GAS PRICELESS RIVALS' FUEL WOES HELP GORDON RECORD BACK-TO-BACK CUP WINS.

Byline: Louis Brewster Staff Writer

FONTANA - Jeff Gordon did not have any concerns about fuel Sunday afternoon at California Speedway even as his competitors ran out of gas in the closing laps of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Auto Club 500.

It was only after he took the checkered flag in front of an estimated record crowd of 120,000 - his third victory at the Fontana track in eight years - that reality sunk in.

``I went to do my burnout and spin around in the grass and I ran out of gas,'' said Gordon, who finished 12.871 seconds ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson. ``It was an amazing run. (Crew chief) Robbie Loomis did an amazing job. We weren't the best car, but only when it counted. We weren't the best car at the end, Bobby (Labonte) was really coming on.''

But Labonte ran out of gas on the last lap and fell from second to fifth. The same fate befell Dodge teammates Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield, and it cost each of them a top-10 finish.

``Those last laps when Bobby was running me down, I was getting loose and trying to conserve fuel,'' said Gordon, winner of the last two Cup races and 66 in his career. ``Great calculation and communication by Robbie and all those guys on the DuPont team. That last lap was the slowest of the day because I could.''

Loomis said: ``We knew it was going to be extremely close. We thought we were a lap and a half on the good side and I relayed that to Jeff.''

It turns out Loomis and crew member Brian Whitesel, a former Gordon crew chief, were exactly right.

But this race will be remembered for more than Gordon winning and cars running out of gas at the end. Tony Stewart created memorable moments by tangling with Rusty Wallace, Gordon and Ricky Rudd, and just missing Johnson twice.

Wallace, winner of the 2001 race at Fontana, was in no mood to mince words after his second run-in with Stewart in two weeks. The early incident, according to Wallace, ``completely ruined my car.''

``I don't know what's wrong with the guy,'' said Wallace, who was later collected in a Kurt Busch spin that relegated him to a 35th-place finish. ``He pulls up beside me and starts flipping me off on the restart. I wanted to get out of the car and whip his rear end.

``He's really screwing up lately. The kid needs to calm down.''

In a statement, Stewart acknowledged he's under the microscope.

``It's easy to point fingers at a guy when he's down,'' the statement said. ``I'll just take it. But if (Wallace) wants to point fingers, then he can keep pointing fingers. I used to have respect for him, too.''

The gas situation scrambled the final results. Ryan Newman finished third, followed by Matt Kenseth and Labonte. The next five were rookie Brendan Gaughan, Terry Labonte, Casey Mears, Kevin Harvick and Ward Burton. The race took 3 hours, 38 minutes, 33 seconds to complete and Gordon's average speed was 137.268 mph because of six caution periods for 39 laps.

The Hendrick 1-2 finish also allowed Johnson and Gordon to gain on points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., who struggled throughout the day and eventually finished 19th, one lap down. Earnhardt now leads Johnson by 25 points and Gordon by 27 after the 10th race of the season.

Gordon has been the most consistent driver in the last month.

``It's been an amazing four or five races that we've had,'' said Gordon, who registered back-to-back wins for the 19th time in his career that started in 1993. ``After Darlington - we had a pretty tough wreck there - we just shook it off and just kept plugging away and going strong. It makes me really proud to get behind the wheel of that car when you know you've got guys like that.

``That was the baddest engine I've ever had underneath the hood of a race car.''

It was good enough for him to lead five times for a race-high 81 laps. Gordon was among 15 drivers, tying the Speedway record, who swapped the lead a total of 23 times.

Kahne also led five times for 77 laps, but dropped back after his last pit stop.

``I'm not sure what happened,'' said Kahne, the first rookie to win a pole at Fontana. ``We just got tight after that last stop and that impacted our mileage. That's why we ran out of gas.''

Labonte, who cut Gordon's lead to less than a second with two laps to go, didn't know he was close to the empty mark.

``Nobody told me that we were going to be close, so I didn't ask,'' Labonte said. ``I think we went a lot faster that run so maybe that had something to do with it. But anyway, it was a good day for us to finish fifth.''

Johnson, in a backup car after crashing his primary Friday, was the beneficiary of the gas shortage.

``I was really settled into fifth and thought that was where we were going to end up,'' the 2002 winner said. ``There are a lot of elements to this team and fuel mileage was one of them.''

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Photo:

Jeff Gordon, who won for the third time in eight years at California Speedway, drove his car to the track's infield to celebrate his Auto Club 500 victory with some spinouts but ran out of gas.

Will Lester/Associated Press

Box:

AUTO CLUB 500 RESULTS