Gordon extends lead with win at Kansas

Monday, Oct. 1, 2001 | 9:55 a.m.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Jeff Gordon had the third-best car in the field for Sunday's Protection One 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Kansas Speedway.

Fortunately for the three-time Winston Cup champion, front-runners Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott had problems and Gordon wound up with his sixth victory of the season in the caution-filled race and added to his points lead.

Although Gordon led on three different occasions early in the race, he didn't surface as a contender for the inaugural race until Elliott dropped out with a blown engine midway through the race and Wallace was penalized for speeding in the pits with 67 laps to go.

"All day, I felt like we were a third-place car," Gordon said. "Rusty was one of the best and Bill Elliott was one of the best. When (Elliott) had his problems, we (became) a second-place car."

Gordon was running second to Wallace -- who led a race-high 118 laps -- for 30 laps until the 10th of 13 caution flags came out with 67 laps remaining.

"I was encouraged because I was able to stay right in Rusty's tracks that whole run right there towards the end," Gordon said. "It would have been fun to have battled with him but unfortunately he got a penalty."

The leaders all pitted and Wallace appeared to beat Rudd out of the pits, but was later assessed a stop-and-go penalty for speeding as he was leaving the pits.

"We led the race out of the pits all day long and, all of a sudden, that stuff happens," Wallace said of the penalty. "But we got back up to fourth and that was good."

Rudd assumed the lead and stayed out front until Martin passed him on lap 245. Gordon followed Martin into second place and then passed him on the frontstretch apron a lap later and never looked back.

"It was pretty wild crossing the start/finish line," Gordon said of his pass of Martin. "I didn't want to get into Mark. I love racing him but I didn't want to spin him.

"We were pretty tight there and I had to get down on the apron, but I made the pass."

Rookie Ryan Newman took second in his sixth Winston Cup start and Rudd finished third. Wallace and Sterling Marlin rounded out the top five.

"We really sort of had our hands full there," Rudd said of the closing laps. "We stayed on our tires and I'm not sure, but I think most of the guys around us had fresher tires than we did.

"We actually jumped out there and got the lead and started stretching it out and then we had those rash of caution flags; that really hurt us."

Las Vegas native Kurt Busch made the biggest move in the race. The 23-year-old rookie started 40th and finished ninth.

Gordon, who won his 58th career race and third inaugural event in 10 attempts since 1988, extended his Winston Cup points lead to 222 over Rudd with eight races remaining.

There were 13 caution periods for 70 laps and one red-flag period for 11 minutes while Dale Jarrett was extracted from his car following a hard crash with 20 laps remaining. Jarrett briefly lost consciousness and was treated and released from a local hospital.

No other drivers were injured in the race. There were 19 lead changes among 12 drivers in the first race held on the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

Despite the high number of caution periods, most of the drivers gave the new facility rave reviews.

"It has a lot of potential," Gordon said. "I hated to see some of the cautions and wrecks that we had today but it is a one-groove racetrack right now.

"I believe the next time we come back here you'll really start to see that outside groove come in. It's like a fine wine; it just gets better with age."

Not unlike the track's inaugural champion.