Jeff Gordon said he came to Martinsville Speedway to do his job, and as he climbed from his car into an embrace with Rick Hendrick in Victory Lane, doing it well never felt better.
Gordon won the Advance Auto Parts 500 yesterday in Martinsville, Va., turning NASCAR's first visit to the track since a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed nearby last fall into a tribute to 10 team members and friends killed.
| _____ Daytona 500 _____
• Jeff Gordon clinches his third Daytona 500 title, edging Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Sunday.
• Final Results
• Hendrick Motorsports overcomes tragic plane crash to remain favored team in Daytona.
• Michael Waltrip edges teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the early qualifying race and Tony Stewart wins the nightcap.
• The Daytona 500 has served as the personal playground lately for Team Earnhardt.
_____ Multimedia _____
• Audio: washingtonpost.com's Mike Snyder reports after Jeff Gordon's tight victory Sunday.
• Photos
• Joe Gibbs talks about the parallels between football and NASCAR and the challenges and rewards of both.
• Audio: Gibbs talks about his future in auto racing and pro football. (Jan. 26)
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• Previous winners
_____ Live Online _____
• The Post's Liz Clarke was talking racing' Friday. Read the transcript.
_____ Flashback _____
• Six years after his father won NASCAR's grandest race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. roars to victory in the '04 Daytona 500.
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"When you've got a guy like Rick Hendrick that you respect so much and you've seen what he's been through, the ups and downs through his life and especially here last year, for him to poke his head in there and say, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you' and with that tremble in his voice, that impacts you," a choked-up Gordon said.
"That tells you how meaningful this was."
Hendrick's son, Ricky, was among those killed in the crash.
Before Victory Lane, Gordon said, he was focused on driving the car, especially after going four laps down very early because of a vibration.
Once he saw Hendrick, the rest of the implications surfaced.
"When he popped his head in there, it hit me like a ton of bricks."
Gordon seemed out of the race after going so far back so early, but worked his way back onto the lead lap with 223 laps to go and never stopped closing on the lead.
Fourth on a restart with 46 laps to go, he wasted no time.
He followed third-place Mark Martin past Ryan Newman for third on Lap 461, went underneath Martin for second three laps later and caught and passed Sterling Marlin for the lead with 34 laps remaining.
From then on, it was smooth sailing to Gordon's 71st career victory and second in six races this year. It was his sixth victory at Martinsville, which at .526 of a mile is the shortest and trickiest track in the premier series.
Only Rusty Wallace, with seven wins at the track, has more among active drivers.
"There's something special about this place and we lost so many incredible people, part of this organization and racing community, and I think it's only fitting for us to get this victory," Gordon said.
Gordon's Chevrolet crossed the finish line . 593 of a second before Kasey Kahne's Dodge. They were followed across the line by Martin's Ford, the Dodge of Newman and Marlin, also in a Dodge.
• CHAMP CAR: Sebastien Bourdais outdueled Paul Tracy, giving Newman/Haas Racing its first victory in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 19 years.
Tracy, who won the last two Long Beach races and four overall, started from the pole and tried hard to make a race of it. But this one belonged to Bourdais, the reigning Champ Car World Series champion, after he passed Tracy for the lead on the 38th of 81 laps.
The last time the team co-owned by Chicago businessman Carl Haas and actor Paul Newman won the United States' longest-running downtown street race was in 1987, when Mario Andretti finished first and Bourdais was 8 years old.
And it could be the last time the Champ Cars, which replaced Formula One here in 1984, race at the California course. This is the final year of the contract and Long Beach officials are considering replacing the Champ Cars with the rival Indy Racing League in 2006.
