Racing

All hail Gordon - Jeff, duck!

Jeff Gordon's 77th win, topping Dale Earnhardt, draws some fans' anger.

By BRANT JAMES
Published April 30, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] Jeff Gordon hugs his wife Ingrid in Victory Lane.

TALLADEGA, Ala. - Jeff Gordon's voice was pitching into a full wail as he neared the finish line under caution Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

"Whoo! I can't believe we won this, guys. Awesome, " he screeched.

Spotter Shannon McGlamery chimed in, decidedly less gleeful.

"Anybody got a security guard for me up here?"

On what would have been Dale Earnhardt's 56th birthday, at the track where he won a record 10 races and raised a massive army that defends his honor and adopted his son and namesake, Earnhardt's heir as the face of NASCAR passed the late legend Sunday for sixth on the all-time wins list with his 77th.

Earnhardt's fans, who have jeered Gordon for a dozen years, toasted Nextel Cup's active wins leader by heaving cans of beer and other debris onto the track as the race concluded. It wasn't quite the hail that followed Gordon's win at Talladega under caution when he held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2004. But he had begun what was shaping into a grandstand-long burnout before NASCAR requested his presence in Victory Lane to quell the budding insurrection.

"That might have been a great decision, " Gordon said of his celebration.

Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson was second, followed by Kurt Busch, David Gilliland and Jamie McMurray.

Gordon certainly won't convert the mostly hostile 160, 000 in Earnhardt's house. But it was satisfying to make such a statement there. Gordon tied Earnhardt's record of 11 restrictor-plate wins. He tied Earnhardt Jr. for most wins at Talledga by an active driver, with five. And it happened at the place Earnhardt Sr. earned his final victory, in October 2000.

And then again it wasn't so satisfying.

"It's an interesting feeling because on one side I want to just jump up and down and just be fired up about getting 77 here at Talladga knowing three- quarters of the grandstands are pulling against us, " he said. "And then on the other side I respect Dale so much, learned so much from him and then it being his birthday and knowing how many people would love to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. win this race today, it's tough.

"I certainly didn't want to start a riot today. I wanted to break that record and I wanted to do it in Talladega."

International Speedway Corp. said fewer than 10 people were detained for throwing objects and that no injuries were reported.

Earnhardt Jr., who had suggested fans should throw toilet paper if they must throw at all (television footage showed at least one roll on the track), finished fifth but had no charge at the end, saying "we didn't get cheated ... we didn't have the car to get it done in the first place."

Gordon holds sixth place alone on NASCAR's all-time wins list. Richard Petty possesses the untouchable record of 200, followed by David Pearson (105), Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip (84), and Cale Yarborough (83).

The postrace debacle followed an anticlimatic finish to what was shaping into a thriller.

Gordon, who led 10 times for a race-high 71 laps, was 14th with 10 laps left, but made his move by joining an all-star low-line surge with Tony Stewart and Johnson to push into the top five on Lap 182 of a scheduled 188.

Gordon passed leader Jamie McMurray on Lap 185, just before David Reutimann's No. 00 Toyota began belching smoke and spraying oil on the front straightaway. Johnson ducked low when the race resumed in a green-white-checkered finish and was closing fast when Greg Biffle appeared to cut down on Elliott Sadler behind the leaders, prompting a caution that froze the field and ended the race.

Despite several drivers' predictions of mayhem, the smooth new pavement yielded only a few minor crashes, none involving more than six cars. The field quickly meshed into a high-speed blob, with no more than five cars able to get ahead of the fray. With no cautions until Lap 74, green-flag runs set up pit strategies that helped put new characters atop the leaderboard for much of the race.

Casey Mears' hard crash into the wall near pit entry on Lap 125, and Ricky Rudd and Kyle Busch's collision on the backstretch, allowed the field to top off and get enough fuel for the finish. And typical restrictor-plate predators - Gordon, Earnhardt Jr. and Stewart -hunched back into the field as if waiting for the inexperienced front of the pack to waiver.

"That second-to-last caution actually worked in our favor because we were lining up there, getting ready to go, " said Gordon, who retained the points lead for the fifth consecutive week.

"Once it shuffled up, we were coming to the front."

And then it was time to duck.

Top winners

The leaders in all-time wins at NASCAR's top level:

1. Richard Petty 200

2. David Pearson 105

3. Darrell Waltrip 84, Bobby Allison 84

5. Cale Yarborough 83

6. Jeff Gordon 77

7. Dale Earnhardt 76

8. Rusty Wallace 55

9. Lee Petty 54

10. Junior Johnson 50,

Ned Jarrett 50

[Last modified April 29, 2007, 23:58:00]