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Jeff Gordon fought back from a late slip to pass Kyle Busch with eight laps to go to win the Subway 500 at Phoenix International Raceway and end a victory lane drought that lasted almost two years.
Gordon dominated the last half of the race and led 138 of the 312 laps-- the most of anyone -- but a slow exit on the final pit stop cost him the lead to Busch. But Gordon had the faster car, and he relentlessly tracked down Busch, taking the lead coming out of the fourth turn and down the frontstretch with just a few miles to go.
It was Gordon's first victory in 66 races -- almost two years -- and it breaks the longest streak of futility in a storied career that features four Sprint Cup championships. . And it came in only his second race with a new crew chief, Alan Gustafson, after team owner Rick Hendrick decided to shake up the driver-crew chief combinations during the off-season.
With a yelp of delight we haven't heard in months, Gordon gave a ya-hoo and shouted, "You guys are awesome!" as he took the checkered flag.
"Welcome back, welcome back," said Gustafson. "Awesome job."
Moments later, Hendrick got on the radio with his own congratulations.
"Thanks so much, boss," Gordon replied. "Thank you sooo much for this opportunity. I'm loving these guys."
The race was slowed by eight yellow flags, especially toward the beginning of the race, including one for a multi-car crash that took out pole winner Carl Edwards and a number of other good cars.
Gordon, who started 20th, had a lead of almost two seconds over Busch until Andy Lally smacked the wall, bringing out the eighth and final caution period with about 27 laps to go. He was slowed while exiting the pits, but he still had the fastest car, and he was able to vanquish Busch's effort to sweep all three of the weekend's races with the type of rough-and-tumble pass for the lead that you'd expect from a champion suffering a long drought.
Busch finished second with no complaints, followed by five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson.
"Oh, man, are you kidding me?" Gordon asked in victory lane. "Pinch me, man, pinch me! To do it that way and to see the fans' reaction... We beat Kyle Busch! We're the only ones to beat Kyle Busch this weekend and he's so tough to beat."
"What an awesome, awesome feeling it is when you got the car right like that and they give you 20 to go and it's your job to go get it done! We caught him and he got loose when I got underneath him. It feels so amazing. It's been a long time and I'm gonna savor this one so much. We hope we can give you more shows like that this year."
"Jeff just had a better car," Busch said. "He just ran me down and flat-out passed me. He ws really fast. We couldn't hold him back."
Busch also apologized to Edwards for getting into him and causing the big wreck early in the race.
"The first person I've got to apologize to is Carl Edwards," Busch said. "I got into him and killed his day. I apologize... especially for the way we raced (so clean) yesterday."
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