June 11, 2007
By Ron Felix

Out of brakes, out of tires and almost out of gas, Jeff Gordon backed into a victory in the Pocono 500 on Sunday. Rain hated the race just past half-way at lap 106. It was only raining in one turn but it could have been the whole track, it probably would have taken as long to dry the entire surface as it would have for one turn. NASCAR determined that it was too late in the day to get the race restarted and was forced to call a halt to the event.

Before the race was called, Ryan Newman was closing fast on Gordon but the red flag made it moot.

“We had the best case scenario if we had gone back (out)," said Newman. "Outside of that it was just wait and see. How long do you go and where do you draw the line? We’ve just got to keep putting ourselves in position to win. We were half a lap away from winning today. We had a really good car. It was a lot faster than Gordon’s at that point. We’ve won this way and we’ve lost this way. I won my first race this way, so I can’t complain about any part of it. The lap before the caution I got the rain on the back straightaway, so I knew it was going to be raining harder yet. Jeff didn’t get it so he checked up and I got a good run at him."

Gordon's crew chief Steve Letarte made the call that put Gordon out of sync with most of the field and it played right into their hands. On a lap 65 caution, most of the field pitted but Gordon stayed out, hearing that the rain was only minutes away, they had to take that chance. Gordon pitted under green on lap 82 but on the entire field pitted again on lap 90, leaving Gordon up front again and put him into the lead when leader Carl Edwards pitted on lap 98. The rains came only five laps later.

It was the fourth win this year for Gordon, tying his teammate Jimmie Johnson for most victories. It also was Gordon's fourth win at Pocono and the 79th of his career.

"Great, great call by Steve Letarte and all the guys on this DuPont Chevrolet team," Gordon said. "We have a great race car, we just needed track position. We were having some problems with the brakes and unable to drive up there so what a great call to get us that track position.

"If the race had gone back to green, we were in a little bit of trouble. It would have depended on what these other guys did. They were about half way through a run, or at least close to it, so they might have decided they wanted to come in to, then we wouldn't have been in too much trouble. If they had stayed out like we did, then yes we would have had a big hole to dig out of.

It is the 23rd Chevy victory at Pocono, more than any other manufacturer and 11th Pocono victory for Hendrick Motorsports, more than any other team owner.

Newman held on to the second spot and last week's winner Martin Truex Jr. was third. Rounding out the top ten were Casey Mears, Tony Stewart, pre-race favorite Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer. Chevrolet has won 13 of the 14 races so far this season.

Juan Pablo Montoya was the rookie of the race finishing 20th, it was the sixth time this season that he has taken Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors. Unofficially Montoya leads David Ragan by six points (152-146) in the Raybestos Rookie standings.

“Well, from starting 38th and it only being half a race we made a lot of progress," said Montoya. "I think we could have finished a lot higher than this. It was just once a little too short for what we wanted. Being the first experience here it was good."

There were four cautions for ten laps and one red flag. There were fifteen lead changes among eight different drivers.

The Nextel Cup Series moves to Michigan International Speedway next Sunday, June 17th, for the Citizens Bank 400.



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