news: Gordon wins, Logano wrecked at Martinsville

Jeff Gordon’s quest for a fifth title in his final NASCAR season received a major boost at Martinsville, where Joey Logano’s winning streak came to a dramatic end.

Gordon proved too good for Jamie McMurray on the final restart two laps from home to score a highly popular 93rd career victory.

The win in the opening Eliminator round of the Chase guarantees that Gordon will advance to the final Championship round, where the final four play-off for the title.

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At 44 years old, Hendrick Chevrolet veteran Gordon has been chasing a fifth title since 2002 and had gone winless in 39 races.

“We’re going to Homestead,” beamed Gordon, whose Victory Lane celebrations were completed in near darkness after the start was delayed by rain.

Winner of the previous three races, Team Penske’s Joey Logano, led 207 laps before being wrecked by rival Matt Kenseth with less than 50 to go.

The incident followed Logano spinning Kenseth from the lead during the closing stages at Kansas two races ago.

“It was just a complete coward move, especially for a championship race car driver and race team,” said Logano of Kenseth.

“Just a complete coward. I don’t have anything else to say. It’s a chicken-you-know-what move to completely take out the leader when your race is over.”

Dismissing Logano’s comments, a relaxed Kenseth claimed that he had a right-front tyre going down due to damage from an earlier clash with Logano’s team-mate Brad Keselowski.

“Some days you’re the bat and some days you’re the ball,” said Kenseth, who had hinted at retribution in the immediate aftermath of the Kansas incident. “It’s never fun when you’re the ball.”

The previous contact with Keselowski had seen Kenseth spin into the path of Kurt Busch, whose title hopes also took a severe dent as a result.

Kenseth’s team-mate Denny Hamlin took third for Joe Gibbs, while Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr rounded out the top six.

Gordon now leads the Chase standings from Kyle Busch, Truex Jr, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Logano with two races remaining to set the field of four for the finale.

VIDEO: Race wrap

RESULTS: Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 – Martinsville Speedway

POS.	CAR #	DRIVER	MAKE	START	LAPS	LAPS LED	FINAL STATUS	POINTS	BONUS POINTS
1	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	5	500	35	Running	47	4
2	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	4	500	0	Running	42	0
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	10	500	3	Running	42	1
4	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr	Chevrolet	22	500	0	Running	40	0
5	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	6	500	0	Running	39	0
6	78	Martin Truex Jr	Chevrolet	2	500	27	Running	39	1
7	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	7	500	0	Running	37	0
8	4	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	12	500	38	Running	37	1
9	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	24	500	0	Running	35	0
10	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	13	500	0	Running	34	0
11	47	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	3	500	19	Running	34	1
12	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	21	500	0	Running	32	0
13	51	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	23	500	0	Running	31	0
14	19	Carl Edwards	Toyota	14	500	0	Running	30	0
15	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	26	500	0	Running	29	0
16	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	8	500	0	Running	28	0
17	13	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	19	500	0	Running	27	0
18	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	30	500	6	Running	27	1
19	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	9	500	0	Running	25	0
20	35	Cole Whitt	Ford	31	500	0	Running	24	0
21	40	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	27	500	0	Running	0	0
22	7	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	41	499	0	Running	22	0
23	46	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	38	498	0	Running	21	0
24	38	David Gilliland	Ford	33	498	0	Running	20	0
25	55	David Ragan	Toyota	28	498	0	Running	19	0
26	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	25	497	0	Running	18	0
27	23	Jeb Burton	Toyota	35	496	0	Running	17	0
28	9	Sam Hornish Jr	Ford	20	493	0	Running	16	0
29	26	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	39	492	0	Running	0	0
30	83	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	36	492	0	Running	14	0
31	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	32	491	0	Running	13	0
32	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	11	490	143	Running	13	1
33	33	Alex Kennedy	Chevrolet	43	489	0	Running	11	0
34	41	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	15	486	22	Running	11	1
35	34	Brett Moffitt	Ford	34	479	0	Running	9	0
36	62	Timmy Hill	Chevrolet	42	459	0	Running	0	0
37	22	Joey Logano	Ford	1	458	207	Running	9	2
38	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	18	443	0	Parked	6	0
39	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Ford	29	423	0	Running	5	0
40	10	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	16	391	0	Accident	4	0
41	32	Kyle Fowler	Ford	40	373	0	Brakes	3	0
42	98	Ryan Preece	Ford	37	365	0	Running	2	0
43	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	17	185	0	Accident	1	0

