Gordon’s Victory Puts Icing on His Third Championship

Winning the Winston Cup championship wasn’t enough for Jeff Gordon on Sunday. He added another dramatic victory to his year of domination.

Gordon clinched his third championship in four years about a third of the way through the ACDelco 400 at Rockingham, N.C., then punctuated his day by passing Rusty Wallace with eight laps to go for his 12th victory this year.

“Today was just a killer day,” Gordon said. “The third championship in the last four years, I’m just shaking my head. I just can’t believe it.”

The victory made Gordon, 27, the youngest three-time Winston Cup champion in history and only the seventh driver to win that many.

Gordon ran in the top 10 most of the day and used a quick pit stop to move into second place behind Wallace with 40 laps to go. After Wallace pulled ahead, Gordon gradually caught him, stalking him for about 20 laps.

Riding in a high groove while Wallace stayed low through turns three and four, Gordon kept cutting into the lead until he finally slipped by on lap 385 of 393, pulling away for a 0.52-second victory over Dale Jarrett.

The victory moved Gordon within one victory of Richard Petty’s modern-day mark of 13 in a season with one race remaining, and gave him the most in a season since Darrell Waltrip won that many in the 1982 season.

Petty and Dale Earnhardt have each won seven championships.

The title gave Hendrick Motorsports a NASCAR record four consecutive championships--Terry Labonte defeated Gordon by 37 points in 1996--and gave Gordon a chance to match Yarborough’s record three in a row next season.

Jarrett, who spent four days in an Arizona hospital with gallstones and wasn’t released until Thursday, led five times for a race-high 195 laps. He finished second in a Ford despite fighting the effects of his illness.

It was the fifth time in the last six races that Jarrett has been second at Rockingham. He’s still seeking his first victory on the 1.017-mile oval.

Wallace was third, Martin fourth and Jeff Burton fifth, all in Fords.

Gordon won for the 32nd time in the last three years and 41st time overall, 13th in Winston Cup history. He earned $111,575, pushing his earning for the season to $6,011,417.

The average speed was a track record 128.423 mph, eclipsing Ricky Rudd’s 1996 mark of 122.320.

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NHRA officials were forced to postpone today’s eliminations for the Matco Tools SuperNationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas, because of unfavorable weather conditions.

The $1.7-million race, the 21st of 22 events in the $30-million NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series, is scheduled to resume Monday morning.