Darlington, S.C. – As steam poured from his engine, Jeff Gordon figured his chance at victory had gone up in smoke.
Any other season, it would have. But in this year of near-perfection for Hendrick Motorsports, nothing ever goes wrong.
Gordon overcame an overheating engine – he said with five laps to go there was no way he would finish – to race to his third victory of the season Sunday at Darlington Raceway. Hendrick has won four straight races and eight of nine overall, and remained perfect in the five Car of Tomorrow events.
“I can’t believe that thing lasted,” Gordon said of his motor, which had thick steam streaming out of it for the last hour of the race. “There’s no way that thing should have ever made it.”
When it did – even though Gordon gambled and didn’t make a final pit stop when most of the field did with 23 laps to go – Gordon won for the third time in four races and maintained a 231-point lead over Jimmie Johnson in the Nextel Cup standings.
“That’s the way you win races right there,” said Gordon, a seven-time Darlington winner. “What an amazing year we’re having.”
Second-place finisher Denny Hamlin was critical of NASCAR for not calling a caution for obvious debris in the closing laps. Had the yellow flag waved, Hamlin was confident he would have beaten Gordon.
“Somebody’s entire fender and underbody was on the race track,” Hamlin said. “I literally pumped my fist in the car ’cause I knew a caution was going to come out. And of course, if caution comes out, it’s game over. Instead, Hendrick gets another break.”
Even Gordon admitted that NASCAR should have thrown a yellow.
But he didn’t complain because he believed a debris caution with 17 laps to go – when Gordon had a huge lead – was bogus.
“There absolutely should have been a caution there at the end – but there shouldn’t have been one before it,” Gordon said. “There at the end – debris, oil, everything you can imagine – was on that race track and that comes back to the inconsistency. I am glad they didn’t throw it at the end, but I didn’t understand why they threw it earlier.
“It can work with you or against you. Today it worked for us.”
