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Third-place finish vaults Gordon back into top 10 in standings
By SceneDaily Staff
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Geoff Burke
Getty Images for NASCAR
DARLINGTON, S.C.– Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon moved back into the top 10 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with his third-place finish at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night.
Gordon’s performance matched his best finish of the season and moved him into the top 10 overall for just the second time this year.
He did so on a repaved track that he said raced the way one would expect a facility to under that condition. He survived the incidents
that brought eight cautions into the race.
“Yeah, I mean, I saw some characteristics of the old Darlington tonight, like getting into Turn 3, even though you could carry good speed into Turn 3, get to the middle, the front end would take off to the wall,” he said. “You didn't know if you were going to hit it. I saw plenty of people that hit it. “
He said that while the Saturday night race was tough, it wasn’t the most difficult race he’d been involved in at the 1.366-mile track.
“Tonight was tough, but it wasn't the toughest Darlington that I've ever driven, just because you really couldn't even get up to a guy to pass him,” he said. “You know, [a] lapped car had to let me go in order for me to pass him. … I was able to keep my car on the wall all night. That's just what I focused on doing all night, just trying not to get in the wall.”
Gordon led 24 laps in the race but couldn’t keep pace with former teammate Kyle Busch, who led 169 en route to the Dodge Challenger 500 win.
As he watches Busch, who has his Joe Gibbs Racing team on top of the series, Gordon said that he sees a team that is hitting its stride – just as Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards has been in winning three races this season and finishing second at Darlington.
“I felt that way about Carl earlier in the season,” he said. “Now that the No. 18 has come on strong, I don't know, they've definitely - between the two of them, they've just got the field covered.
“You know, you just got to work hard. We were unstoppable last year. We worked hard to get into that position. Other teams worked hard to catch us and pass us really. That just shows you, you know, just how tough and how competitive this sport really truly is.”
Gordon said that his team has been doing everything it can to catch up to the series frontrunner this season.
“You know, we're definitely still missing a little something that we're going to keep working on,” he said.
Mentioned Drivers: Jeff Gordon
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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