Gordon overpowers field
Published 12:00 am Monday, October 20, 2003
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Jeff Gordon overpowered the rest of the field Sunday, completing a season sweep of the two NASCAR Winston Cup races at Martinsville Speedway.
The victory in the caution-filled Subway 500 was the 63rd win of Gordon's career but only his second of the season. The four-time series champion led 313 of the 500 laps on the half-mile oval.
Jimmie Johnson, Gordon's protege and Hendrick Motorsports teammate, started 26th and lost more ground when he spun out early in the race, but came back to finish second.
It was a typical short track race, with plenty of bumping and banging that produced 15 caution flags and a record 117 laps run under yellow.
As he did in his victory here in April, Gordon started from the pole, dominated early, struggled for a while, then came back even stronger.
Gordon, who now owns five victories at Martsinville, led the final 205 laps, easily pulling away on each of a series of restarts and staying out of trouble on the narrow track.
Johnson trailed Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet across the finish line by 1.036-seconds - about 5 car-lengths.
Tony Stewart finished third, just ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who appeared to have the second best car through most of the race.