Gordon takes crucial Lowe's victory

Gordon not only won the race but also increased his gap in the points over his Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson, who could only manage a 14th place finish after dominating the race early on, scoring the most laps in the lead as a testament of what might have been for him.

"Jimmie Johnson, I'm not sure what happened to him," said Gordon. "He had us all covered. And when I saw they had a problem, I thought that was an opportunity for us. We had an awesome race car.

"The best the car was all night was there towards the end. It was just on a rail. So, I just kept saying, 'No caution, please. No caution, no caution.'"

The four-time Nextel Cup champion looked set to cruise to victory with fifteen laps remaining until the Hendrick Motorsports-prepared engine on Jeff Green's car broke, forcing the pace car to come on track and the race to be red-flagged for nearly 15 minutes while the track surface was cleaned.

On the restart he momentarily lost fuel pressure and his teammate Kyle Busch, who was running second at the time, slowed behind him to avoid contact, allowing Ryan Newman to drive on the outside of both to take the lead. Just six laps remained to the end of the race, and victory had suddenly fallen out of reach.

But only for a while, as the Penske driver spun a lap later, bringing out the final caution.

"We blew a left rear tyre out," a disappointed Newman said. "I couldn't tell if it felt a little spongy before, but obviously the car was plenty fast. Just unfortunate. We were running away from them after Gordon's little slip up there on the restart."

On the last green flag Gordon had Bowyer on his rear bumper, but despite getting too much wheelspin off the line, he was able to pull away on the green-white-chequer finish to take his fifth victory at the scene of his maiden Cup win in 1994.

"I was having trouble with the pick up," said Gordon about his fuel pressure issue on the penultimate restart. "I was on the banking and I wasn't smart enough to go around on the apron the first time.

"And then even on that last one, on the restart, the tyres spun so bad that Clint Bowyer could have gone right by me and he gave me a big shot in the rear bumper and kind of got me going again. So it was just a great day."

Clint Bowyer continued to surprise by leading a number of laps and finishing the race in second place. He has now settled in third place in the Chase for the Championship, running only 10 points behind Johnson and 78 behind Gordon. His more experienced rivals must now consider the RCR driver as a real threat for the title.

"It was a great finish for us as far as the Chase points," said Bowyer. "I got a run on [Jeff Gordon] there at the end, he spun the tyres on that last restart, I was just thinking that was enough, but just couldn't quite get there.

"But we are after a championship and we are still in this thing. We just have to pick up our game a little bit more the rest of these races and I think we will be okay."

Chase contenders took all of the top five spots in the end with Kyle Busch finishing third ahead of Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards. However, all three are now more than 240 points behind Gordon and virtually out of the race for the title, which is narrowing to a four-man race between Gordon, Johnson, Bowyer and Tony Stewart.

The latter finished seventh today behind Dave Blaney, recovering from a crash on pit road, which sent Kasey Kahne spinning. The Evernham driver, who won this very race a year ago, crossed the finish line eighth ahead of Ganassi's David Stremme, Michael Waltrip and a recovered Ricky Rudd who made it to the chequered flag in his return after a shoulder injury.

Johnson looked set for a sixth victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway until he pitted from the lead on lap 211 under the caution flags. An adjustment to the right rear of his car meant he lost a few places in the pits and while he was trying to move up again, he spun exiting turn two, hitting the wall backwards and damaging the rear of his car.

He had moved up again and was closing on a top ten finish but was faced with the same problem as Gordon on the penultimate restart and dropped down the order to cross the finish line in 14th place, giving away a good chunk of points to Gordon in the title race.

"We didn't have a clean night tonight," said Johnson. "I made a mistake. We had mistakes through the night that keep hurting us on track position. Fortunately we had a good car I could get back through there. Then at the end there we had that problem with a vapour lock and it really hurt me from getting a good finish."

Several Chase contenders hit trouble once more. Denny Hamlin had electrical problems, which forced him to pit several times in the last few laps after he had been running in the top five. Kurt Busch made contact with Mark Martin in the pits and damaged the right front fender, requiring further visits to his pit stall.

Meanwhile Kevin Harvick pitted twice in the early laps with a tyre problem, losing two laps to the leaders from where he never recovered, ending up seven laps down.

Matt Kenseth had an eventful night also after leading early on, crashing exiting turn four on lap 158 and then became involved in two further incidents which all but ended his title hopes for this year.

Next week the Chase for the Nextel Cup moves to Martinsville, where Jimmie Johnson won a year ago and also earlier this season. It will be the penultimate race of the year with the Car of Tomorrow, which Hendrick Motorsports has had as one of their strengths throughout the season.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Jeff Gordon             Chevrolet    337
 2.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet    337
 3.  Kyle Busch              Chevrolet    337
 4.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet    337
 5.  Carl Edwards            Ford         337
 6.  Dave Blaney             Toyota       337
 7.  Tony Stewart            Chevrolet    337
 8.  Kasey Kahne             Dodge        337
 9.  David Stremme           Dodge        337
10.  Michael Waltrip         Toyota       337
11.  Ricky Rudd              Ford         337
12.  Bobby Labonte           Dodge        337
13.  J.J. Yeley              Chevrolet    337
14.  Jimmie Johnson          Chevrolet    337
15.  A.J. Allmendinger       Toyota       337
16.  Mark Martin             Chevrolet    337
17.  Martin Truex Jr         Chevrolet    337
18.  Kyle Petty              Dodge        337
19.  Dale Earnhardt Jr       Chevrolet    337
20.  Denny Hamlin            Chevrolet    337
21.  Casey Mears             Chevrolet    336
22.  Paul Menard             Chevrolet    336
23.  Johnny Sauter           Chevrolet    336
24.  Jamie McMurray          Ford         336
25.  David Gilliland         Ford         335
26.  Kurt Busch              Dodge        335
27.  Greg Biffle             Ford         334
28.  Ryan Newman             Dodge        334
29.  David Reutimann         Toyota       333
30.  Reed Sorenson           Dodge        333
31.  Tony Raines             Chevrolet    331
32.  Jeff Green              Chevrolet    330
33.  Kevin Harvick           Chevrolet    330
34.  Matt Kenseth            Ford         283
35.  Bill Elliott            Ford         282
36.  Scott Riggs             Dodge        279
37.  Juan Montoya            Dodge        274
38.  Robby Gordon            Ford         270
39.  Jeremy Mayfield         Toyota       254
40.  David Ragan             Ford         231
41.  Elliott Sadler          Dodge        228
42.  John Andretti           Dodge        207
43.  Ward Burton             Chevrolet     84
43.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet     91

Chase For The Cup - Points Standing:

Pos  Driver              Change  Points
 1.  Jeff Gordon                  5880
 2.  Jimmie Johnson               5812  + 68
 3.  Clint Bowyer                 5802  + 78
 4.  Tony Stewart                 5682  +198
 5.  Carl Edwards          +1     5640  +240
 6.  Kyle Busch            +2     5600  +280
 7.  Kurt Busch                   5565  +315
 8.  Kevin Harvick         -3     5552  +328
 9.  Denny Hamlin                 5531  +349
10.  Jeff Burton           +2     5514  +366
11.  Martin Truex Jr.      -1     5502  +378
12.  Matt Kenseth          -1     5438  +442