Kansas race: Gordon storms to win

A final yellow period left the field with a five-lap dash to the finish under green and Gordon managed to fend off challenges from both Ryan Newman and championship rival Ricky Rudd to take the win. Newman got the better of Rudd to take second while the latter had to settle for third.

"I was concerned because Ricky [Rudd] was in clean air towards the end," said Gordon. "It was a heck of a good race and we had some fun out there. At the last restart I didn't know what was going to happen. My car was really good and I'm really happy we did what we did. The car just got better and better as the race went on."

The 400-mile race had a total of 13 yellow flag periods, the most serious of which came just over 20 laps from the end when Dale Jarrett hit the wall and was knocked unconscious after tangling with reigning champion Bobby Labonte. The former Winston Cup Champion was on his feet after the accident, but nevertheless was taken to the Kansas University Medical Centre as a precaution.

Gordon was an ever-present threat at the front of the field throughout the race. The Hendricks Motorsports ace kept his Chevrolet in the thick of it, battling with the likes of Rudd, Jerry Nadeau (12th) and Rusty Wallace.

Wallace could have been a major to threat to Gordon had he not been handed a stop-and-go penalty for exiting the pit lane too fast with just under 50 laps to go. The Robert Yates Racing man, who lies eighth in the standings, dropped from the lead down to 15th. But he was not to be beaten and put in a storming drive to carve his way back up the field to an impressive fourth by the flag.

"When you lead all day long, you're just waiting for something to go wrong," Wallace said afterwards. "It's just too bad. I'm sure I could have won it. What a fast car I had - it was a killer."

Tyres were a definite factor in the latter stages of the inaugural race at the all-new Kansas tri-oval. Two right front failures within the space of 13 laps ended the hopes of Dale Earnhardt Jr and Matt Kenseth. Dale Jr was the first to suffer on lap number 235 when the right front on his Chevrolet blew on the entrance to Turn 2 when he was running fifth, putting the 26-year-old into the wall.

"We blew a right front tyre," said Earnhardt Jr. "I told the guys I had a vibration, but I still had half a lap to get round. We had a top five going here and this is going to beat us up in the points."

With Newman getting ahead of Rudd just two laps from the flag, Gordon's points total now stands at 4108 giving him a lead of 222 with seven rounds still to run.

For full Kansas results, click here.