Bowyer wins; Gordon makes chase field

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — With his season essentially on the line, Jeff Gordon used a vintage drive to rally his way into NASCAR's championship chase.

The 41-year-old Gordon battled an ill-handling car early in Saturday night's race, then took off at the end to finish second to race winner Clint Bowyer at Richmond International Raceway. He wrested the final berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship away from Kyle Busch.

Busch finished 16th, and Gordon grabbed the 12th spot in the Chase field by a mere three points. Team owner Joe Gibbs met Busch on pit road and leaned into the car window to console the angry driver.

“We missed. That's it. Plain and simple,” said Busch, adding Gibbs told him, “'Handle it the right way.’ There's no right way to handle this situation.”

Gordon, meanwhile, was ecstatic. He qualified second, but was terrible early in a race that was marred by three different rain showers. The start was delayed almost two hours, and a second shower caused a stoppage that lasted just under 52 minutes.

Gordon was livid when he exited his car on pit road during the red flag.

“I was pretty ticked off that we got that far behind,” Gordon said. “When you have that kind of a start to a race, you don't have a lot of hope that you're going to get it turned around.”

But his Hendrick Motorsports team got it figured out during the third and final rain shower.

Tags: auto racing, sports, nascar