Gordon fifth, draws closer to points lead

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Jeff Gordon doesn't have a much talked-about win this year, but he made up a lot of ground Sunday in the Winston Cup points.

Jeff Gordon caught a break with two late cautions. Credit: Autostock

Gordon started 24th and rallied from a lap down to finish fifth in the Sirius Satellite Radio 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The finish was his fifth top-five this year and 200th top-10 of his career.

More importantly, it tied him with Jimmie Johnson with 2,054 points -- just 110 behind leader Sterling Marlin.

"I'm real happy," said Gordon, who was the defending race winner coming into this weekend. "I felt like we had a fifth or sixth-place car. And, for us to lose a lap was pretty disappointing.

"We just needed to keep freeing the car up. The caution fell and got us a lap down, but then we got up there in the clean air. Man, I'll tell you what, that thing was flying.

"Then, we got our lap back and went to the back of the pack and I was just junk. Luckily, we were able to get four tires there at the end or we would have never finished where we did."

Marlin finished ouit of the top 20 for the first time in 2002. Credit: Autostock

Marlin had his worst finish of the season -- he finished a lap down in 21st. It was just the second time in 2002 that Marlin failed to finish on the lead lap.

"We had a 15th or 20th-place car," said Marlin, who started 37th. "We lost a ton of points today. This is our worst finish of the season and we knew we'd have days like this.

"We've just got to run better. There's a lot of racing left, but we've got to get better before we come back here in August."

Michael Waltrip not only finished better than his teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., he also moved up to 14th in the points, knocking Earnhardt Jr. down to 15th. With Waltrip's fourth-place finish, he now has three top-fives and six top-10s in 2002.

Kyle Petty continues his march forward on the point chart. He started the race 27th and dabbled in the top-10 for awhile before finishing 12th. He has moved up one spot to 18th on the points chart and has improved his spot in the standings for five weeks in a row.