Jeff Gordon Finds
The Yellow Brick Road
Back to Victory Lane
In Kansas
Kansas City, KS - Jeff Gordon had worried that his car was too loose in clean air, but when the #24 DuPont Chevrolet got to the front, it flew away from the rest of the field to win the Protection One 400 at Kansas Speedway.
It wasn't until lap 146 that Jeff took the lead, but once he was there, he wasn't about to give it up. Looking ahead to the Championship title helped spur the team to find the extra horsepower needed to put Jeff back into contention. At one point, Jeff led the 2nd place car of Ryan Newman by a 6 second margin. The win moves Jeff back to 4th in the Championship standings.
The Kansas track began taking victims early in the race. A wreck on lap 7 took 9 cars out. Lap 42 saw Dale Jarrett in the #88 UPS Ford leave with engine problems and Ricky Craven in the #32 Tide Ford with a hole in the radiator due to debris. A cut tire took out Dave Blaney in the #77 Jasper Engines Ford on lap 44. Next went Kurt Busch in the #97 Rubbermaid Ford and Gregg Biffle in the #55 Schneider Electric Chevrolet. But the biggest hit came on lap 149 when the lapped car of Mike Wallace moved down the track causing Sterling Marlin to check-up. Jeff Burton couldn't slow down the #99 Citgo Ford in time and tapped the rear of Marlin. It didn't take much for the now loose #40 Coors Light Dodge to skip into the wall. That ended the day for Sterling and put a damper on his prospects for the Championship.
Though Jimmie Johnson had kept the #48 Lowes Chevrolet near the front of the field for most of the race, a cut tire caused him to go down a lap with only 97 laps remaining. He did not make it back onto the lead lap, but still finished 10th and became the new leader in the Winston Cup Standings. Mark Martin fell to 2nd in the standings when a blown engine in the #6 Viagra Ford caused him to finish 25th in the race.
Ryan Newman in the #12 Alltel Ford once again made a valiant effort to win, but fell short at the end and came in 2nd. Although not much was mentioned about him during the race, Rusty Wallace made an outstanding run at the end of the race and finished 3rd in the #2 Miller Lite Ford. Tony Stewart made another top 10 finish, bringing the #20 Home Depot Pontiac in 8th and maintaining his 3rd place spot in the standings, just 36 points behind Jimmie Johnson.
Other notable finishes included Joe Nemechek in the #25 UAW/Delphi Chevrolet coming in 4th, Bill Elliott brought the #9 Dodge Dealers Dodge in at 5th, Dale Earnhardt Jr was 6th with the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, Matt Kenneth finished 7th in the #17 DeWalt Ford and Jeremy Mayfield took the 9th spot in the #19 Dodge Dealers Dodge.
The race seemed to be strung out for long intervals and the hope for a 2nd groove never came in.
What did you think about the race, the track and all of the wrecks? Who do you think has the best
chance to win the Championship? Send us an email with your thoughts.
Article by S. Kipple
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