Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images After passing Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon pulled away to win the SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500 by 1.137 seconds.
Phoenix was a pretty good race. Sorry to see Trevor (Bayne) wreck his car. Apparently, Gordon isn’t only ‘Driving to End Hunger’ – but he was also driven to end his winless streak. After all, it had been 66 races since Jeff last won a race – since Texas, April 2009. Gordon should have won at least four times in 2010 but didn’t, for a variety of reasons.
Sunday was Gordon’s day.It was very enjoyable to see a fresh face in victory Lane. He is now tied with Cale Yarborough for his 83rd win on the the NASCAR Victory list. Congratulations, Jeff!!
Jeff Gordon had this to say while being interviewed:
“I mean not only the fans at home — I’ve been tweeting* lately for the
first time and all of the stuff that people have been saying, the motivation has been unbelievably inspiring. And then to see that crowd stick around to see my really
lame burnout — because I stink at them — but they love that show. Man, we hope
we can give them some more shows like that this year.”
Hey, at least he admitted his burnout was bad! One word of advice, though, Jeff: Practice your burnouts!!!!
It came down between Gordon and Kyle Busch, with Gordon getting Busch loose in Turns 3 & 4 on Lap 304 of 312 after clearing him in Turn 1 to complete the winning pass. Gordon took the broom away from Busch preventing his (Busch) second weekend sweep at Phoenix. Busch had won Friday’s Camping World Truck Series race and Saturday’s Nationwide Series event.
“It’s been a long time, I know,” Gordon said. “I’m going to savor this one so much.
And I have to mention that save Mark Martin had earlier in the race! Wow! Did you see that? Even FOX kept showing it in slow motion!!
Gordon did make it through a number of early wrecks, including a 13-car pileup on the backstretch that blocked the track with ripped up cars and stopped the action on Lap 67. Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford and Brian Vicker’s No. 83 Toyota bumped cutting Vicker’s left rear tire setting off an 11 car wreck involving Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, David Reutimann, Casey Mears, Travis Kvapil, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte, Regan Smith, Andy Lally and Robby Gordon.
Here’s the finishing order from the SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500:
1 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota
3 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
4 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
5 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet
6 4 Kasey Kahne Toyota
7 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet
8 22 Kurt Busch Dodge
9 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford
10 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet
11 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota
12 17 Matt Kenseth Ford
13 35 Mark Martin Chevrolet
14 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota
15 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge
16 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford
17 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet
18 13 Casey Mears Toyota
19 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet
20 16 Greg Biffle Ford
21 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota
22 34 David Gilliland Ford
23 09 Bill Elliott Chevrolet
24 32 Mike Skinner Ford
25 37 Tony Raines Ford
26 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet
27 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet
28 99 Carl Edwards Ford
29 00 David Reutimann Toyota
30 83 Brian Vickers Toyota
31 71 Andy Lally * Chevrolet
32 7 Robby Gordon Dodge
33 20 Joey Logano Toyota
34 8 Regan Smith Chevrolet
3 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet
36 16 David Ragan Ford
37 46 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet
38 60 Landon Cassill Toyota
39 38 Travis Kvapil Ford
40 21 Trevor Bayne Ford
41 66 Michael McDowell Toyota
42 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet
43 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota
NEXT RACE: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Sunday, March 6th at 3 pm on FOX