Gordon, crew hit their marks

Monday, May 3, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. -- In the span of 24 hours, Jeff Gordon's view of his chance to win Sunday's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway went from dismal to optimistic.

Gordon, who struggled in Saturday's final practice, dominated the second half of Sunday's race en route to his second consecutive NASCAR Nextel Cup victory and third in eight career races at the 2-mile oval.

"Right from the beginning, I was so impressed with how well the car was working," Gordon said. "They dropped the green and both Jimmie Johnson and myself just drove straight to the front.

"I was impressed with the adjustments and the things that (crew chief Robbie Loomis) and the guys did to the car from (Saturday) because I wasn't really happy with it when we left here (Saturday)."

Gordon led five times for 81 laps and held off late-race challenges from Kasey Kahne and Bobby Labonte when they ran out of fuel in the closing laps.

Labonte climbed from 15th to second after the final round of pit stops and closed to within two seconds of Gordon with two laps remaining but ran out of gas on the white-flag lap and limped home to a fifth-place finish.

"Nobody told me that we were going to be close (on fuel), so I didn't ask," Labonte said. "I think we went a lot faster that (last) run so maybe that had something to do with it.

"But, anyway, it was a good day for us to finish fifth. With that second place that we had going there, it's hard to complain too much."

Johnson, Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, finished second and Ryan Newman was third. Matt Kenseth and Labonte rounded out the top five while Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan took sixth -- his career-best Nextel Cup finish.

Kurt Busch of Las Vegas, the defending race champion, had several run-ins with the new SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) walls and had to settle for 23rd place.

Gordon took the lead for the final time with 46 laps remaining, after his final pit stop of the race. While several drivers ran short of fuel on the final run, Gordon said he never gave fuel mileage a second thought -- until he ran out while doing his post-race burnouts.

"We came in and had a great pit stop and got out in front of Kasey and I found myself pulling away from him -- (by) which I was shocked," Gordon said. "I was just on cruise control ... and about that time the car started getting really, really loose and I saw Kasey gaining on me every once in a while.

"I was pushing as hard as I could but we definitely had our hands full there. Once we got down to the finish there, I was trying to stay ahead of Bobby. They said Bobby was out of gas and it was a huge relief ... because it allowed me to really go conservative on that last lap just to keep the car from coming around on me."

Although Gordon, a native Californian, has won three of the eight Cup races held in Fontana, he said he hasn't considered California Speedway one of his stronger tracks.

"I've been hearing that a lot this week about how dominant we've been out here ... and yet all I can think about is the last three or four times we've been here, we've stunk," said Gordon, who finished 11th and 16th in the last two races here.

"If you look at the numbers, the numbers are great but I don't look at the numbers; I only look at our results from last year or the year before. I've always liked this track ... and you never know why some tracks you run well on and some you don't."

Johnson, a native Southern Californian who won the Auto Club 500 in 2002 as a rookie, was in fifth place with two laps remaining but improved three spots when Labonte (second), Jeremy Mayfield (third) and Kahne (fourth) ran short of fuel in the final two laps.

"It was an exciting day -- we'll take it anyway we can get it," Johnson said. "When guys ran out of gas, we were able to take second.

"I was really settled into fifth and thought that was where we were going to end up. There are a lot of elements to this team and fuel mileage (is) one of them."

Gordon's winning average speed was 137.268 mph in a race that was slowed by six caution periods for 39 laps.