MARTINSVILLE, W.V. — It has been a tough year so far for Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 team and all of that tough luck looked like it was going to end until the sixth caution of the day sent the race into overtime.
The sixth caution came out when David Reutimann, for some inexplicable reason, didn’t hit pit road when his car was having trouble and stalled on the front stretch. Everyone but the two leaders went to pit road for tires and fuel.
On the restart Clint Bowyer took Gordon and Johnson three-wide into turn one and all three cars spun bringing out the final caution of the race. The crash relegated Gordon, who led 328 laps to a 14th place finish.
On the final restart Ryan Newman battled AJ Allmendinger for the lead and he was able get complete the pass for the lead and the victory. The win was the first for Newman, and the third win for his team Stewart-Haas Racing.
“We were not a dominant race car today but we put ourselves in contention,” said Ryan Newman. “The way the strategy and everything worked out, coming in for two tires and Clint kind of clearing out turn one for us, we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.”
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was happy with his third place finish but he knew it could have been a lot better for the entire Hendrick Motorsports team, and doesn’t understand why the No. 10 car stalled on the front stretch.
“Well I would like an explanation of why that happened, from him, his crew chief, somebody. But there’s no — it doesn’t seem like there could be a logical reason for him to be stopped on the track.” Earnhardt said.
With Hendrick Motorsports poised to pickup their 200th career victory Junior talks about the disappointment.
“Disappointing for everybody to run as good as we did today and not finish up there. I know Jeff is especially disappointed because of the way his year’s been going. And I’ve got a real good idea of what his opinion is about that,” said Dale Junior.
With the victory on Sunday Ryan Newman moved up two spots in the point standings to eighth, points leader Greg Biffle finished 13th and retained a six point lead over second place Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Everyone gets a chance to regroup as the series heads into the first off weekend of the season. Next up for the Sprint Cup Series is a Saturday night race at Texas Motor Speedway on April 14.
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