Pure Michigan 400: Jeff Gordon wins third race of 2014, back on top of points - MotorSportsTalk

BROOKLYN, Mich. – If Jimmie Johnson is to win a record-tying seventh Sprint Cup championship, he’s going to have to get past Jeff Gordon – and that’s not going to be easy.

Gordon earned his third win of the season Sunday – and the 91st of his Sprint Cup career – capturing the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

He also regained the points lead in the Sprint Cup standings, leading teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who assumed the points lead after last week’s race at Watkins Glen, by just three points.

The triumph ties Gordon with Hendrick Motorsports teammates Johnson and Earnhardt, as well as 2012 champ Brad Keselowski, for most wins during the 26-race regular season.

After Kurt Busch hit the wall to bring out the caution on Lap 178, Gordon remained patient. Joey Logano was the race leader when the green flag dropped on the restart on Lap 183, but Gordon outmuscled Logano going into Turn 1 of the D-shaped track and never looked back.

“We earned this one, baby, we earned it,” crew chief Alan Gustafson told Gordon on the team radio after he crossed the start-finish line.

After the race, Gordon was understandably ecstatic about his third career triumph at MIS.

“That last restart was it,” Gordon said. “We had the car to win. I got a good restart. Joey was out there by himself, was able to get to his quarter and then was able to get by. I just needed a couple laps for my tires to come in, we were out front, set sail and the checkered flag was waving. This is amazing, this is just fantastic.”

Gordon now has earned the most wins for him since also winning three in the 2011 season.

However, there’s one significant difference to that: he still has 13 more races to go to add to those three wins. The last time Gordon had more than three wins in a season was when he visited victory lane six times back in 2007, when he finished second in the Chase to Johnson.

“Our Chase has already started,” Gordon said. “This team is championship caliber, but it’s going to be tough. We don’t want anything to change when we get to Chicago, just charge for those wins.”

In a sense, the way Gordon won was a case of several elements of déjà vu:

* He won his second race of the season, at the Brickyard 400, with “the restart of my life,” also taking the lead with 17 laps left — just like Sunday. What’s more, the car he won at Indianapolis is also the same one he drove to victory on Sunday.

* Ironically, the last two times Gordon won the Sprint Cup championship – the third and fourth of his career in 1998 and 2001 – he also won at Indianapolis and Michigan in both of those seasons.

* It’s been 13 years since Gordon has won at MIS.

Gordon started the race on the pole, setting a track record during qualifying on Friday with a burst of 206.558 mph around the two-mile track, which has become the fastest track in NASCAR.

Gordon’s pole was also the fastest in NASCAR history since the sanctioning body implemented restrictor plates at both Daytona and Talladega in 1988.

Kevin Harvick finished second for the fourth consecutive race at MIS, tying a NASCAR record for most consecutive finishes at a track set by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett four times in a row at Rockingham.

“We had a solid day, it’s just the 24 (Gordon) had more speed than we did all day,” Harvick said. “I felt like when Joey was out front, he could get away at the short run, we’d kind of even out. But all in all, it was a good day.

“The main focus for our team has been consistency heading into the Chase to make sure we can scramble and do the things we’ve done over the last month. When you have a solid day, finish it off. Those are the things we’ve been able to do. Obviously you want to win, but all in all we had some different goals that are as important leading into the Chase.”

Logano, who led the most laps (86) of the 200-lap event, rallied back to finish third, followed by Paul Menard and Earnhardt.

“It was one too many restarts,” Logano said. “We were battling on these restarts pretty hard. I used every trick in the book I had. … I had the run and then I was clear. I should have pulled up in front of him and got the draft. … Gosh, it’s close. It’s what we need to do before the Chase. We’re doing everything we need to do. … I’m going to relieve that in my mind the next two weeks.”

Finishing sixth through 10th were Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Johnson and Greg Biffle.

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With six rounds remaining and 11 in the books, the Monster Energy 250 Supercross championship has been a brotherly affair with Jett Lawrence holding a commanding lead in the West division and Hunter Lawrence dominating the East.

