Jeff Gordon Ends 66 Race Winless Streak

Five caution flags in the first 70 laps at Phoenix made the one mile flat track look more like a Saturday night race at Bristol. After the fifth caution, 13 cars were either in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage or limping around the track with damage.

Teams, knowing the danger the new point system would put them in, worked feverishly to rebuild and get their cars back on the track either with new parts or without them. Several cars including pole sitter and early leader Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, and Clint Bowyer returned with new front ends, while David Reutimann and rookie Andy Lally came back out without any front end looking like a NASCAR Whelen Modified.

Jeff Gordon set the pace for the middle part of the race leading other top five contenders including Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch. Harvick who spun in one of the earlier cautions, but did not sustain any damage, ran sixth followed by Newman, Kahne and Kenseth. Denny Hamlin hung around the back of the top ten with the Richard Petty Fords of Allmendinger and Ambrose followed by the remaining Hendrick cars of Martin and Earnhardt Jr. By lap 160 only 21 cars were still on the lead lap and NASCAR was warning teams that they would be black flagged if they could not keep the minimum speed.

Driving settled down and long green flag runs were put together broken up by a tire going down on the #6 of David Ragan on lap 127. After the last caution on 285, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon pulled away from the field leaving Jimmy Johnson, Tony Stewart , Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick to battle it out.

Jeff Gordon made his pass for the lead on lap 303 and loses grip in the corner pushing up into Busch using him as a cushion. Busch bobbled and lost more ground to Gordon who pulled away leaving Busch no chance to catch him. When the checkered flag fell, Jeff Gordon made up for a bad start at Daytona and ended a 66 race streak without a win. He also gained the maximum 48 points to put him right back in the points hunt.