Jeff Gordon fends off Joey Logano to win NASCAR race at Michigan

Jeff Gordon outdueled Joey Logano to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.

It was the third victory of the season for Gordon, who’s seeking his fifth Cup championship.

Gordon started from the pole position but the win did not come easily as he battled all day with Logano, who led a race-high 86 of the 200 laps.

On the race’s final restart with 17 laps remaining, Gordon and Logano were racing side-by-side for the lead. But Gordon pulled away in his No. 24 Chevrolet and never relinquished the lead while Logano fell to a third-place finish.

“It wasn’t easy,” Gordon told a television audience after he hugged team owner Rick Hendrick in Victory Lane. “I thought [Logano] was going to get back by me. This is amazing.”

Kevin Harvick finished second, Paul Menard was fourth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth.

Several cars were damaged in an early crash that started when Jeff Burton, who was substituting for Tony Stewart, made slight contact with Stewart teammate Danica Patrick.

Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet then spun in the middle of the pack, collecting the cars of several drivers, including Matt Kenseth, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett and Martin Truex Jr.

Stewart sat out the race in the aftermath of the Aug. 9 incident in which his car struck and killed 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward Jr. while Ward was on foot during a sprint-car race in upstate New York.

Burton, driving Stewart’s No. 14 Chevy, started 27th and the car developed an electrical problem that required lengthy repairs. Burton finished 37th in the 43-car field.

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