Montoya, Tony Stewart, Scott Speed, Robby Gordon, A.J. Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr.

Hornish has the best shot as a past Indy 500 winner and Indy champion with Penske connections.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the NASCAR action from Las Vegas along with more racing news from around the globe.