Jeff Gordon Wins his first race in his Final Season

Jeff Gordon earned his ninth career win at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, moving him on to an automatic berth in NASCAR’s championship race.

Winless this season before Sunday, the 44 year old four time series champion has now automatically placed himself in that race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in his final year of racing. There, the top finisher among four finalists will be named champion. Gordon’s win on Sunday marks his 93rd career win.

Gordon can’t believe that this is happening at this point in his career.

He took the lead at Martinsville after Brad Keselowski crashed accidently, and race leader Joey Logano got run over by Matt Kenseth. Kenseth is believed to have intentionally wreck Logano, because Logano wrecked Kenseth in a similar fashion in a previous race. Gordon says that he’s seen incidents like this before and he believes one’s actions to always come full circle.

Once they were out, the race became Gordon’s to win and he emphasizes the importance of staying ready for big moments.

When Gordon passed the checkered line he was greeted with fans chanting his name, number, and seemed to share the disbelief that one of the best ever will have a chance going out as champion in his final chapter.