“Man, I didn’t know if we were ever going to win another one of these races. I knew this team was something special, we just haven’t had a chance to really show it,” he added. “They gave me such an awesome race car this weekend that I had to get them this win. If we didn’t win with this car, we can’t ever win.”

Labonte, driving this week for the first-year Hall of Fame Racing team co-owned by former NFL quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, pitted for the final time on lap 60 and found himself in the lead on lap 71 after all the other leaders made their final stops.

Gordon was about 12 seconds behind Labonte after his pit stop on lap 70. With Labonte conserving fuel in an effort to make it to the end, Gordon steadily cut into the margin, finally passing Labonte with a strong inside move on the hairpin 11th-turn.

Three late caution flags helped Labonte save fuel and kept the field bunched up. After a six-car crash on lap 105 brought out the second red flag of the race to allow for a cleanup — this one for 13 minutes — Labonte and the rest of the contenders got one last shot at Gordon.

But the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was just too strong. Gordon took the green flag for the start of lap 108 and pulled away. Ryan Newman finally got past Labonte for second place on lap 109, finishing 1.25 seconds — about 8 car-lengths — behind the winner.

Greg Biffle finished fourth, followed by pole-winner Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Jeff Burton.

“We should have been second but I didn’t get my tires good and clean after that last red flag,” said Labonte, who earned his nickname with a cool, quiet demeanor that paid off again on Sunday. “I didn’t want to use too much gas. It took me a couple of laps to get going and the 12 car (Newman) got me.”

Slide show   Hot wheels Click to see images of NASCAR's hottest drivers on the circuit including Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

Labonte, who plans to retire from the cockpit at the end of this season, ran only nine races last year and has run 10 of 16 this year. This was the first top five finish for the 49-year-old Labonte since winning the second race at Darlington in 2003.

The victory by Gordon broke a string of three straight road race victories for Tony Stewart, who had another unlucky day. The defending race champion and reigning Nextel Cup champion, who was knocked out of last week’s race at Michigan, overcame a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road Sunday and appeared strong enough to contend for another win until he lost a cylinder late in the race. He wound up 28th.

Series leader Jimmie Johnson, Gordon’s teammate, survived a spin to finish 10th and increased his lead over Matt Kenseth — 17th on Sunday — from 74 to 101 points. Gordon jumped from 11th to eighth in the standings, while Stewart fell from sixth to seventh, 26 points ahead of Gordon heading into next Saturday’s race at Daytona.

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