Last week at Daytona a total unknown won the first race of the NASCAR season, this week it was the was all about the big names. With 8 laps to go Jeff Gordon passed Kyle Busch and pulled away Jimmie Johnson to win the Subway Fresh Fit 500 in Phoenix. It was Gordon’s 83rd career win, which ties him with the great Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all time NASCAR wins list.
Gordon’s win snaps a 66 race race winless streak for one of the sports biggest stars. It looked for most of the afternoon that it would be either him or Kyle Busch that was destined to win. Busch had won the previous two races this weekend, but Gordon led the most laps today and really seemed to have the best car. His win means that Hendrick motorsports has now won 7 of the last 9 races at Phoenix.
It was a major slump breaker for Gordon, who not only hadn’t won in 66 races (over 2 years) but he’d managed just one top 5 finish in the last 18 races dating back to last year.
Busch, who had come into the race as the favorite after his great weekend in Phoenix, said that Gordon just had the better car.
"There at the end Jeff just had a better car than us. When I got off to a big enough I lead I thought 'man I got him' and I could hold him off with this car, but he just ran me down and flat out passed me. He was really, really fast and we couldn't hold him back. It was good to see those guys back in victory lane."
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Las Vegas next week for the Cobalt Tools 400.