(WOMR file photo)
Jeff Gordon held off Kevin Harvick over the final laps of the race, and went on to win the 5-Hour Energy 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night.
The victory, for Jeff Gordon, was by .112 seconds, and it was the first victory of the year for “Mr. Four-Time”, and his third victory at Kansas Speedway.
The win for Gordon was his first since Martinsville Speedway last fall, additionally, it earned him a place in the record book as the first winner of a night race at the track. Make that “another place” in the book as he won the first-ever Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway back in 2001.
By winning, Gordon, who started the race leading the series in points, virtually assured himself a spot in the season-ending Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
“It’s a weight lifted off this team’s shoulders,” Gordon said. “We’ve been leading the points but we needed to get to Victory Lane.”
Gordon left Kansas with a 15-point lead over second-place Matt Kenseth.
Harvick finished second after leading the most laps, 119 all combined, in the race and making an impressive charge to Gordon’s rear bumper on the final lap.
“Just ran out of laps at the end,” Harvick said.
He said running out of fuel as he headed to pit road on his final pit stop allowed Gordon to move past him and, ultimately, get the win.
Asked if running out of gas heading into the pits cost him the victory, Harvick said, “I can’t say that. I mean, even though it was out of gas, with these EFI (electronic fuel injection) units, it still runs and I should have been paying attention to my pit road speed lights and should have gotten off pit road better. It was my fault coming down pit road too slow.”
Check out the unofficial results of the 5-Hour Energy 400 from Kansas Speedway.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
