INSIDE TRACK: Pennsylvania 400 Review - WTRF 7 News Sports Weather - Wheeling Steubenville

It was as it had been a week earlier, Jimmie Johnson out front on a restart with Matt Kenseth tight on the outside... But this week, the normally steady Johnson slid up into Kenseth causing a melee that allowed four time champion Jeff Gordon to shoot by to claim the lead on lap 91.  Then the heavens opened up.  NASCAR brought out the red flag, then made it official, Gordon had won his first of the season and the 86th of his career  With a season of bad luck, Gordon felt this win made up for at least some of this seasons bad luck.

"When we've had cars capable of winning races, like Martinsville, I can think of a handful of times we were in position to win 'em, and things didn't go our way for whatever reason.  To see this race unfold the way it did, you know, certainly makes up for a lot of those would have, could have, should haves this year.  Things are coming together at the right time.  The attitude of this team is that we don't ever give up.  We keep fighting.  We go to the racetrack, try to win.  Today we got the win."

Gordon's Hendrick teammate, Kasey Kahne brought it home second, if he had jumped into the gas on the restart, the victory might have been his.

"Yeah, we had a great car.  Kenny Francis and Keith did an awesome job to get it to go through the corners as quickly as it did.  The Hendrick power is something else here on these long straightaways.  I just felt really good with the whole car, the Farmers Insurance Chevrolet."

Martin Truex, Jr. brought the #56 NAPA Toyota home in the third spot, Truex is proud of all his team has done this season.

"It was good race for NAPA Toyota.  We had a pretty good car all weekend along.  We didn't have the greatest qualifying run yesterday and that kind of hurt.  Once we got going out there, the last couple runs of the race, we were the fastest car on the track. "

With the win, coupled with Kyle Busch's 33rd place finish, Gordon moved into the second wild card spot.  He is tied with Ryan Newman, but because Gordon has more top fives, Gordon gets the spot.  With Watkins Glen next weekend, we can expect the wildcard race to shake up again.