Progress In Summer School
June 29 - - Although Jeff Gordon didn't come away with a victory in the rain-shortened Lenox 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a strong 2nd place effort showed that Gordon had made significant improvement on the flat tracks. Since New Hampshire is the first race in the 'chase for the championship,' the strong effort in June should pay dividends in mid-September.

Gordon started on the outside of the front row and immediately jumped into the lead. However, he lost the top spot to Kurt Busch on lap 7. A caution for Patrick Carpentier's brush with the wall slowed the field on lap 15. Gordon, and most of the top-10, elected to stay on the track. On the restart, he powered ahead of Busch on the outside line to take the lead. Jamie McMurray's wreck on lap 22 slowed the field. Gordon chose the inside line for the restart and jumped to the outside to hold onto the lead heading into the first turn. Once again, the green flag run was short-lived as A.J. Allmendinger's spin brought the caution out on lap 28. On the next restart, Busch jumped to the lead on the outside line. A competition caution on lap 45 brought the field to pit road. Gordon departed pit road with the lead. He chose the outside line for the restart, and subsequently lost the lead to Jimmie Johnson.

Gordon settled in behind Johnson until green flag pit stops on lap 124. Gordon trailed his Hendrick Motorsports teammate by about one second on the track. A debris caution on lap 155 brought the field to pit road. Gordon opted for two tires and exited pit road with the lead. Gordon took the outside line on the restart and held onto the lead. The caution waved on lap 172 after Paul Menard hit the wall. Gordon once again chose the outside line for the restart. Gordon got a jump on the restart, which allowed him to stay in front of the day's major incident. Martin Truex was turned sideways by Kyle Busch on the fronstretch while coming up to speed. Truex spun toward the outside wall and collected Casey Mears, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, David Ragan, and Brian Vickers. The race was red-flagged for track clean-up.

Gordon got the jump on the restart on lap 180, but the field only ran three laps before a caution for Joey Logano's cut tire. Gordon raced to the lead on the restart and battled side-by-side with Tony Stewart for a few laps before Scott Speed's spin brought out the caution flag on lap 190. On the restart, Stewart battled alongside Gordon and took the lead on the backstretch. Gordon ran 2nd to Stewart before green flag pit stops on lap 235. Gordon beat Stewart off pit road and was in position to take the race lead once the stops cycled through the field. However, with rain showers on the horizon, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano stayed on the track in an effort to win a rain-shortened race. Gordon's fresh tires cut Newman's 15 second lead in half with 40 laps to go. Newman came to pit road with 38 laps to go after running out of fuel. Joey Logano inherited the lead as steady rain began falling, thus necessitating a caution flag. Gordon held off Busch for the runner-up position just before the caution flag. The race was red flagged with 27 laps to go. The victory was Logano's first in the Cup series.

"I felt like we had the best car," Gordon said. "The guys got us out first on our last pit stop, but it just got us out ahead of the guys we were racing with." He congratulated Logano and said Zipadelli made "a gutsy call" leaving the youngster on track. "I was trying to get him to use as much fuel on the caution laps as I could," Gordon said, grinning. "I thought for sure he was going to run out of gas."

Post-Race Comments:
It was a great run. I was so proud of the team, I didn't feel like we were that good yesterday, and just some great calls that Steve made on the setup, a great call today. We were not very good on the restarts. So we had to fight real hard or give up two spots, but man, our car was so strong after we got ten laps on the tires. And you know, there at the end, we were running second and we just had an awesome pit stop, got stopped first, well not first on the track but ahead of the guys who were racing. I was wondering why the guys were racing me really hard. I thought they were lap cars and we were actually racing for position and that cost me some time and Kurt started catching us. I saw the rain coming and I pushed it the first lap or so and it started getting pretty slick and started backing off and Kurt really gained on me and then Steve told me was actually the leader, at that moment my heart sunk that we didn't have a shot at winning it and I was hoping we would run out of gas if it wane. I was pushing real hard to keep the engine going around the caution laps but once it started raining hard it was over.

Q: Jeff, talking about trying to get him to run out of gas, it looked there y'all were giving us kind of some of the best yellow flag racing we have seen in a while. Could you sort of describe in detail, there was one time you went under him and he come down and cut you off, and were you trying to keep him from getting to the bottom to shake it and feed his pick up, or can you kind of tell us what you were doing in detail.
JEFF GORDON: No, he was shutting the engine off and not keeping up with the pace car. I was just running pace car speed and it allowed me to get to the outside of him and make him start his engine and use some fuel and he didn't like that. So he moved up, so I couldn't get to the outside so I just went to the inside. I didn't want to push him, and I didn't want to back off, because that was our only shot was for him to run out of fuel. You know, he did exactly what he needed to do. I was just running the pace car speed, so it looked like I was maybe trying to pass him, but he was just shutting the engine off.

