Kansas NASCAR: Jeff Gordon scores his first win of 2014
Jeff Gordon claimed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of 2014 by overcoming Kevin Harvick in Saturday night's Kansas Speedway race
Polesitter Harvick had a dominant car for much of the evening, and managed to recover from 18th to first after being disadvantaged when a yellow came out just after he had made a green-flag pitstop.
Getting back through the field following that impediment took Stewart-Haas driver Harvick 106 laps, but once up front again he resumed pulling away from the field and looked to have the race in the bag.
That was until the final pitstops, when coming in a lap earlier helped Gordon's Hendrick Chevrolet leapfrog Harvick, who lost a little momentum as his car ran dry coming into the pitlane.
He rallied in the closing moments, surging forward amid traffic and getting within a tenth of Gordon across the line, but he could not deny the four-time champion an 89th Cup series win.
Although Gordon had arrived at Kansas leading the championship, under the 2014 system he was not certain of making the Chase cut until he got a victory under his belt.
A full 10 seconds behind the lead battle, Kasey Kahne held off Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Carl Edwards and Danica Patrick for third.
Kahne, Logano, Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson - who ended up ninth on an alternate strategy - were the other drivers who led significant portions of the race, while seventh was a career-best finish for Patrick after a very competitive performance.
Results - 267 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Jeff Gordon Hendrick Chevrolet 3h07m31.000s 2. Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Chevrolet +0.112s 3. Kasey Kahne Hendrick Chevrolet +10.851s 4. Joey Logano Penske Ford +11.344s 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr Hendrick Chevrolet +12.359s 6. Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Ford +13.273s 7. Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Chevrolet +13.628s 8. Aric Almirola Petty Ford +15.539s 9. Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Chevrolet +15.989s 10. Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Toyota +19.126s 11. Ryan Newman Childress Chevrolet +20.603s 12. Kyle Larson Ganassi Chevrolet +24.520s 13. Brad Keselowski Penske Ford +25.616s 14. Brian Vickers Waltrip Toyota +28.097s 15. Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Toyota +29.623s 16. Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Ford +30.018s 17. Paul Menard Childress Chevrolet +1 lap 18. Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Toyota +1 lap 19. Austin Dillon Childress Chevrolet +1 lap 20. Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Chevrolet +1 lap 21. Martin Truex Jr Furniture Row Chevrolet +1 lap 22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr Roush Fenway Ford +2 laps 23. Clint Bowyer Waltrip Toyota +3 laps 24. Marcos Ambrose Petty Ford +3 laps 25. Michael Annett Baldwin Chevrolet +3 laps 26. Casey Mears Germain Chevrolet +3 laps 27. Ryan Blaney Penske Ford +4 laps 28. Cole Whitt BK Toyota +4 laps 29. Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Chevrolet +4 laps 30. AJ Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Chevrolet +4 laps 31. Joe Nemechek Robinson Toyota +5 laps 32. Reed Sorenson Baldwin Chevrolet +6 laps 33. Josh Wise Parsons Ford +6 laps 34. Travis Kvapil FAS Lane Ford +9 laps 35. Alex Bowman BK Toyota +10 laps Retirements: Justin Allgaier HScott Chevrolet 186 laps David Gilliland Front Row Ford 184 laps David Ragan Front Row Ford 171 laps* Jamie McMurray Ganassi Chevrolet 149 laps Timmy Hill Circle Sport Chevrolet 137 laps JJ Yeley Xxxtreme Toyota 136 laps Landon Cassill Hillman Chevrolet 63 laps Ryan Truex BK Toyota 57 laps * Running again at chequered flag
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