The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • C6

6C Monday, April 6, 2009 charlotteobserver.com The Charlotte ObserverSPORTS Observations Give crew chiefs Steve Letarte and Tony Eury Jr. a little credit. Letarte made the right calls to get Jeff Gordon to Victory Lane for the first time since October 2007. Eury fired two tires at Dale Earnhardt car to gain track position for a restart on Lap 259 in an effort to turn his car from one that ran about 12th all day into one that had a shot at something better. Earnhardt finished 20th, but it was worth a shot.

T-shirt of the week at Texas: With Me You Mess With the Whole Trailer I know television is about hype, but can we please quit with daughter never having been in Victory Lane after he won a Cup race? Go to Google.com and enter Gordon victory Talladega as keywords. You get four images of Gordon with Ella after his October 2007 win at Talladega. Notebook Pit stop does Edwards in Carl Edwards have to say anything. Problems on his final pit stop cost him the chance to win the Samsung 500, but he going to bad-mouth his crew. way this works is that I need anybody to tell me when done some- thing wrong, and they need anybody to tell Edwards said, referring to his pit crew on the No.

99 Ford. We just have to do whatever we can to fix Edwards had passed Jeff Gordon for the lead on Lap 296of 334, but seven laps later David Stremme spun after hitting the wall to bring out a yellow and send the leaders to pit road for the last time. had one good pit stop and passed Jeff for the lead and I thought, we can just have one more, be all Edwards said. But problems on the front tires delayed his exit from pit road and he was 11th on the restart. He finished 10th.

all in this Edwards said. we can do a better job than that, and sure we Stewart keeps rapping on the door Ricky Rudd was the last to win a Cup race and that happened Sept. 27, 1998, at Martinsville, Va. Tony Stewart made it there yet with Stewart-Haas Rac- ing, but he keeps getting close. were good today, we just quite good Stewart said after finishing fourth for his fifth top-10 in seven races.

guys had a couple of rough spots on pit road in the beginning, so I just told them to take a deep breath and slow down a little bit and they had great pit stops the rest of the Stewart said as a car owner he was hap- py with his day, which also saw teammate Ryan Newman finish 15th. the driver is ticked he said. wanted to win this thing. I felt like we had a shot at Stewart said his No. 14 Chevrolet needs to be better on shorter runs.

about 25 laps, we were the fastest car on the race track all he said. He is fifth in the points standings Kurt Busch leads Team Penske Kurt Busch finished eighth, and his Penske Racing teammates both managed lead-lap finishes. felt like we run with the big dogs today, but we could have a good points Busch said. exactly what we needed. Our car was better on the long runs.

We needed to be out there as long as we could and stretch it David Stremme got into the wall once but came home 14th in the No. 12 Dodge. Sam Hornish Jr. also was involved in an on-track incident but finished 17th. Montoya creeping up on Chase look now but Juan Pablo Montoya is only one position and 16 points outside the top 12 after finishing seventh.

a great Montoya said. guys worked hard all weekend and our third straight top-15 Reutimann convert from pole David Reutimann started first and led 40 laps in his No. 00 Toyota, but he got a one- lap penalty for pitting outside his pit box to end any shot he might have had at his first win. Still, Reutimann got the free pass on a caution and made his way back to 11th. He remains 11th in the Sprint Cup standings.

car was coming out of its pit stall and we had to kind of take evasive Reutimann said. slid out of the box, which is my fault, and they started chang- ing the tires before they got it back. We spent the rest of the day trying to battle Earnhardt gamble pay off Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead on Lap 253 by taking only two tires on a pit stop, but contact from Kyle Busch just after the restart knocked him out of contention. just got into the wall down there in the middle of (Turns) 1 and said Earn- hardt, who lost a lap when he had to pit under green after that restart and wound up 20th.

car jumped sideways. We were just running hard there, trying to get the best finish we could. My Busch had gone two laps down when he cut a tire after making contact with John Andretti earlier. He was trying to get one of them back when he made a three-wide move up the middle on that restart. No.

