Notebook: Gordon still leads standings

"It was a pretty long day on the racetrack for the DuPont Chevrolet," Gordon said. "I don't know what happened. We were up there and we came in one time and things weren't really going our way. It was one of those days where nothing really went our day, but it wasn't an awful day either.

"We had a pretty good car, but we had a couple sets of tyres that just didn't match-up. I've had very good sets all year; they've been extremely consistent. But today, it was unusual. I don't know what was going on there. But I sure do hope we get it figured out. We fought back, but it just wasn't a real good day for us. It wasn't a good day for Ricky Rudd either. So points-wise, it was a good day for us. But that's not the way we want to do it. We want to battle up at the front."


Kevin Harvick finished eighth in Sunday's race as the highest-finishing rookie. He continues to lead the Raybestos Rookie of the Year point's standings with a 67-point lead over Kurt Busch.

"It was really not that good of a day," Harvick said. "The transmission broke. All we had was third and fourth gear, and we got caught under the green once in the pits and got down a lap. For the most part, we were fighting back all day. But we had an awesome car on long runs. After about 20 laps, it would come in real good.


Ricky Rudd had to overcome a pit-road collision with Rusty Wallace early in the race and that set him back to 21st place as he continues to lose ground to Jeff Gordon in the standings.

"We beat our fenders up on pit road," Rudd said. "Right at the start of the race, at that first pit stop, we pulled out of the pits and the 92 (Stacy Compton) car runs into the side of us and drives us into the side of Rusty. That knocked the aerodynamics out of the car and we fought it all day.

Wallace's Ford also suffered damage, but he was able to regroup and finish seventh.

"It was the craziest thing in the world," Wallace said. "We had a pit stop, a normal pit stop. It was real loose at the beginning of the race, but we kept adjusting on it. I left pit road and as I left pit road, Ricky Rudd comes pulling out and, it wasn't his fault, but we just collided on pit road. I couldn't believe it.

"I said, 'Man, not us two again.' He didn't do anything wrong and I didn't do anything wrong, but it got us a lap down. That blew the left-front tyre out and I didn't know it. All of a sudden, I had the wheel cocked to the right and I said, 'Man, I've got the toe-in screwed up,' so we started messing with that and finally got it all right from the impact on pit road. We took off, got the lap back and came from 39th back up to fifth. I thought I was gonna go from fifth to third, but it didn't happen. We finished seventh and gained some points."