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Gordon Moves To Second, But Still Winless

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 7, 2010) – Jeff Gordon will make his 600th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start on Saturday night in the LifeLock.com 400, at Chicagoland Speedway.
A four-time series champion, Gordon has enjoyed one of the most prolific careers in the sport’s history. Consider the following:
– Four series titles. Only Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson and Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt have four or more series championships.
– 82 career victories. That ranks sixth all-time. One more win, and Gordon will tie Cale Yarborough for fifth. Two more, and he’ll tie Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for third.
– 68 poles. That ranks fourth all-time. One more, and he’ll tie Yarborough for third.
– 272 top fives and 371 top 10s rank sixth and eighth, respectively.
Gordon began his NASCAR Sprint Cup career in the final race of 1992 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and has not missed a single event since. All 599 starts have been consecutive.
Below is a timeline of Gordon’s career highlights on his way to 600 starts:
1 – Nov. 15, 1992, he made his first series start. Finishing 31st, an accident ended his day early.
2 – In his first Daytona 500, on Feb. 14, 1993, Gordon finished fifth.
42 – On May 29, 1994 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Gordon won his first race. It was in one of NASCAR’s biggest events – the Coca-Cola 600.
50 – On Aug. 6, 1994,Gordon won the inaugural NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
85 – Won another “crown jewel” race, the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, on Sept. 3, 1995.
93 – Despite finishing 32nd in the season finale at Atlanta on Nov. 12, 1995, Gordon won his first series championship.
125 – Became the youngest winner in Daytona 500 history at 25 years, six months, 12 days on Feb. 16, 1997.
132 – Led 431 of 500 laps to win at Martinsville on April 20, 1997, the highest single-race laps led total of his career.
453 – On June 25, 2006, won at Infineon Raceway, his ninth victory at a road course. Gordon is the all-time wins leader at road courses.
503 – On Oct. 7, 2007 at Talladega Superspeedway, Gordon captured his 12th restrictor-plate victory, becoming the all-time leader in that category.
552 – On April 5, 2009, he grabbed his most recent victory, at Texas Motor Speedway, leaving Homestead-Miami Speedway as the only track at which Gordon has yet to win.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon has been so close to nabbing elusive win No. 83, which would tie him for fifth all-time with Cale Yarborough.

He leads the series with nine top fives, but still – zero wins.

One more race without a victory, and Gordon will move into unchartered territory. He currently has a 47-race winless drought, which matches a career long stretch. He also suffered a 47-race drought prior to last season’s win at Texas.

It could end this weekend, a big milestone one for Gordon. Gordon, who will start his 600th series race (all of them consecutively), won at Chicagoland in 2006.

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July 3, 2010

PHOTO CREDIT: CIA STOCK PHOTO

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. (July 3, 2010) — It was a wild one Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway – so wild you had to wonder whether there were going to be any cars running at the finish.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings leader Kevin Harvick won the last race on the track’s current pavement after running up front all night. He managed to dodge the on-track fireworks that littered the Coke Zero 400 Presented by Coca-Cola from start to finish, a race that set a new event record with 18 different leaders and may spark conversation for years.

VIDEO: THE BIG ONE
VIDEO: THE FINAL LAPS

The 2.5-mile Daytona track is scheduled for repaving beginning immediately, but the old worn-out asphalt went out with a bang that left more than half the field beat-up and battered.
The stage for a green-white-checkered finish was set with one lap to go when two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish, Jr., lost control of his Dodge and clipped Kurt Busch, causing a lot of damaged to both cars.

Harvick’s teammate, Clint Bowyer, was leading on the restart but got tangled up down the backstretch and spun out of contention. It was a tough, tough break for Bowyer, who had appeared to be heading for his first Daytona victory.

Kasey Kahne finished second and Jeff Gordon third behind Harvick. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., was fourth after running poorly most of the night. Jeff Burton was fifth after being involved in a multi-car crash that red-flagged the race for 19:34. More than 20 cars were involved in this accident, which had debris scattered for more than half-a-mile on the track. In fact, many of the frontrunners in the race were eliminated, including Juan Pablo Montoya, Tony Stewart, four-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman and others.

An earlier accident with less than 60 laps remaining knocked another contender out of the race. Kyle Busch was leading when he drifted up across the nose of Montoya, turning Busch’s Toyota into the outside wall and ending his chances.

The fact that Earnhardt finished fourth was testament to the fact that many of the fast cars were damaged in the huge wreck.

