It’s Gordon again
For Jeff Gordon, this victory was far more difficult than it looked.
“Not only was the car nearly out of gas, but I was out of gas, too,” Gordon said after driving to an overpowering win at the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
It was the perfect end to a nearly perfect weekend in which the four-time NASCAR champion won the pole with a record-setting lap, topped every practice session and set another record by leading 92 of 110 laps on the 1.99-mile, 10-turn road course.
Gordon picked up his fourth Infineon victory, winning for the third time from the pole. It also extended his own Nextel Cup record for road racing wins to eight. He has three wins this season and 67 for his career.
Nobody had a real challenge for Gordon on Sunday. His only real problem was the heat.
As temperatures at the scenic wine country circuit neared 90 degrees, the ventilation system in Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet became as overpowered as his competition.
“Today, I was challenged by my physical fitness,” Gordon said. “Those cautions we had with about 40 and 30 laps to go really helped me a lot. It gave me a chance to get a few moments to relax and it gave the crew a chance to give me some ice packs and cool me down a little.”
The late yellow flags also helped Gordon with another possible problem as crew chief Robbie Loomis cautioned him constantly on the radio to conserve gas.
“I was shutting the engine off rolling downhill and conserving any way I could,” said Gordon, whose last pit stop came on lap 68.
“I drove out and got as big a lead as I could and gave a lot of it up there at the end,” Gordon said. “It was real tough.”
It certainly didn’t look it.
Gordon beat surprising Jamie McMurray, in only his second start at the Sonoma track, to the finish line by 1.032 seconds — about 10 car-lengths, with road racing specialist Scott Pruett third.
McMurray said he never thought he had a shot at Gordon.
“I knew Jeff was going to have to run off the track or goof up and, typically, he doesn’t do that,” McMurray said. “I was just waiting on him to make a mistake, but I was driving as hard as I could. … We were just hanging on.”
Eyes on safety workers at Daytona
Track observers at Daytona International Speedway will have more direct communication with safety workers on the track beginning with next weekend’s Pepsi 400.
Ernie Thurston, director of emergency services at the speedway, said observers watching from platforms around the 2 1/2 -mile oval will be issued radios on which they can switch frequencies to “enhance their ability to talk directly to emergency people on track, but only in the event of an emergency.”
Thurston and other officials from Daytona and NASCAR met with about 130 part-time emergency services workers Saturday to go over procedures and explain the change.
NHRA driver dies in crash
National Hot Rod Association drag racer Darrell Russell died from injuries suffered in a violent crash during the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.
Russell, a 35-year-old native of Hockley, Texas, had just lost to Scott Kalitta in the second round of eliminations when his Top Fuel dragster crashed while running about 300 mph at the end of the quarter-mile strip at Gateway International Raceway.
The crash occurred around 6:30 p.m. Central time. Just less than two hours later Graham Light, NHRA senior vice president of racing operations, announced to the media that Russell had died at St. Louis University Hospital.