STANDINGS

POS	DRIVER	POINTS	BEHIND	STARTS	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10	DNF
1	Jeff Gordon	4047	Leader	33	1	5	18	1
2	Kyle Busch	4039	-8	22	4	9	13	2
3	Martin Truex Jr	4039	-8	33	1	8	21	2
4	Kevin Harvick	4037	-10	33	3	20	25	1
5	Carl Edwards	4030	-17	33	2	6	14	2
6	Brad Keselowski	4013	-34	33	1	7	22	1
7	Kurt Busch	4011	-36	30	2	10	18	0
8	Joey Logano	4009	-38	33	6	20	26	0
9	Denny Hamlin	2251	-1796	33	2	14	18	2
10	Ryan Newman	2231	-1816	33	0	5	15	1
11	Dale Earnhardt Jr	2221	-1826	33	2	15	20	1
12	Jamie McMurray	2201	-1846	33	0	4	9	2
13	Matt Kenseth	2197	-1850	33	5	12	19	4
14	Jimmie Johnson	2193	-1854	33	4	12	19	1
15	Paul Menard	2177	-1870	33	0	2	5	1
16	Clint Bowyer	2124	-1923	33	0	2	12	2
17	Aric Almirola	877	-3170	33	0	3	5	2
18	Kasey Kahne	872	-3175	33	0	3	10	3
19	Kyle Larson	802	-3245	32	0	1	9	4
20	Greg Biffle	796	-3251	33	0	3	4	0
21	Austin Dillon	745	-3302	33	0	1	5	3
22	Casey Mears	712	-3335	33	0	0	1	3
23	AJ Allmendinger	687	-3360	33	0	0	3	3
24	Danica Patrick	665	-3382	33	0	0	2	4
25	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	664	-3383	33	0	1	3	2
26	Tony Stewart	661	-3386	33	0	0	3	4
27	Sam Hornish Jr	657	-3390	33	0	0	3	2
28	David Ragan	636	-3411	33	0	1	1	6
29	Trevor Bayne	614	-3433	33	0	0	2	3
30	Justin Allgaier	537	-3510	33	0	0	1	5
31	Cole Whitt	509	-3538	33	0	0	0	3
32	David Gilliland	491	-3556	33	0	0	0	3
33	Alex Bowman	410	-3637	32	0	0	0	5
34	Brett Moffitt	387	-3660	28	0	0	1	1
35	Matt DiBenedetto	366	-3681	30	0	0	0	1
36	Michael Annett	359	-3688	32	0	0	0	3
37	Josh Wise	249	-3798	23	0	0	1	4
38	Jeb Burton	199	-3848	26	0	0	0	4
39	Michael McDowell	192	-3855	14	0	0	0	1
40	Alex Kennedy	120	-3927	13	0	0	0	0
41	Reed Sorenson	74	-3973	9	0	0	0	0
42	Bobby Labonte	60	-3987	4	0	0	0	1
43	Michael Waltrip	58	-3989	3	0	0	0	0
44	Brian Vickers	32	-4015	2	0	0	0	0
45	Ryan Preece	14	-4033	2	0	0	0	0
46	Will Kimmel III	11	-4036	2	0	0	0	0
47	Mike Wallace	8	-4039	1	0	0	0	0
48	T.J. Bell	7	-4040	1	0	0	0	0
49	Eddie MacDonald	7	-4040	1	0	0	0	0
50	Kyle Fowler	3	-4044	1	0	0	0	1
51	Ron Hornaday Jr	2	-4045	1	0	0	0	1
52	Ryan Blaney	0	-4047	14	0	1	2	4
53	Brian Scott	0	-4047	9	0	0	0	3
54	Landon Cassill	0	-4047	33	0	0	0	6
55	Ty Dillon	0	-4047	4	0	0	0	0
56	J.J. Yeley	0	-4047	31	0	0	0	4
57	Regan Smith	0	-4047	4	0	0	0	0
58	HendrickChase Elliott	0	-4047	5	0	0	0	1
59	Matt Crafton	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
60	Johnny Sauter	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
61	Chris Buescher	0	-4047	6	0	0	0	0
62	Boris Said	0	-4047	2	0	0	0	0
63	Brendan Gaughan	0	-4047	8	0	0	0	2
64	Justin Marks	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
65	Mike Bliss	0	-4047	10	0	0	0	0
66	Travis Kvapil	0	-4047	4	0	0	0	0
67	Joe Nemechek	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
68	B J McLeod	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
69	Jeffrey Earnhardt	0	-4047	2	0	0	0	0
70	Timmy Hill	0	-4047	11	0	0	0	2
71	Joey Gase	0	-4047	2	0	0	0	1
72	Derek White	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
73	Jeff Green	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
74	Erik Jones	0	-4047	1	0	0	0	0
75	Tanner Berryhill	0	-4047	0	0	0	0	0