Carl Edwards finished sixth, followed by Kurt Busch, whose Dodge looked like a candidate for the junkyard. Busch was involved in several of the accidents.
Rounding out the top 10 were Reed Sorensen, Mike Bliss and Scott Speed.

The cars roared to life after a 90-minute rain delay. Johnson, Harvick and Kyle Busch led before a 15-lap competition caution allowed crews to check tire wear. Two cars were already back in the garage, those of Dave Blaney and Max Pappis.

When racing resumed, Harvick and Biffle were up front, followed by the Busch brothers. Harvick and Kyle Busch barreled to the front a couple laps later. At 30 laps, Harvick still led with Busch in tow. Sadler was third, followed by Truex, Keselowski, Burton, Kurt Busch, Biffle, Johnson and Reutimann. Truex led briefly before Kyle Busch took over. Sadler then led but Kyle Busch made an unscheduled stop with a wheel problem.

Drivers were swapping the lead so fast it was hard to keep up with the changes. Kurt Busch led a few laps, then Harvick took over again with Hornish giving him the shove to the front.

By Lap 32, Busch was leading again. Reutimann had raced into second place. Hornish led Lap 42 before Sadler went back to the front. Drivers were racing every lap like it was the final lap and the crowd of close to 100,000 loved every minute of it. Johnson pitted on Lap 48 with a tire problem. Hornish had taken the lead at 50 laps from Sadler. Montoya had moved from 22nd to third and Kurt Busch was close behind. Gordon was next and Reutimann was sixth. Burton was next.

A debris caution fell on Lap 58. When the green flag waved again on Lap 63, it was Montoya out front followed by Gordon, Sorensen, Keselowski, Sadler, Hornish, McMurray, Reutimann, Truex and Newman, who was cracking the top 10 for the first time in the race.

AJ Allmendinger brought out another caution on Lap 67 when he spun off Turn 4 in the short chute and hit the inside wall.

On the 70th lap restart, Gordon led with Keselowski on the outside. One lap later, Keselowski took the lead with Gordon challenging and Gordon went by half-a-lap later. Montoya moved into second. A lap later, Montoya led and then Hamlin charged out front after starting in the back of the pack.

At the halfway point of 80 laps, Hornish led with a gaggle of chargers right behind. Kenseth had moved to second with Johnson third. Rounding out the top 12 were McMurray, Hamlin, Montoya, Gordon, Kyle Busch, Reutimann, Burton, Kurt Busch and Edwards.

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1 1 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet
2 20 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser/Armed Forces Tribute Ford
3 5 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet
4 13 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Grd 8 Soldiers 8 Missions/AMP Energy Chev
5 8 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet
6 12 99 Carl Edwards SUBWAY Ford
7 6 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite/Vortex Dodge
8 24 83 Reed Sorenson Red Bull Toyota
9 35 71 Mike Bliss TaxSlayer.com/TRG Chevrolet
10 27 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota
11 19 00 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota
12 32 7 Robby Gordon SpeedFactory.TV Toyota
13 39 36 Steve Park Richie Evans Fan Tribute Chevrolet
14 33 34 Kevin Conway # Extenze Ford
15 7 17 Matt Kenseth Jeremiah Weed Ford
16 37 09 Bobby Labonte Coke Zero Chevrolet
17 15 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet
18 23 98 Paul Menard Quaker State/Menards Ford
19 41 46 J J Yeley Cash America Dodge
20 10 16 Greg Biffle 3M Scotch-Brite Ford
21 30 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge
22 29 19 Elliott Sadler Air Force Ford
23 34 37 Robert Richardson Jr. Mahindra USA Tractors Ford
24 4 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota
25 9 14 Tony Stewart Burger King Chevrolet
26 14 39 Ryan Newman Tornados Chevrolet
27 22 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet
28 11 5 Mark Martin CARQUEST Auto Parts/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
29 16 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota
30 26 12 Brad Keselowski No. 12 Penske Dodge Dodge
31 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet
32 28 47 Marcos Ambrose Kingsford/Bush Baked Beans Toyota
33 31 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet
34 38 38 Travis Kvapil Long John Silver’s Ford
35 18 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Toyota
36 21 43 A J Allmendinger Paralyzed Veterans of America/Mission: Able Ford
37 36 26 David Stremme Air Guard/gtwgps.com Ford
38 25 6 David Ragan UPS Ford
39 17 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet
40 3 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota
41 42 87 Joe Nemechek HostGator.com Toyota
42 40 13 Max Papis GEICO Toyota
43 43 66 Dave Blaney PRISM Motorsports Toyota