Jeff Gordon celebrates in victory lane after winning the 5-Hour Energy 400 at Kansas Speedway. [Jerry Markland/NASCAR via Getty Images]
Jeff Gordon finally found victory lane after a number of near misses earlier this season.
The win, number 89 of his career, sets Gordon up to grab a spot in the Chase. Gordon leads the point standings and is currently seeded third in the race to the Chase.
Gordon had to hold off a hard charging Kevin Harvick, who had led the most laps of the race, over the final laps and crossed the finish line just a little over a tenth of a second in front of Harvick’s Chevrolet.
Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top five. Danica Patrick scored the best finish of her Sprint Cup career with a seventh place run.
Gordon’s victory was the third for him at the Kansas Speedway, a track where he won the inaugural race in 2001 and now has won the first ever night race at the mile-and-a-half track.
What They Said:
Jeff Gordon – #24 Sponsor Chevrolet SS (winner) “This has just always been one of my favorite tracks from that first race. I don’t know what it is about this race team and this racetrack for inaugural events, but tonight’s win was very, very special. Man, and it didn’t come easy. Nothing makes me more proud than when it’s all on the line and you get the lead and you’ve got to hold off somebody like Harvick and you get it done. It might have been by inches, but we got it done because that’s what builds momentum, that’s what builds a great race team and turns you not only into a winning team, but hopefully a championship team. That whole last run was really strange for me, because I felt like we had a good stop. We came off pit road and the four tires that we took, the car was hooked up right away and I was excited about that, and then a lap or two later, I saw Kevin come off pit road onto the back straightaway and we got ahead of him, and I knew it was on at that moment. I knew I had to push hard, and the car felt good at that time, so I was like, oh, we’re okay. And then I had to maneuver through some lap traffic, and he got right to my bumper, but I actually was able to pull away from him, and I was like, wow, I wasn’t expecting that. He’d been so good all night. We’d finally gotten the car where I could run the top groove. So I started to settle in, and right about the time I settled in, I started getting super loose, especially in 3 and 4, and I didn’t know where that came from. Maybe it was traffic. Traffic was pretty tough out there tonight, and so — then he caught me, and I got through traffic. He had some trouble, and I pulled away, and I thought, okay, we’re good. And then the car was great, I took off, and all of a sudden got loose again. And so there at the end, I was just trying to stay away from traffic. I didn’t want to get closed up on anybody. I wanted to try to have a clean lap. I got through 1 and 2 pretty good, but I got over to 3 and the car just went completely sideways on me and I couldn’t get on the gas, and I thought I’d look like a bigger idiot if I spun out leading than just trying to make sure I get back to the line first. I gave up some speed there, but we won the race, so it’s all good.
No, he was strong and he was coming. He was so strong on the top side of 3 and 4, I’m not sure I could have held him off much longer.”
Kevin Harvick – #4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS (finished 2nd)
“I found a groove that worked for me, but I slipped with about 10 or 11 laps to go and lost all the ground I had made up. It was a weird night, for sure, but I’m proud of everybody on this team. What put us in second is I didn’t get down pit road very good there coming to the pit box. I kind of ran out of gas, and I was paying attention to the fuel pressure gauge instead of the pit road speed light. I lost some time there, but everybody on our Jimmy John’s Chevrolet did a good job. Congrats to those guys (the No. 24 team), they have been running good all year. And I’m glad to see a Chevrolet in victory lane.”
Kasey Kahne – #5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS (finished 3rd) “We had a fast Farmers Insurance Chevy throughout the race, worked our way up. Some of the pit strategy and things, sequence more than anything. We got to the front there for a little bit, led some laps, felt really good at that point in time, and then we got a little tighter later and didn’t free up or tighten up enough there at the end when we put four tires back on. We just tried to run rights for too long. I think I was on the front stretch or something [when the track lights went out], because the lights were good and the next time we came through it was dark on the back. And once it went green from that point, I didn’t even remember that they were off the rest of the time. It’s way darker back there, but you can still see just fine, and you just kind of forget about it.
