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Road warrior Stewart wins first serpentine race with Sonoma checkers
By Mark Spoor, CNNSI.com SONOMA, Calif. -- In all the talk about road-course stalwarts Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon leading up to Sunday's Dodge/Save Mart 350, everybody seemed to forget about Tony Stewart. And Robby Gordon, who was subbing for Ultra Motorsports driver Mike Wallace. Robby Gordon, a road-course specialist, was leading with 10 laps to go when he got in the midst of a paint-rubbing battle with the lapped car of Kevin Harvick. As the Gordon and Harvick cars made contact in turn 7, Stewart passed them both. After an eight-lap shootout following the final caution, Stewart captured his first road-course victory -- in his fifth serpentine-track start -- at the Dodge/Save Mart 350. It was Stewart's 11th Winston Cup win and his first since the Pontiac Excitement 400 on May 5.
Stewart, who did not lead until his pass of Robby Gordon, said the race was a work in progress for him and his crew. "The first segment of the race, we weren't as good," Stewart said. "We made some changes, but they were the wrong changes. "Then we made some other changes and the car really responded. We were just in the right place at the right time." Robby Gordon finished second, 1.746 seconds behind Stewart. Jeff Gordon came across the stripe third in his attempt for a seventh road-course win and fourth consecutive Sears Point victory. "All good streaks have to come to an end, eventually," he said. Jeff Gordon, the Winston Cup points leader, led 55 of the 112 laps. He said it was a solid effort despite not breaking the record for most career road-course wins.
"We brought a really good car," Jeff Gordon said. "I was struggling with a push all day long. I made a couple of mistakes out there. One was in front of the second-place car and another was in front of the third-place car. "I know you guys [the media] had us winning the race before it started, but I wasn't expecting that." Ricky Rudd finished fourth and Rusty Wallace, who also was vying for a seventh career road-course victory, rounded out the top five. Ward Burton was sixth, followed by Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Bill Elliott and Mark Martin. Rudd said he was hoping the incident between Harvick and Robby Gordon would let the race fall into his lap. "I definitely thought about that," Rudd admitted. "In fact, I even talked about it on that last caution." Harvick, meanwhile, finished 14th. He said he did the right thing in racing Robby Gordon hard. "You've got to do what you've got to do," Harvick said. "If he would have just let me by, Tony [Stewart] wouldn't have gotten by. I don't feel sorry for [Robby Gordon] a bit." Outwardly, Robby Gordon said the incident was just part of racing. "Kevin knocked me sideways and I honestly didn't anticipate Tony to get by both of us," he said. "I thought [Stewart] would be on the inside. "It's racing. It's OK. We'll race again in the future." Jeff Gordon's third-place finish increases his points advantage to 126 over second-place Dale Jarrett. Rudd is third, 145 points back. The race featured 10 lead changes among eight drivers, and five cautions for 17 laps.
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