Gordon wins again at Talladega

Gordon had started from pole and ran a trouble-free race, leading the most laps to claim his 77th career victory and break the tie with the late Dale Earnhardt after equalling his tally of wins last weekend at Phoenix. He now has the sixth greatest number of wins in NASCAR history.

With the stands full of Earnhardt fans as usual at Talladega, and despite Gordon's tribute to the late 'intimidator' at Phoenix, cans of beer started to be thrown on the track from the stands, some nearly hitting the No. 24 car on its victory celebration lap.

"I know there's a lot of fans out there that probably didn't want us to win this race today," said Gordon.

"But nobody had more respect for Dale Earnhardt than I did and everything that I learned from him I applied out there on the race track today."

Before the penultimate caution period of the race, Gordon was running outside the top ten. But he was able to work his way up at the right time working with teammate Jimmie Johnson.

It was Johnson who actually started the action with 10 laps to go as nobody else ventured to break the single line that queued behind Denny Hamlin as everybody tried to save fuel. Before that the pack had been drafting two and three wide for most of the first three quarters of the distance.

As the order changed by the lap in the closing laps with everybody trying to get to the front, a caution came out with four laps to go when the Toyota engine on David Reutimann's car failed. Gordon was in the lead at the time - and this proved critical when the expected green-white-chequered finish was disrupted by further incidents.

When the green flag waved two separate crashes unfolded, one of them at the front of the field involving Tony Stewart, who was put in the wall by David Gilliland after the latter made contact with Jamie McMurray.

Behind them another crash took place involving Johnny Sauter, Elliot Sadler and Greg Biffle.

Stewart climbed out of his car and when the field went through the next lap, he went to gesture to McMurray, who had been running in the middle of him and Gilliland and apparently got squeezed by the Yates driver, causing the crash.

All this forced officials to finish the race under caution, giving Gordon his fifth victory at Talladega, which ties him for most wins at the track between the active drivers with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kurt Busch, McMurray and local favorite Earnhardt Jr. completed the top, all of them leading the race at some stage, while Hamlin, who led 42 laps, could only manage 23rd after a late pit stop for fuel.

The Hendrick cars looked again the class of the field as all of them led the race at some point. However, two were involved in an incident when Johnson was caught by surprise by a slowing-down Casey Mears, who was about to pit on lap 126.

Mears tried to wave his hand to alert Johnson that he was going to slow and pit, but the reigning champion didn't see the gesture and tapped his rear end, sending his car into a spin which ended in a huge impact with the inside wall.

The other Hendrick car of Kyle Busch took the worst part of the biggest incident of the afternoon on lap 130. Ricky Rudd bounced from the wall after being squeezed on the backstretch, and caused a chain reaction which sent Joe Nemechek and Busch to the inside wall. Also involved in the wreck was Jeff Burton.

Juan Pablo Montoya was enjoying a good run until he was hit by a suspected suspension failure. With 26 laps to go he was running ninth behind Daytona winner Kevin Harvick but when he went into Turn 1, his car went high on the track and into the wall.

He then crashed into the pit wall when he pitted for repairs and his crew found a broken rotor amongst other damages. He lost five laps having his car fixed, losing the chance of a good result.

"Something broke in the steering, in the suspension, and it went straight into the wall," Montoya said. "I thought we ran pretty good. I thought we had a good car. I think we had at least a top-10 car but you know how Talladega is. It was exciting."

With today's result, Gordon is now 203 points clear of Burton in the driver standings. Matt Kenseth is third, only five points ahead of Johnson.

Pos  Driver              Make       Laps
 1.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  191
 2.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  191
 3.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      191
 4.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  191
 5.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       191
 6.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      191
 7.  David Gilliland     Ford       191
 8.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet  191
 9.  David Stremme       Dodge      191
10.  Martin Truex Jr.    Chevrolet  191
11.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      191
12.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      191
13.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  191
14.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       191
15.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge      191
16.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet  191
17.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      191
18.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  191
19.  David Ragan         Ford       191
20.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      191
21.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  191
22.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  191
23.  Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota     191
24.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      191
25.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  191
26.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet  191
27.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  190
28.  Greg Biffle         Ford       190
29.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet  190
30.  Boris Said          Ford       190
31.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      186
32.  David Reutimann     Toyota     184
33.  Ricky Rudd          Ford       155
34.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  150
35.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  146
36.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet  144
37.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  130
38.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  130
39.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  124
40.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota     38
41.  Robby Gordon        Ford       33
42.  Carl Edwards        Ford       27
43.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet  22