Gordon strong again

For much of the afternoon, Jeff Gordon looked strong enough to have a shot at winning consecutive Cup races for the first time since 2007.

“I am still really happy with the way our car performed,” said Gordon, the all-time winningest driver at Pocono with six victories, who was coming off last week’s triumph at Indianapolis. “It’s just so awesome and encouraging and it has my confidence sky high. I just can’t wait to get to the next race.”

Gordon led three times for a race-high 63 laps before settling for a sixth-place finish that kept him atop the point standings, 17 points ahead of Earnhardt. And the race winner knew he’d have his hands full if Gordon was close at the finish.

“The 24 was so strong, we wanted to leapfrog him on pit road and not leave it up to circumstances on the track,” Earnhardt said. “We were going to have a very hard time passing him, so what it came down to was Steve (crew chief Letarte) and his pit strategy.”