Gordon pads Chase lead

Despite all his concerns, Gordon reached the finish line for his sixth win of the season, and staked his claim to the Nextel Cup title. Gordon’s victory at Lowe’s Motor Speedway helped him widen his lead in the Chase standings from nine points to 68 over teammate Jimmie Johnson.

“Just an incredible day for the team,” Gordon said. “We needed to get to the finish. We had such a hard time getting to the finish, whether we were wrecking or having a mechanical problem.”

It was Gordon’s second straight victory, coming on the heels of last week’s win at Talladega Superspeedway.

Lowe’s has vexed Gordon for several years, even though he notched the first of his 81 career victories here back in 1994 and he picked up three more wins along the way. But he had struggled here of late — he was 41st in May, and finished 24th or lower in six of his last seven starts at Lowe’s.

But with everything on the line — including a fifth series title — Gordon finally turned it around.

He needed help from Johnson, who had an uncharacteristic spin, and a gentleman’s agreement with teammate Kyle Busch, who could have wrecked him on a late restart but instead raced him clean.

Then Gordon got a gift from Ryan Newman, who bizarrely spun by himself while leading and having the win all but wrapped up.

If all that wasn’t enough, Gordon’s Chevrolet developed a pickup problem that had him afraid he was running out of fuel as the race headed to a two-lap overtime shootout following Newman’s spin.

“I can’t tell you how many times we tried to give this one away,” Gordon said. “Jimmie Johnson, I’m not sure what happened to him. He had the field covered. But when I saw he had problems, I thought it was an opportunity for us.”

Gordon capitalized after Johnson’s spin to move into the lead. He passed Busch with 50 laps to go and was running away with the race until a late caution brought out the red flag and forced team owner Rick Hendrick to lecture both his drivers on the importance of not wrecking each other.

“All I ask is (Busch) be cautious, let’s not wreck each other,” Gordon radioed. “If he can win it, great. But let’s do it smart. I’d be happy to finish second to him.”

Hendrick then called for Busch.

“Jeff says if you look like you got it, he’ll let you go,” he told Busch. “But you guys just be smart, OK?”

“That’s good,” Busch replied.

“No wrecks, OK?” Hendrick reiterated.

Hendrick then assured Gordon that Busch would race him clean.

The restart with five to go indeed went off without a hitch — until Newman scooted by both Hendrick cars on the outside to grab the lead. He seemed headed to an easy win, but inexplicably spun to bring out the caution. Gordon inherited the lead, but his fuel issue had him in a near panic before the overtime finish.

“This race was more stressful than it needed to be,” crew chief Steve Letarte said.

Gordon had no issue, though, on the restart and pulled away from Clint Bowyer and Busch for his first win at the suburban Charlotte track since 1999.

Bowyer finished second to maintain third in the standings, 78 points out.