Gordon wins Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix

Jeff Gordon may have a new paint scheme and sponsor, but he found himself in a familiar spot on Sunday in Phoenix: victory lane. Even though he hasn’t won in 66 races (Gordon last visited victory lane in 2009 at Texas) Gordon won his 83rd career race on Sunday, defeating Kyle Busch and teammate Jimmie Johnson in the Subway Fresh Fit 500.

“I don’t really care how we did it, I just want to get to victory lane,” Gordon said. “I can’t believe we beat Kyle Busch, we were the only ones to beat Kyle Busch this weekend.”

Busch, who was looking for his second weekend sweep in a year, was leading with ten laps to go, but Gordon passed the younger Busch and drove away from him, winning by a margin of 1.137 seconds.

Gordon was a part of the three-team crew and crew chief swap at Hendrick Motorsports over the offseason. Gordon’s crew chief Alan Gustafson broke a 97-race winless streak for Mark Martin at Phoenix in April of 2009, and got to snap Gordon’s 66-race streak this year.

Martin was the first driver to congratulate Gordon when the 39-year-old got out of his car.

“I just want to thank the fans,” Gordon said. He noted that fans have been tweeting him messages of motivation.

Just 66 laps into the race, a 13-car crash took out many major contenders including Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton. Right before that, Carl Edwards and Busch got together, causing Edwards to push Gordon into the wall.

“We kept battling through everything that was thrown at us,” Busch said. “Jeff just ran me down and flat out passed me.”

Gordon’s car didn’t seem to do too bad after that. Gordon led 138 laps in the 312 lap event.

Busch now leads the points by three points over brother Kurt. Tony Stewart, A.J. Allmendinger and Mark Martin round out the top five. Gordon is tied with Martin for fifth in the points.