RICHMOND, VA. — Four times this season, Jeff Gordon has been in position for a Sprint Cup victory.
He’s come up short all four times.
Kyle Busch became the latest driver to deny Gordon a victory, passing him after the final restart Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway for his first win of the season.
For Busch, it snapped a 21-race losing streak, his longest since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008.
“It stinks to not win every single weekend or not every 21 weekends or 21 races,” Busch said. “But it certainly feels nice to come out here with another good win.”
Gordon saw his victory drought reach 38 races. Since his last win, at Texas last April, Gordon has finished second a frustrating eight times.
“A little disappointed again that we are coming up short, but we are getting plenty of practice,” Gordon said. “It’s a little disappointing we haven’t won some races yet. If we keep doing this, those will come.”
Busch embarrassed the field early — at one point, there were only eight cars on the lead lap — but the racing evened out and Busch’s car faded just a bit. That gave Gordon a chance to move to the front and perhaps finally close out a race.
But three late cautions gave the challengers a chance to chase down Gordon, and Busch capitalized with a pass on the final restart.
“I don’t even remember what just happened,” Busch said. “I drove it down into Turn 1 and hoped it stuck. I knew I had to baby it into Turn 3 and finally got to clear Jeff. We set sail there from there.”
Indeed he did, as Gordon had to hold off Kevin Harvick to keep second place.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to know that they don’t give out trophies for leading any lap other than the last one,” Gordon said.