The 2023 Supercross season began with Jett Lawrence winning Anaheim 1. – Feld Motor Sports

Between them, the Lawrence brothers have won all but two races. Each rider has failed to claim the overall victory in a Triple Crown format although they both scored a win in one of the features.

Jett and Hunter both have a perfect record of podium finishes, but with four races remaining for each, the Supercross championship battle is far from over. Jett’s worst finish of the season was second in Anaheim 2; Hunter finished third in Arlington. Every other result for each rider was a victory and many of those came in weekends when they scored a heat win.

Both 250 divisions have two standalone races remaining. The West runs next on April 8 with a Triple Crown format in Glendale, Arizona and again in Denver on May 6. The East runs their next standalone race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on April 15 with another race on April 29 in Nashville.

With Jett and Hunter dominating their divisions and showing no sign of slowing, the big question will be how they ride head-to-head in the first of two East/West Showdowns in East Rutherford, New Jersey on April 22. The season winds down on May 13 in Salt Lake City, Utah with the second Showdown.

Race 1 | West 1 | Anaheim 1
Jett picked up where he left off in 2022. After scoring the 250 Supercross championship in the East last year, He put together a solid performance by finishing second in his heat and leading every lap of the main on his way to his first Anaheim 1 win and the eighth of his career. RJ Hampshire finished second with Cameron McAdoo rounding out the podium in what would set the tone for most of the championship to date. Meanwhile, it was a short season for Austin Forkner, who was expected to be one of Jett’s main rivals in the West. A hard crash early in the main event injured his knee and forced him out of the series.

Race 2 | West 2 | San Diego
Round 2 of the 2023 Supercross championship was supposed to take place in Oakland, but persistent rain and flooding canceled the weekend and made San Diego the second race instead. That didn’t matter to Jett, who once again led flag-to-flag to score his ninth career victory. This was the first time a rider led every lap of the first two rounds since Forkner did so in 2019. Hampshire finished second to Lawrence for the second straight week with McAdoo in third. “[Podiums are not enough] right now,” McAdoo told NBC’s Jason Thomas afterward. “I was just pretty bummed on a couple things that happened towards the end that I just need to execute better.”

Race 3 | West 3 | Anaheim 2
Out of the gate, it appeared Hampshire would have something for Jett in the second Anaheim race. He won the first feature as the points’ leader slipped into third, but a hard crash for Hampshire in the second feature of the Triple Crown format sealed his fate for the night. Hampshire would go on to finish 11th overall and lose significant ground to Jett. The Triple Crown format would not be kind to Jett either as he finished sixth in Race 1 before finally winning the final event. Jett was second overall in this race behind Levi Kitchen who took the overall with a 4-2-2. This was Kitchen’s fifth 250 start. Stilez Robertson slotted into third with a 6-1-3.

*The 250 West season starts in Anaheim and ends at Salt Lake City. – Feld Motor Sports*

250 West Championship Standings

Race 4 | East 1 | Houston
Following in Jett’s footsteps, Hunter also set the mark with a win in the 250 East opener. The night was almost disastrous for the Supercross championship leader when Hunter was forced off track trying to pass Tom Vialle for the lead when that rider jumped wide in a rhythm section. Vialle was one of several rookies debuting that weekend and three of them scored top-10 finishes. Haiden Deegan finished fourth in his first 250 race, Vialle was seventh and Chance Hymas eighth. Talon Hawkins narrowly missed that mark and finished 11th. It wasn’t the first 250 race for Max Anstie, but it was his first in more than a decade and he finished second, later telling NBC Sports that “you can’t skip steps”. Jordon Smith rounded out the podium.

Race 5 | East 2 | Tampa
Hunter opened the season with two wins, making this the seventh of his career. Now firmly established with the 250 East Supercross championship lead as Jett dominated the West, the Lawrence brothers are the first to hold the red plate simultaneously. As with the first race, this one did not come easy for Hunter. He had trouble on the opening lap and was forced to charge through the pack. It took all 19 laps to make up the deficit, but he caught Nate Thrasher on the final turn and edged him by 0.134 seconds. Anstie scored his second podium of the Supercross championship season.

