NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II: Race summary
Gordon breaks drought with Subway 500 victory. MARTINSVILLE, VA (October. 19, 2003) -- Jeff Gordon has won 63 Winston Cup races in his career. Sunday afternoon the four-time Winston Cup champion and his team acted like it was their first win as ...
Edited: Oct 21, 2003, 3:01 AM
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Gordon breaks drought with Subway 500 victory.
MARTINSVILLE, VA (October. 19, 2003) -- Jeff Gordon has won 63 Winston Cup races in his career. Sunday afternoon the four-time Winston Cup champion and his team acted like it was their first win as they celebrated in Victory Lane after winning the SUBWAY 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Gordon broke a six-month drought Sunday afternoon with the SUBWAY 500 win. It was his first victory since he won the Virginia 500 at Martinsville in April.
"It was awesome to see the look on Robbie's face and the guys on the team and how excited they were," Gordon said, referring to crew chief Robbie Loomis and the Dupont team.
"You can have all the pep talks in the world and pat one another on the back and you can even pay them a bunch of money, and nothing is like getting to Victory Lane. A win is a win and it feels great.
"Both Robbie and I, when we got to Victory Lane, we both took a deep breath and let it out, that kind of sigh of relief after getting the first one earlier in the year and now getting another one."
It was a dominating win for Gordon. He led 313 laps, including the final 206.
Jimmie Johnson, who drives a car owned by Gordon, finished second, 1.0136 seconds back. Rounding out the top five were Tony Steward, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ryan Newman.
"It doesn't get much better than this," said Gordon after the one-two finish for him and Johnson. We like to get one-two, but he's got a few more wins under his belt this year than we have, so hopefully he didn't mind finish second to us today. And don't think I wasn't concerned about him because I saw how his car came on strong there late in the race and I didn't know if we were going to be able to hold him off or not."
And if he had the chance, Johnson would have taken his best shot at his boss.
"Of course I want to put a bumper on him. I wouldn't have wrecked him, but that's what I am out there to do. That's what we're all out there to do, race for the win," said Johnson. "I'm racing for the points. I wouldn't have wrecked him, but I wish I could have gotten inside him and put on a good show and ended up the winner."
There were nine lead changes among eight drivers in the race before a sold out crowd of 88,000. There were 15 caution flags for a record 117 laps.
The next action at Martinsville Speedway will be the Advance Auto Parts 500, scheduled for April 18.
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