Jeff Gordon Wins Samsung 500

Fort Worth, Texas was just the remedy Jeff Gordon needed to put him back in the winners circle as he finally won another race after being off the top of the podium for 47 straight races by beating team mate Jimmie Johnson to the checkered flag by a .378 second gap in Sunday’s Samsung 500.

Jeff Gordon finally celebrates after 47 losses in a row

The win allowed Gordon to increase his points gap in the Sprint Cup to 162 points over the second place driver, who just happens to be Johnson, and gave him his 82^nd career victory in Sprint Cup, which puts him in sixth place on the list for career victories in the popular series.

Gordon will probably be buying his crew a drink or two after the race, it was their efficiency and skill that allowed him to get out of the pit first under caution on lap 305 to take the lead. The race restarted on lap 309 of 334 with Gordon pulling away from the field, but around lap 319 Johnson started to pull Gordon back in by about two seconds, but he was only able to get as close as three or four car lengths by the time Gordon crossed the line.

The pit stop turned out to be the achilles heel for Carl Edwards, who was in the lead when he pitted, but restarted 11^th on lap 309 after spending an unusual amount of time in the pit and eventually finished 10^th. Edward’s teammate, Greg Biffle, also fell to pit problems, despite having one of the faster cars, when he had problems with lug nuts on his tires during his pit stop, but managed to finish third. The third Roush teammate, Matt Kenseth, also had a slow pit stop due to lug nut problems, and ended up in fifth place.

Tony Stewart once again had a strong race driving for Stewart-Haas, running fast for the majority of the race, without any real pit problems and finished fourth in the grid. The sixth through tenth places were taken by Mark Martin, Juan Montoya, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, and the before mentioned Carl Edwards.

Image: Newscom