Race 6 | West 4 | Oakland
The rescheduled Round 2 saw Jett pick up where he left off. Scoring his 10th win, Jett set the largest margin of victory in his career with a 16.160 second advantage over Hampshire. His previous best was a 14.005-second advantage on a much larger track in the 2022 Daytona Supercross race. For the first time in 2023, Jett had to show patience. He stalked Hampshire and completed the pass when that rider made a mistake. “It was kind of like a chess game to see who was sending it and to try and pick the lines, so I just stayed back there,” Jett told NBC Sports afterward.

Haiden Deegan finished fourth in his first 250 Supercross race and has only gotten better.

250 East Championship Standings

Race 7 | East 3 | Arlington
It’s almost as if the Lawrences have the season choreographed. In the third 250 East race, Hunter suffered his first loss and as with Jett it came in a Triple Format race when he struggled in two features and won the other. A 1-3-6 put Lawrence third in the overall behind Thrasher (2-2-3) and Smith (4-1-5). Jeremy Martin (6-12-1) was the other rider with a feature win that night. Prior to 2023, three different feature winners and a separate overall winner happened only once: Austin Forkner took the top spot in Atlanta 2018 with a 4-2-3. The feature winners were Zach Osborne (1), Martin Davalos (2) and Martin (3).

Race 8 | East 4 | Daytona
The granddaddy of Supercross linked the Lawrence brothers again as they became back-to-back winners in the 250 class on the famed track in Daytona International Speedway’s frontstretch. Jett was victorious in this race last year. That made them the only brothers to win during the history of the race. It was a vindication for Hunter, who struggled badly the week before. With his eighth career win, Hunter was rapidly closing in on Jett. Anstie was back on the podium in second to keep a perfect streak of top-fives alive. But it was Deegan who stole the show, earning his first podium in his fourth start with his famous father Bryan Deegan watching admiringly in the Daytona media center during postrace interviews.

Race 9 | East 5 | Indianapolis
It was a perfect day for Hunter. He won his fourth main of the season and ninth of his career after being the fastest qualifier, holeshot winner and after leading the most laps. In fact, it has almost been a perfect season to this point with each Lawrence failing to win only one race through five rounds. It is now Hunter’s Supercross championship to lose with a 22-point advantage over Anstie and 31 above third-place Thrasher.

*Hunter Lawrence joined his brother Jett Lawrence as the only siblings to win the Daytona Supercross race. – Feld Motor Sports*

250 Combined Championship Standings

Race 10 | East 6 | Detroit
In a season where the Lawrence’s paralleled one another so closely, it was inevitable that Hunter would catch and tie his brother on the all-time wins list at 10. Through this race, both had 27 starts in their career, so the playing field is equal and both earned nearly the same number of podium finishes and led the same number of races. Hunter continued to widen his lead over the competition as Anstie had an uncharacteristically bad race in which he crashed and finished last. Thrasher finished second and took over second in the standings, but he is now 35 points out of first. Deegan scored his second career podium after riding aggressively in his heat and that led to a series of events that saw his teammate Smith fail to make the main. Afterwards, Hunter defended Deegan’s aggressive block pass.

Race 11 | West 5 | Seattle
Hunter didn’t get to celebrate his tie with Jett for long as the younger sibling scored his 11th career win. Jett is now almost one full race ahead of Hampshire with a 23-point advantage, but Hampshire refuses to fade into the background. Hampshire finished second in Seattle, which was the fourth time in five rounds that he did so. If not for the crash in Anaheim 2, this would be a nailbiter. Hampshire knows he still has a shot, however, because the next round in Arizona is another Triple Crown race. When Jett was reminded of that from the podium, he was visibly disappointed and replied “oof”.

With four podiums each, Thrasher (E), McAdoo (W), and Hampshire (W) are currently running for best in class and are looking over their shoulders at Smith (E) and Anstie (E) with top-three finishes in three races.

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