AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
DARLINGTON, S.C. _ Only eight days removed from a 31-race losing streak, Jeff Gordon is NASCAR's man to beat again, with back-to-back victories.
NASCAR's winningest active driver is back to rolling up milestones, and charging for a fifth Winston Cup championship.
He was so strong Sunday that the Southern 500 was over, blatantly, 137 laps before it was over. After he blew by Sterling Marlin on lap 240, "it was adios," Gordon acknowledged.
His Chevrolet Monte Carlo was flawless en route to his second consecutive win and the 60th of his career, after being stuck at 58 for nearly 11 months. He broke the drought at Bristol, Tenn., on Aug. 24.
"It's been a heck of an eight days, that's for sure," Gordon said.
And this made his fifth Southern 500 win, tying him with Cale Yarborough in career success in NASCAR's oldest 500-mile race. He moved to third in total wins at Darlington Raceway with six, behind David Pearson's 10 and the late Dale Earnhardt's 9.
Strategically he moved to second in the point standings, only 91 behind Marlin, and virtually everyone in the garage after the race saw Gordon as the hunter now, and Marlin as the hunted _ even Marlin.