Gordon wins 2 Races at Daytona

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Gordon wins second Duel race

Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Jeff Gordon captured the second of two Gatorade Duel at Daytona events. The No.24 DuPont Chevrolet driver took the checkered flag 0.127 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch.

It was the third "Duel" win of Gordon's career. In the race within the race, Robby Gordon and Mike Wallace were the top-two finishers of 12 drivers who were not already qualified for the Daytona 500 via 2005 owners standings or qualifying. The pair earned a position on the starting grid by finishing 10th and 12th, respectively. Defending Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon brought the 29-car field to the green flag to start the 60-lap qualifying event. The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Bobby Labonte drove side-by-side for the first two laps before Labonte and his No.43 Petty Enterprises Dodge took the top spot. Labonte's lead lasted four laps until another Hendrick Motorsport car, Busch's No.5 Chevrolet, took the lead. Busch and Jeff Gordon raced with one another for the lead, but Busch wouldn't yield to his teammate. So Gordon ducked behind his teammate and the two began to pull away from the rest of the field. Jamie McMurray, the newest member of the Roush Racing team, joined the top pair and together they had more than half-a-second on the other 26 race cars. But as usually happens in a restrictor-plate race, the other cars teamed up to bring the leaders back to the pack. The first caution came out on lap 27 when Joe Nemechek's No.01 Army Chevrolet began to smoke. He quickly slowed and was out of the race with an engine failure. The timing was convenient for the race teams as it was a perfect spot to pit and still reach the checkered flag without any more stops. Busch overshot his pit box and the delay left him in seventh place. Gordon won the race off pit lane and returned to the top spot with McMurray just behind him. Jeff Gordon held the lead as the drivers hit the 40-lap mark of a scheduled 60, but it wasn't a big lead. Eleven cars made up the first group, all within 1.5 seconds of each other. Dave Blaney brought out a caution on lap 51 when his left-rear tire went flat. The caution left the race as a seven-lap shootout to the checkered flag. But when J.J. Yeley spun out on lap 58, the fans were treated to a second straight green-white-checker finish. Jeff Gordon took the green flag and as the cars slowly gained speed kept the inside line. It takes almost a lap and a half for Nextel Cup cars to reach top speed, so as long as Gordon held to the bottom of the track, he figured to win it. And win it he did, crossing the finish line just ahead of Busch. McMurray, Labonte, and Mark Martin completed the top-five.