NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Gordon Singing In The Rain
Jeff Gordon wins at Pocono as weather ends race early…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted August 05, 2012   Long Pond, PA
The worm finally turned – and in a big way – for Jeff Gordon.

Gordon, who has been plagued by all manner of bad luck this season, got two big breaks Sunday in the Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway – one supplied by teammate (and apparent winner) Jimmie Johnson and the second from the weather.

Gordon, who had not won in 31 straight races, was leading with 61 laps to go when a severe thunderstorm forced an early end to Pocono’s second race of the season. The win is Gordon’s first of the year and immediately put him in solid position to grab a wild-card entry into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

The race started almost two hours late because of mid-day rain and was stopped again by late-afternoon showers, with Gordon leading. Then a thunderstorm rolled in from the west and wrapped the speedway in heavy rain, vivid lightning and near-darkness.

NASCAR called the race a few minutes after the heavy downpour began, ushering Gordon into the winners column for the first time since last September. He turned 41 years old Saturday.

The victory lifted Gordon into the No. 2 wild-card spot behind teammate Kasey Kahne.

The win appeared to be in Johnson’s pocket before the calamity of the final laps. He had the day’s dominant car, but he lost the lead on lap 86 when Kurt Busch lost control of his car and hit the outside wall, bringing out the caution and bunching the field for a restart even as weather threatened from the west.

Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Greg Biffle and Kahne were the leaders for the restart. Gordon was sixth.

There was trouble almost immediately.

Johnson slipped up the track in the first turn and into Kenseth, who sailed into the outside wall and back across the track, where he was T-boned by Denny Hamlin.

Gordon slipped through the chaos to take the lead as cars scrambled and the caution reappeared.

Then the rain – and the thunderstorm – arrived, and the race was over.

Jeff Gordon celebrates with wife Ingrid, daughter Ella and son Leo after winning Sunday's rain-shortened Sprint Cup Series event at Pocono Raceway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kenseth, who lost a shot at the win as Johnson slid, finished 23rd. Johnson was 14th.

“I am not mad at him,” Kenseth said of Johnson. “It is just that you race for the win, and I thought I gave enough room down there. He drove in hard because he is racing for the win, too. We are in a situation where we need to win some races, too.

“You don’t mind if something happens. It is just a bummer when it takes you out after you are running top three all day and finish 22nd or wherever we are. That is very disappointing, and it is hard to look at the bright spot in that. That is just part of it, though.”

Johnson later said he had a flat tire.

“When I was cooling my tires down through the tunnel [turn] coming to the green, I noticed that something didn’t feel right,” Johnson said. “I kept trying to clean the tires off, and it got a little better, so I just assumed I had trash on my tires, but when I got down into turn one I realized that I had a right-rear flat.

“Unfortunate that we lost the lead there, and we got a couple of cars in the process. I shouldn’t feel bad about that, but not much you can do with a right-rear flat.”

Following Gordon in the top five were Kahne (who finished second despite a flat right rear tire), Martin Truex Jr., Keselowski and Tony Stewart.

Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had strong cars in the race’s early going, but both were in the garage before the halfway point.

Busch apparently broke a brake rotor on lap 19, and slammed hard into the turn-one wall. He was running 10th.

On lap 49, Earnhardt Jr. drove into the garage with transmission trouble. Junior took the series point lead at Indianapolis last week, but his Sunday trouble ended an unusual streak. Entering the Pocono race, he had completed every lap of competition this season.

Junior eventually returned to the track 32 laps behind the leaders.

Junior finished 32nd but kept the series point lead (by five) over Kenseth.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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