Jeff Gordon wins at Martinsville; Joey Logano bid wrecked by Matt Kenseth

Ray Slover

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Jeff Gordon wins at Martinsville; Joey Logano bid wrecked by Matt Kenseth image

Jeff Gordon punched his ticket to the Sprint Cup championship race on Sunday, winning at Martinsville.

But as good as Gordon was, the story of the day was not his victory. It was the payback delivered by Matt Kenseth, who wrecked race leader Joey Logano to get revenge for being spun out at Kansas while racing for the win. 

MORE: Kenseth's revenge KO's Logano | Chase standings after Martinsville 

Gordon held off Jamie McMurray on a restart with two laps to go. In his final season, Gordon won his first race and a golden ticket to be among the four drivers vying for the Cup at Miami-Homestead Nov. 22. 

It was Gordon's ninth victory at Martinsville. He acknowledged the crowd's standing ovation. And Gordon, a four-time Cup winner, celebrated like it was 1999.

To say Gordon was jubilant was an understatement. He was a kid again in victory lane when he met with his team, his family and a TV interviewer.

"We're going to Homestead!" Gordon said, literally jumping for joy. "(Retirement) was a joke, I'm coming back next year.

"This is the sweetest, most amazing feeling. I am so proud of this team. You talk about holding back emotions, right now, man, wow, we're going to Homestead and I can't believe it."

Holding back emotions? We'd love to see Gordon when he lets loose. Maybe he'll do that at Homestead.

Sunday's race was the first of three in the Eliminator Round. Next week, the Sprint Cup Series runs at Texas, with Phoenix a week after that. Then comes the finale. Gordon is in position to not worry about the next two weeks, but he has been good at the tracks to come. And he won at Homestead in 2012.

After missing the championship race last year, he has a chance to cap an amazing career with a final championship.

What an incredible battle that was.

It was, Gordon said, an incredible battle.

"We just stuck with it all day long. I was just trying to protect those rear tires," he said. "It just all fell into our lap with the incident with the 22 and a couple of other guys."

Ray Slover