Gordon Makes It Two Wins in a Row

Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports are the new kings of NASCAR plate racing.

Gordon proved Saturday night his victory at Talladega, Ala., in April was no fluke, leaving the favored Dale Earnhardt Inc. duo of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip and everyone else behind in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway at Daytona Beach, Fla.

“Wow! Wow! Wow!” Gordon said. “This is a big one. What an awesome show by Hendrick Motorsports.”

It was Gordon’s second victory in a row, fourth of the season and 68th of his career. He also became the first driver to win this race from the pole since Cale Yarborough in 1981.

Gordon, who wound up leading a race-high 61 laps, gave series leader and teammate Jimmie Johnson a lot of credit.

“He gave me a push out there that no one else out there would have given me,” Gordon said. “I owe this win to him and I owe him a push and the next time I’m going to give him one.”

The four-time series champion, already the leader among active Nextel Cup drivers in victories at Daytona and Talladega, the tracks where NASCAR requires horsepower-robbing carburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars under 200 mph, came up with his eighth plate victory and second in a row.

At Talladega, Earnhardt, considered by many the one to beat at every plate race, was mounting a late challenge to Gordon when a caution flag with three laps remaining gave Gordon the victory, bringing a wave of beer cans and seat cushions raining down on the track from unhappy Earnhardt fans.

This time, there was little question. Every time he got behind, Gordon was able to work his way back to the lead.

With Johnson, whose car Gordon owns, giving him a solid push, Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet took the lead for the final time on the 154th of 160 laps on the 2 1/2-mile oval, passing Tony Stewart and pulling away.

It finished with Johnson 0.143 seconds -- about two car-lengths -- behind, followed by Earnhardt, Kurt Busch, Stewart, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte and rookie Brian Vickers.

Earnhardt, who had a slow stop and had fallen to eighth, got all the way to second on Lap 149 before slipping back into the pack again. Meanwhile, Gordon and Johnson hooked up and went after Stewart, moving past him easily 17 laps from the end.

Johnson tried to make a move on Gordon, but couldn’t catch him. “Jeff’s on his game and he knows how to do this plate racing,” Johnson said.

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Carl Edwards came back from a first-lap accident to win the Craftsman Truck Series Race at Kansas Speedway at Kansas City, Kan., his second victory of the season.

“I just can’t believe we won this race. It just doesn’t seem real,” the Missouri driver said.

But Edwards’ Ford failed inspection after the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 because it did not meet the minimum height requirement. NASCAR confiscated some parts of the truck and planned to return them to its research and development center in North Carolina.

NASCAR officials said it was possible the truck failed inspection because of damage from the early accident.

Points leader Dennis Setzer was not so fortunate in the most caution-filled trucks race in the track’s four-year history.

After Setzer drifted wide and put Edwards into the wall on the first lap, Setzer dropped back into the pack -- where he got caught up in a seven-car crash in the second lap.

He had to replace his oil cooler and radiator, fell 31 laps down before re-entering the race and finished 25th.

His lead over Edwards in the standings dropped from 131 points to 34, with Bobby Hamilton 61 points off the lead after his second-place finish Saturday.

“It’s way too early to be points racing for us,” Setzer said. “We just want to win races at this point.”

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Sebastien Bourdais took the lead after a first-lap crash in Turn 1 that knocked out pole sitter Paul Tracy, then ran away to win his second consecutive Cleveland Grand Prix.

After avoiding a chain-reaction accident seconds into the race involving Alex Tagliani and others, Bourdais dominated to win by 15.130 seconds over Bruno Junqueira, his Newman-Haas teammate.

“It was a pretty uneventful race,” Bourdais said, shrugging his shoulders.

Bourdais made it so with his third win in five Champ Car events.

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Buddy Rice won his third pole of the Indy Racing League season, turning a quick lap of 210.141 miles per hour at Kansas Speedway.

IRL points leader Tony Kanaan will start on the outside front in today’s Argent Mortgage Indy 300, after posting a top speed of 209.681 mph.

“Buddy had a very, very good lap,” Kanaan said. “I don’t think I had the car to do a 210, but second place is not bad.”

Rice, whose first IRL win came at this year’s Indianapolis 500, had the pole in that race and at Homestead, Fla.

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Fernando Alonso won the pole position for the Formula One French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.

The Renault driver had the fastest time of 1 minute, 13.698 seconds on the 2.74-mile Nevers-Magny Cours circuit. Renault is a French carmaker, with many fans at the track.

“Any pole position is great but to do it here is very important,” Alonso said.

Michael Schumacher, second in 1:13.971, has won eight of nine races and is a six-time French Grand Prix champion.

“We are in the first row so we will be there,” he said.

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Covina’s Mike Johnson and Agoura Hills’ Tim Huddleston split the twin 50-lap Auto Club of Southern California Late Model series features at Irwindale Speedway.

In the first race, marred by two crashes that forced red flag stops, Johnson took advantage of an eight-car inversion but had to fight off a series of challenges from Tim Huddleston, Ron Daniel and Scott Youngren.

However, a crash along Turn 1 with two laps left forced a second red flag stop and Johnson earned his first career victory when the race was called.

Huddleston started the second race on the front row and quickly jumped to a large lead over Daniel when a crash on Lap 18 brought out a caution.

Huddleston held off Daniel and a late-charging Deryk Ward for his third victory.

In the shortened 35-lap NAPA Auto Parts Super Truck series feature, Pat Mintey Jr. cruised to his third consecutive victory as two trucks that spun out near the start-finish line brought out a yellow flag with less than half a lap remaining.

In the 40-lap Vista Paint Super Stock series feature, Bryan Harrell led from start to finish to earn his first victory, despite a challenge from rookie Johnny White in the final lap. Lee Ladd took over the lead in the series with a fifth-place finish and an accident that stopped the previous series leader, Chris Houwen, with less than five laps remaining.