Q: One time, though, he just cut hard down in front of you when you were under him; did y'all come close to bumping on that?
JEFF GORDON: No. I think we just came up on some jet dryers or track cleaners. It was nothing.

Q: The reason he had enough fuel was because he brought out the ninth caution and pitted. How whacky is it that a spin actually put him in position to do this, and also, I think they added one lap to this race two years ago, and they haven't finished one yet. Maybe they should take off a lap?
JEFF GORDON: I don't know about that. But you know, you win them anyway that you possibly can. I've won because we made a great call and stayed out and it rained. You know, I was telling Lee earlier that when they spun, when they had to come down pit road, as much as that put him behind, it also gave him that opportunity and you've got to be smart enough as a crew chief to be able to fill it up with fuel, put four tires on it, and play the only strategy that you have at that point, which is, you know, to stay out, and if you're watching the radar and you see that rain is coming, you just basically they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and it's a lot easier to make that call when you're in that position, and it was a gutsy call. But at the same time, it was I think sort of a no brainer for him. You know, the only thing that wasn't going to work out was if they ran out under caution because they were going to lose a lot more positions than they would have if they could have come in and topped off.

Q: Seems like this is the first race where double file restarts really had a big role on the action. Can you talk about how that changed the complexion of the race, and Jeff, at one point you took umbrage with Kurt on some moves, does it change the way you race at this track?
JEFF GORDON: This place is really tough on restarts anyway. I was here with Goodyear when we did a tire test and they softened the tire up a little about. I thought it was a little bit better, but I feel like we could go turn further and a lot of it was more falloff at the end of a run, as well as getting up to speed a little bit and having a little bit more grip on the restarts. With that said, my car, I felt like I was on ice out there. I took the outside lane. I could get a good start, but you know, it's funny that Kurt was saying he wasn't very good on the restarts, because I felt like he's a lot better than I was. I couldn't even run in the bottom lane and he could get down there but he couldn't quite clear me and the one time I don't know if he just slipped or what, but pushed me pretty wide, and it almost got a little ugly. At that point, you know that whoever gets out front seems to have a huge advantage, and that's why I was fighting as hard as I was on the inside, and while he was fighting as hard as he was on the inside.

Q: Do you come away from this race muttering about what might have been because of the way Joey wins, and that's ten bonus points that are off the table now, or do you just say, hey, we got second and third and that's as good as we go and you move on to the next week?
JEFF GORDON: I'm disappointed we didn't get the ten bonus points because we had a great shot at it with a great run but it is a bit of a wash, because at least nobody else that we are racing right now in the championship or in the Top 12 or 14 got them, either. So, yeah, it's like nobody got ten bonus points kind of. I think I was more disappointed in that one than I was this year. I don't remember where we finished but it wasn't very good. I've got such a bad memory to recall those races that I've run here, but it seems like the ones here recently have been pretty strange.

Q: How good was your car at the end?
JEFF GORDON: My car was really good there at the end. We came up on some slower cars. It seemed like it took me a little bit longer to get through them. I was trying to be careful. The honest thing is I didn't realize I was racing those guys for position, and I wasn't sure who was a lap down and who was on who was stretching fuel, what was going on. But I thought it was interesting that some guys that we were racing were racing really hard. And it took, you know, a little bit out of my car to push that hard behind somebody, because when you get up behind somebody, you lose the nose and it makes the car kind of tires go away a little bit. Once I got by him, I felt like I could pull Kurt, but then it started raining, and you know, it got to where it was raining pretty hard down in 3 and 4 and I started checking up and being probably a little bit too cautious, and he was being real aggressive.

Q: You leaned in Joey's car and said it doesn't matter how you win. Does that take you back to your rookie times? Is it something maybe Dale said to you or some other driver when you got your first win?
JEFF GORDON: No. It's just that, you know, when you go back to the stats and you look at the wins, there's no asterisk next to rain shortened. It's, you got a win. I've won a bunch of races in this series and I've been very fortunate to do it at times by having the best car, the best pit stops. You know, sometimes I can say that I out drove the guys. But there's plenty of those wins that came because of a two tire stop, gas and go, rain shortened, a lot of different ways. I'll take them any way I can get them, that's for sure. So I just poked my head in there and congratulated him. He didn't want me to jinx him because he didn't think it was over yet but it was pouring down rain, and I was pretty sure it was over. I said, "Great job and great call."

YOU'VE BEEN GOOD AT A LOT OF RACETRACKS, BUT YOU DO SO WELL HERE AT POCONO WHY IS THAT?
"I don't know. I wouldn't necessarily say that the last couple of times I've been here. I feel like I've never been here before. It's hard to believe we've won four races here in the past because if you get off just the tiniest bit you feel like you're no longer at Pocono. You're not sure where you are at. As many laps and miles I have around this place you're always learning, you're always trying to figure it out. I felt like we got closer but we need to certainly get better. I'm really happy for Tony (Stewart). That's a great victory for him. A great job shutting the engine off during the green to make it all the way."

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