Even for a guy who has won as many races as Jeff Gordon, Sunday's victory at Infineon Raceway was like a life preserver to a drowning man.
"I can't even describe the emotions of winning today because it's been a while," Gordon said after parlaying patience and a fast car into a record ninth road course victory.
"It's a relief. It's so important to get that first win because, as the season goes on, you just feel more and more pressure," added the four-time NASCAR champion.
PHOTO: AP
NASCAR's top "Road Warrior," who had not won since last October at Martinsville, started 11th in the 43-car field and took the lead for the first time on lap 49 of the 110-lap Dodge/Save Mart 350. In the end, he led a race-high 44 laps and wrapped up his fifth Sonoma win and the 74th of his career.
Gordon, who also announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend Ingrid Vandebosch on Sunday, said he choked up in the car after taking the checkered flag.
"You know, I guess it suddenly hit me everything that was going on," Gordon said. "I had gone 30 days without telling anybody about the engagement, so I had been holding that in, and it's been a long time since we got that last win. Everything all just came together this weekend."
Perhaps most important, the victory also vaulted Gordon back into the top 10 in points with just 10 races until the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship begins. The top 10 drivers in the points after the 26th race of the season are eligible for the 10-race playoff.
Last year, Gordon struggled, failing to qualify for the Chase and switching crew chiefs, with Steve Letarte replacing Robbie Loomis for the last 10 races. Gordon promised his fans and the team he was going to bounce back, but they went 16 races into the 2006 season before getting that first victory, only the third time since he came into NASCAR's top series full-time in 1993 that Gordon has gone that long without a win.
But, somehow, he knew that was going to change on Sunday.
"I called Steve this morning and told him two things: `I'm engaged and we're going to win today.' That felt pretty good." Gordon said.
Two-time series champion Terry Labonte grabbed the lead for a while with a slick fuel strategy, but Gordon was able to hunt NASCAR's "Iceman" down, regain the lead on lap 88 and eventually pull away for his first win since June 2004 on the picturesque 11-turn circuit.
"Man, I didn't know if we were ever going to win another one of these races. I knew this team was something special, we just haven't had a chance to really show it," he added. "They gave me such an awesome race car this weekend that I had to get them this win. If we didn't win with this car, we can't ever win."
Labonte, driving this week for the first-year Hall of Fame Racing team co-owned by former NFL quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, pitted for the final time on lap 60 and found himself in the lead on lap 71 after all the other leaders made their final stops.
Gordon was about 12 seconds behind Labonte after his pit stop on lap 70. With Labonte conserving fuel in an effort to make it to the end, Gordon steadily cut into the margin, finally passing Labonte with a strong inside move on the hairpin 11th-turn.
Three late caution flags helped Labonte save fuel and kept the field bunched up. After a six-car crash on lap 105 brought out the second red flag of the race to allow for a cleanup -- this one for 13 minutes -- Labonte and the rest of the contenders got one last shot at Gordon.
This was the race Michael Schumacher was supposed to close the gap on Fernando Alonso in the chase for the Formula One championship.
After all, Schumacher had won the Canadian Grand Prix seven times. Alonso never had anything but trouble at the Circuit Gilles Villeneueve.
None of that mattered Sunday -- Alonso drove his Renault to an easy victory for his fourth consecutive win. The Spaniard has six victories this season and 15 straight top-three finishes.
"It is fantastic," he said. "All the victories are nice, but this one after the last two or three years having a chance to win and then mistakes or mechanical problems, this is one of the races we should have [won] in the previous years."
Alonso had failed to finish the Canadian GP in three of his previous four races, including last year when he crashed while leading. This time, his only problem was staying focused despite leading by almost 25 seconds in the closing laps.
"It was not easy to keep the concentration while leading the race with such a large gap," he said. "You lose concentration of maybe you relax."
The reigning world champion stretched his lead to 25 points over Schumacher, who passed Kimi Raikkonen with one lap to go to finish second. Raikkonen wound up third.
"It's just a shame there wasn't 10 more laps, it could have made it interesting," Schumacher said. "We kept the damage as little as possible."
They now head to Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix, which Schumacher won last season after Alonso and 13 other drivers boycotted because of concern over tire safety.
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