Our biggest deal is we’ve just been slow this season. Really haven’t been inconsistent or anything like that, we’ve just been slow each week. We tested here, we had that Goodyear tire test, and I felt like from that point on, we’ve actually had really fast cars. We were able to try some things and just look at stuff a little differently than what we had been. Ever since we tested here, we’ve ran much better and been a lot more competitive.”
Joey Logano – #22 AAA Ford Fusion (finished 4th)
“It was all strategy at the end.. Our AAA Fusion was fast, we just weren’t fast enough I guess. I think we were probably the third best car out there and we finished fourth so I guessed it all worked itself out. I was really good on the short runs toward the middle part of the race. That last restart, the 4 and 24 (cars) just took off and left me. I was like, ‘Man, wait for me!’ Those guys were quick. We missed our adjustments a little bit trying to keep up with the track. I feel like we should have finished third. The 5 (car) got by me when I was trying to get around a lap car and I am disappointed in myself there.”
Carl Edwards – #99 Aflac Ford Fusion (finished 6th)
“We needed one more restart. I found a little of the line up top. Jimmy [Fennig, crew chief] did a great job with our Aflac Fusion. He made some big adjustments and our strategy didn’t work the first half. The second half it was good though. I wanted a better showing for these guys here. So many people come support me at this race but congrats to Jeff (Gordon), he has run well enough and deserves that win. We will go to the next track, but man do I want to win this thing.”
Danica Patrick – #10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS (finished 7th)
“Honestly, the most rewarding part of my night was probably when I drove around the outside of the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) on a restart. That was probably my most rewarding thing of the night. I say that with all the respect in the world. It’s a big deal because he is Jimmie Johnson. Aside from that I was really just overall proud that we stayed up front all day. That was the biggest thing. We more than held our own through the whole race. I’m extremely proud of this crew for building a new car that was just awesome. It was so good on restarts and long runs and tires getting old. Hard work pays off, and they definitely put the hard work into it.”
Brad Keselowski – #2 Wurth Ford Fusion (finished 13th) “We could never get Wurth Ford where we wanted it to be. We got close a couple times and we tried really hard. We got caught out on that one sequence, which put us behind, and then we just fought from there to get track position. We got up to eighth or ninth with 60 or 70 to go and tried to take a gamble to win on strategy and it didn’t quite payoff, although it was a really good call. We ended up 13th which is kind of ho-hum. We will just have to keep working on it.”
Regarding running up front in clean air: “It was way faster. I felt like Superman up there.”
Martin Truex Jr. – #78 Furniture Row Chevrolet SS (finished 21st)
“We got a lap down early and spent two-thirds of the race trying to make it up. Three different times we were only a car away from getting the ‘lucky dog’ (free pass back onto the lead lap) when the yellow flag came out. When we finally were able to get it with about 75 laps to go, the car got so tight that we really couldn’t make up any ground out there.”
Clint Bowyer – #15 Cherry 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry (finished 23rd)
“Well that was disappointing and certainly not how he wanted to finish the race at my home track. We just couldn’t seem to get the handling right tonight on our No.15 Cherry 5-hour ENERGY Toyota. Just a disappointing end to a great week.”
Kurt Busch – #41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS (finished 29th)
“We definitely didn’t get the finish we wanted in our Haas Automation Chevrolet. It was a disappointing day all around. We had the best qualifying session of the season this weekend, and we had high hopes for the race. It just didn’t work out the way we planned. The car was loose, and we couldn’t tighten it up no matter what we tried. It’s just frustrating. We need to do better, and hopefully we will do better moving forward.”
Justin Allgaier – #51 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet SS (finished 36th)
“We had a great weekend at Kansas [Speedway]. We made a lot of improvements in our mile-and-a-half program at HScott Motorsports. We were great in final practice and earned a good starting spot. Once the race got going, my BRANDT Chevy had a ton of grip, and we steadily worked our way through the field. My crew chief Steve Addington made great adjustments on the car all night. Unfortunately, we got caught up in an accident and don’t have the results to show for our great night. The good news is we were having a great race until that point.”
Up Next: Sprint Showdown Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC Saturday, May 16th 7:31pm ET
Defending Champion: Jamie McMurray
NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC Saturday, May 17th 9:26pm ET
Defending Champion: Jimmie Johnson
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