Gordon Dominates Sonoma, Climbs Back To 8th Overall
Sunday, June 25th, 2006 7:19pm CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
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[thumb:167:r:s=1:l=x]Jeff Gordon dominated the hills of wine country this afternoon, as he took the checkered flag for the first time in 19 races. Jeff’s car was on rails, and he was consistently about a half second faster than the rest of the field as he lead the most laps in the event as well.
After an eventful opening lap, that saw Jamie McMurray and Bobby Labonte get off track in turn 1, and Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin wreck in turn 8 to bring out the caution then red flag for 12 minutes, the field settled down into the groove for racing at one of the more difficult road coarses in the nation.
Kurt Busch lead 29 laps until handling the lead over to Tony Stewart during the first set of pit stops. Jeff took the lead on lap 50, then gave it up during Green flag stops on lap 71. Terry Labonte was out in front after the sequence, because he had stopped on lap 60 prior to everyone else. The team rolled the dice, betting they could make it to the end. Terry drove a conservative race, saved a ton of fuel (almost 4 gallons worth), and came home third. Jeff caught Terry and took the lead back on lap 88, and never flinched. The performance was classic Jeff Gordon, and he proved today that he’s still the king of the road courses. Rounding out the top 5 was Newman, Terry Labonte, Biffle, and Kurt Busch. Tony Stewart, while appearing to be a threat early, lost a cylinder and ended up finishing 28th.
Filed Under: Nascar, Nextel Cup
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