He’s back: Gordon posts victory after struggling in recent weeks

Monday, May 3, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. -- A sense of normalcy returned to NASCAR's Winston Cup Series as Jeff Gordon resumed his dominance of the sport by returning to victory lane Sunday at California Speedway after a five-race slump.

The three-time Winston Cup champion, beset by a pair of accidents in the past five weeks, led 151 of the 250 laps in the California 500 and coasted his Chevrolet Monte Carlo to a 4.492-second victory over Las Vegas 400 winner Jeff Burton.

Although it was Gordon's third win in 10 races this season, it was being suggested in some circles that Gordon's luck was turning after winning 23 races, two series championships and more than $15 million the past two seasons.

Gordon, however, never had a doubt that either he or his "Rainbow Warriors" team had lost any of their magic.

"I've been saying all year long that I felt like our team is better than they have ever been and I think, today, they certainly proved it to me.

"(Crew chief Ray Evernham) and the guys set up the race car just perfect. All the things we've been talking about, where if we just have things go our way, if we just have some good fortune instead of misfortune, we can win races."

Some of that good fortune resurfaced midway through the race as Gordon and Burton were swapping the lead. Gordon made a green-flag pit stop and while he was sitting on pit road, Ricky Rudd hit the wall in turn four, bringing out the third caution of the race.

Gordon, however, was able to get out of the pits in time to avoid losing a lap.

Gordon sealed his 45th victory with another great pit stop on his final green-flag stop of the race, on lap 209. Gordon's crew supplied him with fuel and four tires and got him out of the pits so quickly that Gordon increased his lead over second-place Bobby Labonte, who also pitted, from 2.5 seconds to nearly five seconds.

"You can't make up seconds in the pits anymore," Evernham said. "A lot of that is how fast you get to pit road (and) Jeff did a good job of getting the car to pit road and he can actually make up more (time) for us there than we can in the pits.

"It's just one of those things where the choreography is perfect ... everything went perfect."

Burton, who has a pair of wins this season, appeared to be gaining ground on Gordon over the final 42 laps but said he didn't think he had enough in his Ford Taurus to overtake Gordon.

"We don't know that (Gordon) was running as hard as he could," Burton said of the closing laps. "I suspect that he wasn't. All day long we were pretty much equal to him and you don't just all of a sudden, unless they're running poorly, start picking up three- or fourth-tenths (of a second) a lap.

"That tells me he wasn't running as hard as he could. Then I started doing the math in my head and said, 'There's not enough time,' so I backed off and, sure enough, he picked up about four-tenths. Once he got half a straightaway in front of us, we were pretty much done."

Burton started on the pole after Friday's qualifying was rained out and the field was set based on car owners' points. He maintained his lead in the Winston Cup point standings and leads Dale Jarrett, who finished fifth Sunday, by 55 points.

Despite the win, Gordon gained only 10 points on Burton -- moving from fifth to fourth -- and trails Burton by 200 points.

The win was Gordon's second in the three Winston Cup races held at California Speedway and was important to the native Californian in more than one respect.

"It's real special," Gordon, who also won the inaugural race in 1997, said. "I enjoy coming out to California, first of all. I wanted to put (the crashes at) Texas and Talladega behind us. It has been a little frustrating because they happened so close to each other.

"This is a beautiful facility, it's an awesome place to run a race and we're excited about being out here. California, being my home state, I get a lot of fans out here that kind of help with the motivation."

The race, run in front of a track-record crowd estimated at 117,000, was slowed by five caution flags for 23 laps. There were 28 lead changes among 13 drivers and the average speed of the race was 150.280 mph.