18 Toyota seemed to move up the track into Chevrolet, forcing Earn- hardt higher up the track. Earnhardt immediately lost the lead but had seemed to settle into seventh place before he started falling back before com- ing to pit road. Race Rewind results and points standings Fin St Driver Car Pts Earnings 1. 2 Jeff Gordon Chevy 334 195 $541,874 2. 9 Jimmie Johnson Chevy 334 175 367,724 3.

14 Greg Biffle Ford 334 170 249,625 4. 7 Tony Stewart Chevy 334 165 219,146 5. 3 Matt Kenseth Ford 334 160 221,363 6. 23 Mark Martin Chevy 334 155 163,975 7. 16 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevy 334 146 184,071 8.

28 Kurt Busch Dodge 334 147 151,000 9. 15 Jeff Burton Chevy 334 138 176,304 10. 13 Carl Edwards Ford 334 139 176,579 11. 1 David Reutimann Toyota 334 135 172,346 12. 22 Denny Hamlin Toyota 334 127 139,025 13.

5 Paul Menard Ford 334 129 156,079 14. 32 David Stremme Dodge 334 121 155,213 15. 21 Ryan Newman Chevy 334 118 150,002 16. 18 Brian Vickers Toyota 334 120 147,746 17. 12 Sam Hornish Jr.

Dodge 334 112 136,833 18. 8 Kyle Busch Toyota 333 114 160,246 19. 6 Kasey Kahne Dodge 333 106 153,371 20. 20 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy 333 108 128,625 21.

35 Casey Mears Chevy 333 100 125,375 22. 19 Clint Bowyer Chevy 333 97 109,575 23. 40 Brad Keselowski Chevy 332 94 105,325 24. 34 Michael Waltrip Toyota 332 91 114,475 25. 31 Martin Truex Jr.

Chevy 332 88 140,913 26. 26 John Andretti Chevy 332 85 111,275 27. 17 Kevin Harvick Chevy 331 82 139,583 28. 37 Bill Elliott Ford 331 79 100,075 29. 30 David Gilliland Chevy 330 76 95,775 30.

10 Joey Logano Toyota 330 73 145,524 31. 33 Regan Smith Chevy 330 70 92,700 32. 42 Elliott Sadler Dodge 329 67 102,700 33. 41 Aric Almirola Chevy 328 64 102,450 34. 25 AJ Allmendinger Dodge 328 61 92,400 35.

39 Max Papis Toyota 326 58 88,275 36. 38 Reed Sorenson Dodge 315 55 127,524 37. 4 David Ragan Ford 293 1 57 94,025 38. 36 Jamie McMurray Ford 255 49 92,875 39. 29 Robby Gordon Toyota 249 1 46 104,058 40.

24 Bobby Labonte Ford 229 2 43 112,802 41. 11 Marcos Ambrose Toyota 216 1 40 99,606 42. 27 Mike Bliss Dodge 76 3 37 84,390 43. 43 Dave Blaney Toyota 48 4 34 84,717 AVERAGE SPEED: 146.372 mph. TIME OF RACE: 3 hours, 25 minutes, 22 seconds.

MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.378 seconds. CAUTION FLAGS: Six for 30 laps. LEAD CHANGES: 28 among 14 drivers. LAP LEADERS: J.Gordon 1-7; Reutimann 8-46; Kenseth 47-50; Reutimann 51; Stewart 52; Ky.Busch 53-54; Kenseth 55-87; Stewart 88-98; Kenseth 99-116; Biffle 117-152; J.Gordon 153; Ragan 154; Ku.Busch 155; Martin 156; Biffle 157-208; Stewart 209-211; J.Gordon 212; Martin 213-214; Johnson 215; Menard 216; Biffle 217-221; J.Gordon 222-252; Earnhardt Jr. 253-258; J.Gordon 259-295; Edwards 296-304; Stewart 305; Vickers 306; J.Gordon 307-334.

OUT: 1. Engine; 2. Wreck; 3. Clutch; 4. Brakes.

Pos.Driver Pts Back 1. Jeff Gordon 1154 2. J. Johnson 992 -162 3. Kurt Busch 974 -180 4.

Clint Bowyer 967 -187 5. Tony Stewart 963 -191 6. Denny Hamlin 938 -216 7. Kyle Busch 914 -240 8. Carl Edwards 889 -265 9.

