Gordon takes historic Phoenix win

Nextel Cup points leader Jeff Gordon took his first victory of the season and his maiden Cup win at Phoenix today in the Subway Fresh Fit 500, also tying legend Dale Earnhardt for career victories.

Gordon, who had started from pole position for the fourth time this year, was lucky to have the fifth caution come out just before all the front runners were about to pit for the last time.

Dave Blaney, JJ Yeley and Martin Truex Jr were involved in an incident at Turn 1 with 27 laps to go, when Gordon was entering the pit-road already after running second. This allowed him to take the lead from Tony Stewart when the leaders pitted under caution.

However he struggled to lap Truex Jr a few laps later, allowing Stewart to close in and put him under attack.

The Joe Gibbs driver squeezed in the middle of the No. 24 and No. 1 cars out of Turn 4 to retake the lead, although just a lap later Gordon put things back in order and pulled away to secure his first victory at the Arizona venue.

The four-time Cup champion became the first driver to win from pole position at the track. It also reduces to two the number of active tracks where Gordon has not had a victory - Texas and Miami Homestead speedway.

"I can't believe we won this one," Gordon said. "We had a good pitstop to get out first and then stay with those guys. I love racing with Tony, it's a lot of fun out there. We race hard but we race really good clean. That's the way I wanted my 76th victory to come out."

Gordon remained win-less for nearly nine months - his last victory dating back to July last year, when he won at Chicagoland. The wait was worth it, however, as he has now equalled NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt for career victories with 76 to his name so far.

On his victory celebration lap, Gordon displayed a big flag out of his window waving the emblematic white number 3, which the late Earnhardt made so popular. Dale Earnhardt Jr went afterwards to victory lane to thank Gordon for his gesture.

"We've been holding on to that flag for a long time because we wanted to honour Dale," an emotional Gordon added. "To finally accomplish 76 wins and tie him is pretty overwhelming and something I never dreamed I would do with my career."

Gordon's victory also marks total domination by Hendrick Motorsports with their Car of Tomorrow, as Kyle Busch won the first race with the new car at Bristol, followed by Jimmie Johnson's victory at Martinsville.

Stewart came second, having his mirrors filled with teammate Denny Hamlin in the closing laps. The young driver from Virginia recovered successfully from a penalty he picked up by speeding in the pitlane on lap 99 after leading the race for 72 laps.

Between the Gibbs pair, they led 204 out of the 312 laps of the race, but again just fell short of taking victory.

Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth rounded up the top five while Jeff Burton, who remains second in the title standings, could only manage a 13th place finish. He is now 74 points behind Gordon.

Juan Pablo Montoya had his worst result of the year, battling all night with a difficult car. He also had contact with Paul Menard during a restart and then brushed the wall with 17 laps to go, finishing the race in 33rd place.

"It started pretty decent," Montoya said. "We were not fast enough, but we were not that bad. It just got worse as the night went on.

"You tried to improve one thing, and the other thing gets worse and so on, so there's a little bit of a vicious circle. You fix, it gets worse, it gets better, it gets worse, and it gets better. It's just terrible."

Paul Menard was the best placed rookie, finishing the race in 25th place.

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   312
 2.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   312
 3.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   312
 4.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   312
 5.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        312
 6.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   312
 7.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   312
 8.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       312
 9.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   312
10.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   312
11.  Carl Edwards        Ford        312
12.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   312
13.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   312
14.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   312
15.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       312
16.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   312
17.  Greg Biffle         Ford        312
18.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       312
19.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   312
20.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   311
21.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   311
22.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   311
23.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        310
24.  Robby Gordon        Ford        310
25.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   310
26.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        310
27.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   309
28.  Ken Schrader        Ford        309
29.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      309
30.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       309
31.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       309
32.  David Reutimann     Toyota      309
33.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       309
34.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       308
35.  David Gilliland     Ford        308
36.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet   305
37.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   303
38.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       301
39.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      281
40.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet   279
41.  David Ragan         Ford        264
42.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       250
43.  David Stremme       Dodge       248