Gordon wins on fumes

Gordon won for the third time at the eight-year-old California Speedway - he is the only driver to have won here more than once - having claimed a controversial trophy last week at Talladega. This is the 66th victory of his career, 10 behind Dale Earnhardt for sixth place on the all-time list. He led 81 of the 250 laps.

Gordon battled by Kasey Kahne for the lead on lap 191 and held it through the final round of green-flag stops. The final fuel stops left teams with between 50 and 55 laps to go - right on the edge of fuel capacity.

Gordon then built as much as a 3.2sec lead as Kahne faded. Labonte, meanwhile, moved steadily through the top 10, taking third place from Jimmie Johnson on Lap 215 and second place from Kahne on 221. With 20 laps to go, Gordon still held a 2.6sec lead.

However, Gordon struggled on his final set of tyres, with the back end trying to slide. On Lap 246, he slipped high in Turn 2, and Labonte cut the lead to a second or less. However, on the last lap, Labonte suddenly slowed on the backstretch, out of gas, and Gordon could breathe easy to the finish line. Johnson finished a distant second, with Ryan Newman third, Matt Kenseth fourth and Labonte rolling to fifth.

"The car got really, really loose," Gordon said. "I saw Kasey on me every once in a while if I got sideways down in [Turns] 1 and 2, then I saw the 18 car. I was just pushing as hard as I could, but I definitely had my hands full there.

"Seemed like the track changed. It looked like a lot of guys were really struggling there at the end holding onto the cars. Everybody was real loose. I saw Bobby coming fast. It was going to be really close. Then about the time we took the white flag, they said Bobby was out of gas. It was a huge relief. It allowed me to go conservative on that last lap just to keep the car from coming around on me."

Several drivers suffered because of the heat, with air temperature at race time 97deg. A cold-water pack in Kahne's uniform burst, soaking him and his seat with water, which quickly heated. "Our ice pack broke and I kind of started boiling," Kahne said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had a bad day all around and finished a lap down in 19th, was dehydrated and exhausted and had to be taken to rest. Brendan Gaughan suffered burns from heat coming through his seat, but nevertheless finished sixth, his best of the season.