Matt Kenseth 864 -290 10. Kasey Kahne 851 -303 11. D. Reutimann 845 -309 12. Jeff Burton 835 -319 13.

Juan Montoya 819 -335 14. Kevin Harvick 796 -358 15. Greg Biffle 775 -379 16. D. Earnhardt Jr.768 -386 17.

Ryan Newman 743 -411 18. Mark Martin 742 -412 19. Brian Vickers 737 -417 20. A. Allmendingr 731 -423 21.

M. Waltrip 721 -433 22. David Stremme720 -434 23. Casey Mears 688 -466 24. M.

Truex Jr. 672 -482 25. Elliott Sadler 667 -487 26. Bobby Labonte 663 -491 Pos.Driver Pts Back 27. J.

McMurray 658 -496 28. M. Ambrose 656 -498 29. David Ragan 626 -528 30. Reed Sorenson 624 -530 31.

S. Hornish Jr. 571 -583 32. Paul Menard 543 -611 33. John Andretti 540 -614 34.

Robby Gordon 531 -623 35. Joey Logano 510 -644 36. David Gilliland 462 -692 37. Aric Almirola 451 -703 38. Scott Speed 386 -768 39.

Travis Kvapil 292 -862 40. Regan Smith 276 -878 41. Bill Elliott 228 -926 42. Scott Riggs 216 -938 43. Joe Nemechek 205 -949 44.

Dave Blaney 187 -967 45. J. Mayfield 158 -996 46. Bra. Kslowski 143 -1011 47.

Todd Bodine 123 -1031 48. Max Papis 113 -1041 49. Terry Labonte 91 -1063 50. Mike Bliss 71 -1083 51. Sterling Marlin 43 -1111 LOOKING BACK AT THE RACE, BY DAVID POOLE 5 key moments LAP 108 Kyle Busch makes contact with John Andretti as they race in traffic, leading to a cut tire that puts No.

18 Toyota two laps down and basically eliminates him from being a contend- er in this race. LAP 220 When Marcos Ambrose loses an engine in his Ford to bring out a yellow, crew chief Steve Letarte tells Jeff Gordon to stay on the track. That move gives Gordon the lead and the clean air that goes with it. stay in the hunt the rest of the afternoon. LAP 259 Greg Biffle, whose No.

16 Ford might have been the fastest car on the track all day, has a problem on a pit stop when lug nuts fall off tires as put on his car. Biffle is 11th on the restart, putting him in a hole he quite be able to dig all the way out of. LAP 305 Carl team has trouble with the front tires of the No. 99 Ford during the final pit stop. Edwards was the leader coming into the pits but was 11th on the restart.

That took Edwards out of position. LAP 309 Gordon gets a good jump on the final restart, building enough of a lead to help him fend off one final challenge from teammate Jimmie Johnson and go back to Victory Lane for the first time in 48 races. Next race SUBWAY 500 WHERE: Phoenix International Race- way, Avondale, Ariz. WHEN: April 18, 8:30 p.m. TV: Fox RADIO: Motor Rac- ing Network LAST WIN- NER: Jimmie John- son By David Poole FORT WORTH, Texas Greg Bif- fle would have loved a chance to race Jeff Gordon for the vic- tory Sunday in the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but he overcome a couple of sticking points.

Well, actually, they were non-sticking points. But the outcome was the same. Biffle rallied to finish third behind Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, but he felt as though his No. 16 Ford was the fastest car in a race Biffle led 93 laps. But twice during pit stops in the second half of the race, glue that holds lug nuts on the tires that were about to be put on his car fell off.

That cost him track position he eventually make up and also cost him that chance he so badly wanted. just wish had the op- portunity to race with (Gor- don) for the Biffle said. was hoping for a caution in the last 10 laps just to bunch the field up and see what would happen. It would have been a great Biffle was 11th on the restart on Lap 259 after the pit-road missteps and although his car was fast after that the best he could do was pass Tony Stew- art with just more than two laps left for third. crew got some tires from another team and the ad- hesive that holds the lug nuts on hold.

it got glued up too early or too Biffle said. a technique to it that I know nothing The thing that bothered Bif- fle was that the shorthand ver- sion of why he there fighting for a win was that something went wrong on pit stops. But he said the pit crew had a good day. not really the seven guys doing the work over the Biffle said. hard.

