Gordon ends winless streak at Texas

The four-time Sprint Cup champion held off a late attack from team-mate Jimmie Johnson after emerging in the lead from the last round of pitstops. Carl Edwards had been up front before that but he hit trouble while getting four new tyres bolted to his car, losing any chance of victory.

Gordon first led the race in the early laps after starting from the front row, but he struggled with a very loose car and could only remain in the top five. During the third caution of the day, he stayed out while the leaders pitted and got back into contention for the win.

A perfectly executed last stop allowed him to grab the lead after entering the pits in third place behind Edwards and Tony Stewart. Johnson quickly got by Stewart following the restart with 26 laps remaining. Traffic for Gordon allowed Johnson to eat into his lead, but not enough to prevent him from taking his first win of the season and his first at Texas.

"I'm so thrilled to finally win here at Texas," Gordon said. "The car was amazing all day and we kept in the top-five. (Crew chief) Steve Letarte and the team did a great job making adjustments and brought the car to life there towards the end, plus we had a great pitstop to put us up front.

"We were just flying and I see my team-mate coming and I was like 'where's he been all day?' and here he comes and honestly I thought he was going to get me and probably in another five laps we would've. We really tuned it up for that short run and I got out there and run."

Johnson only led one lap all afternoon although he was always around the top 10. He only became a threat for victory in the last third of the race after getting the right balance on his car, and was visibly disappointed not to get a second win in a row.

However, his second place finish has brought him up in the standings to second place, behind Gordon.

"I was coming," Johnson said. "Five more (laps) and I would've had a shot at him. We were both driving as hard as we could. It was good to get our car at the front and get some clean air on it.

"We had to work really hard to get our car right and I'm so very proud of the team. It was a great race altogether and I'm very happy for Jeff. Now he's got a victory and he's going to be tough this year, awfully tough."

Greg Biffle was the fastest car in the closing laps of the race and one of three Roush Fenway drivers who looked capable of winning at some point. He led 93 laps, only 12 less than Gordon, but problems during pitstops were the common denominator for him and his team-mates, as Edwards and Matt Kenseth also lost any chance of victory in the pits.

Tony Stewart continued to impress with his newly-formed squad and claimed yet another top five finish, also leading the race for 16 laps. However his pace in the short runs didn't allow him to be in contention in the final part of the race.

"We were really good in the long runs but we weren't very good in taking off," Stewart said after finishing fourth and moving up to fifth in the championship. "After about 25 laps we were the fastest car on the racetrack all day. But we just lacked in the short runs."

Kenseth was fifth ahead of veteran Mark Martin, while Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his best result of the season with a seventh place finish, having run consistently in the top 10 all race-long. Kurt Busch was eighth behind him, while Jeff Burton and a disappointed Edwards rounded out the top 10.

Polesitter David Reutimann finished 11th after a great recovery from being a lap down due to a pit-road penalty that he had to serve under green-flag conditions.

Denny Hamlin was a silent 12th, while his team-mate Kyle Busch had yet another bad weekend when he got a cut tyre early on and dropped a lap down.

Clint Bowyer, who was second in the championship heading into Texas, struggled for balance throughout the race and could only manage 22nd place, finishing a lap down and dropping to fourth in the standings.

Pos Driver                 Car            Laps
 1. Jeff Gordon            Chevrolet       334
 2. Jimmie Johnson         Chevrolet       334
 3. Greg Biffle            Ford            334
 4. Tony Stewart           Chevrolet       334
 5. Matt Kenseth           Ford            334
 6. Mark Martin            Chevrolet       334
 7. Juan Pablo Montoya     Chevrolet       334
 8. Kurt Busch             Dodge           334
 9. Jeff Burton            Chevrolet       334
10. Carl Edwards           Ford            334
11. David Reutimann        Toyota          334
12. Denny Hamlin           Toyota          334
13. Paul Menard            Ford            334
14. David Stremme          Dodge           334
15. Ryan Newman            Chevrolet       334
16. Brian Vickers          Toyota          334
17. Sam Hornish Jr         Dodge           334
18. Kyle Busch             Toyota          333
19. Kasey Kahne            Dodge           333
20. Dale Earnhardt Jr      Chevrolet       333
21. Casey Mears            Chevrolet       333
22. Clint Bowyer           Chevrolet       333
23. Brad Keselowski        Chevrolet       332
24. Michael Waltrip        Toyota          332
25. Martin Truex Jr        Chevrolet       332
26. John Andretti          Chevrolet       332
27. Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet       331
28. Bill Elliott           Ford            331
29. David Gilliland        Chevrolet       330
30. Joey Logano            Toyota          330
31. Regan Smith            Chevrolet       330
32. Elliott Sadler         Dodge           329
33. Aric Almirola          Chevrolet       328
34. A.J. Allmendinger      Dodge           328
35. Max Papis              Toyota          326
36. Reed Sorenson          Dodge           315
37. David Ragan            Ford            293
38. Jamie McMurray         Ford            255
39. Robby Gordon           Toyota          249
40. Bobby Labonte          Ford            229
41. Marcos Ambrose         Toyota          216
42. Mike Bliss             Dodge            76
43. Dave Blaney            Toyota           48