AVONDALE, Ariz. — Just before peeling off what he called a lame burnout near the finish line, Jeff Gordon screamed into his radio, the emotion pouring out with his voice.
“We just beat Kyle Busch!” he yelled.
Gordon did much more than that. He was headed back to Victory Circle, the longest winless streak of his career finally in the rearview mirror.
Overcoming a slew of potentially disastrous incidents, Gordon passed Kyle Busch with eight laps left and stretched his lead from there, ending his winless streak at 66 races Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.
“It feels so amazing. I can’t tell you how amazing this feels,” Gordon said. “It’s been a long time, I know, and I’m going to savor this one so much.”
PIR has been the place to end long winless streaks lately. Ryan Newman halted a 77-race checkerless streak at PIR last spring and Carl Edwards stopped his run at 70 races without a win in the fall.
Coming off a disappointing Daytona 500, Gordon struggled in qualifying and started 20th. Early in the race, he was knocked into the wall by Edwards and later had to avoid a massive wreck that led to a 14-minute red flag. He also had to pull behind another car to shake loose a piece of debris from his grille and fight his way back to the front after a slow pit stop.
Gordon still managed to lead a race-high 138 laps and was able to pull alongside then bump Busch out of the way to win for the first time since April 2009 at Texas. It was his 83rd career victory, tying him with Cale Yarborough for fifth all time.
“He was on a mission today, that’s for sure,” said Busch, who held on for second to fall just short of winning all three NASCAR races in the same weekend for the second time in his career. “When Jeff Gordon has a good car and he’s got the opportunity to beat you, he’s going to beat you, there’s no doubt about that.”
Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five in a 312-lap race around PIR’s mile oval, the last on the current surface.
The old track will undergo a $10 million repaving and reconfiguration project before the fall race, a move that isn’t popular with drivers. The old bump-and-crack-filled surface held up well in its final weekend with a flurry of records.
Clint Bowyer set the qualifying mark in trucks Friday, then Busch did it in Nationwide on Saturday. Edwards set a Sprint Cup qualifying record at the track, hitting 137.279 mph to barely edge Kurt Busch.
