July 12 – – Jeff Gordon posted a solid runner-up finish at Chicagoland Speedway after a late rally from handling problems.  Gordon battled a tight handling condition at the outset and struggled getting off the corners virtually the entire race.  He fell out of the top-10, but rallied back through pit stops to crack the top-10 with 50 laps to go. Gordon moved up to 8th with 25 laps to go and closed in on Kurt Busch for a position before the final caution with 21 laps remaining.  Gordon was the first car to come onto pit road.  Contact between Busch and Jimmie Johnson forced Gordon onto the track apron with 15 laps to go where he got around both drivers to take 4th place.  With 13 to go, he dove low on the backstretch to take 3rd from Kasey Kahne.  Three laps later, he took the runner-up spot from Denny Hamlin.

A caution for Kyle Busch’s spin brought out the caution with 6 laps to go.  Gordon restarted on the inside of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin with 2 laps to go.  Martin took off on the restart and Gordon slipped behind Kahne.  He grouped to take 2nd from Kahne on the final lap, but was distantly behind Martin at the finish.  Martin and Gordon collected $1 million from the race’s title sponsor for the 1-2 finish, since the pair finished 1-2 in the Michigan race sponsored by the same company in June.

Gordon is scheduled to be a presenter at the annual ESPN awards on Wednesday night.

Source: gordonline.com

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[audio:http://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Jeff-Gordon-2009-07-11-LifeLock-400-Chicagoland.mp3]

Post Race Interview
[audio:http://www.scannerbytes.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Jeff-Gordon-2009-07-11-LifeLock-400-Chicagoland-Pit-Road-Post-Race.mp3]

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Post Race Quote

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS — Finished 2nd:

GOOD CALL BY YOUR CREW CHIEF TO GET YOU SOME TIRES, WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END? “Well we had our struggles. We had a good car, we were just a little too tight there at the beginning and we were making adjustments. Carl Edwards and I got racing really hard and he got loose underneath me and we about wrecked so we had a long battle from that point on. It was an incredible call that (crew chief) Steve Letarte made and the whole pit crew just did a fantastic job getting us off pit road. It was four tires then it was just a battle maneuvering through traffic with cars slipping and sliding all over the place. That last restart Mark (Martin) went a little early and I just spun the tires when I tried to get it going. It’s still a great finish, one-two for Hendrick. Got to thank the Patriot Academy and DuPont. It’s a privilege having them on board. We could certainly use a night like this and that’s important in the Chase. We’re running really strong and showing them what we’re made of on these tracks.”