Those guys get down because the fingers get pointed at them for a slow stop. But not their Biffle would have been re- luctant to point fingers anyway since he made a mistake on pit road earlier this year running over the air hose in a race at California that might have cost his team a shot at another win. But still, a third-place finish was good medicine for Biffle and his Roush Fenway Racing team. finished 34th, 39th and 28th in the most recent races to drop to 23rd in the Sprint Cup standings, but Sun- result moved him up eight spots to 15th. did have a great run to- Biffle said.

could have caught (Johnson) and with a little while longer we could have got (Gordon). We just ran out of time. It looked like we had the fastest car to- day. But not always that the fastest car Tough break in pits leaves 3rd He felt he had the fastest car, but lug nut trouble cost time he make up. JONATHAN FERRY GETTY IMAGES Greg Biffle leads the field Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

He hoped for a last-lap shootout with Jeff Gordon. He was rusty. was the Gordon said after holding off Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson over the final laps to get his 82nd Cup win. those emotions and excitement. A season goes by and guys recre- ate how they celebrate a victo- ry from getting the checkered Gordon did burnouts.

He stopped and got the checkered flag. the first time ev- er carried a checkered flag around after a race win in he said. used to do it in quarter midgets back when I was about 8. do a back flip, so not going to do This sunny but windy after- noon might have concluded with a back flip, the signature move from Carl Edwards who won both Cup races at Texas last season while Gordon went all year without winning for the first time since his rookie campaign in 1993. Edwards had passed Gordon for the lead on Lap 296, but his team fumbled away its chance for a victory on a final pit stop that left Edwards 11th for the re- start with 25 laps to go.

all in this Edwards said after finishing 10th. guys yell at me when I hit the wall, so not my position to be mad at crew, on the other hand, ripped off a fast stop. come in third, behind Ed- wards and Tony Stewart, but won the race off pit road and got his No. 24 Chevrolet in the clean air he needed to get a good jump into the final run. Stewart was second.

John- son, whose team kept improv- ing on a Chevrolet that was not a factor during the first two- thirds of the race, was third. Greg Biffle, led 93 laps but also lost track position when he had problems on pit road, was fourth. Gordon said his car was per- fect for the first few laps after the restart. car was so stuck to the race track I have to worry about making he said. mess it up.

But after that the balance started going away and I kept telling myself, make a mistake. over- drive I did a couple times but Johnson got to second and he was giving it all he had to try to catch his teammate. John- son, driving car No. 48, wanted to extend winless streak to that number. a friend, I would have felt Johnson said.

a competitor, I would have been excited. I could only get so close. I tried the top side (of the track). Nothing really panned out. I went back down to the bottom and started making up a little bit of time again, hoping that that would put pressure on him and force him into a mistake.

But he ran a perfect It perfect, Gordon said, but it was good enough at track where he admitted that as recently as after fi- nal practice he felt Gordon, who now has won at every track on the schedule except for Homestead-Miami Speedway, actually has more top-five finishes (seven) at Texas than any other driver. But also had some tough times at the track things like wrecks and mistakes that happened nearly as of- ten to the four-time Cup cham- pion elsewhere. One of the worst came a year ago this week. After getting his season off to a decent start Gordon and his team came to Texas and struggled from the time they unloaded. The angst carried over off the track, too.

His wife Ingrid and their daughter Ella were at the track all weekend last year. was having a rough time on the track because we we- very Gordon said. love going back to see Ella and Ingrid in the bus, but Ella was not sleeping well. So I was up all night and stressed On race day, he finished 43rd. was no coincidence to me that we had the race that we had at this time last he said.

was just a miserable weekend all the way This time it was just the op- posite. Ingrid and Ella at Texas this time, but Gordon said he believes this win means there will be more this year, so there will be other opportuni- ties for them to join the fun. As for Gordon, the victory moved him to within one of ty- ing Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time victory list. But this one had its own feel, Gordon said. feels like the very first he said.

TONY GUTIERREZ ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Before Sunday, Jeff last win had come Motor Speedway in October 2007. TEXAS from 1C.