Better lucky than good

Carl Edwards won the Auto Club 500, but there were times it looked like Jeff Gordon had the best car in the race.
It took two days and three rain delays to finish the race, but Gordon had one of the fastest cars in the field in the first 87 laps of the race run on Sunday. He had a fast car the following day and finished third behind Edwards and Jimmie Johnson.
But it could have ended much worse for Gordon. His engine blew on the last lap of the race, which was completed under caution because Dale Jarrett hit the wall on the fianl lap.
"If you don't think we have any luck, we blew up right coming off turn two just as the caution came out and we were done," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I coasted to the line. We got very lucky today."
With his third-place finish, Gordon jumped up to 13th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. He made up 24 spots after coming in 39th in the season-opening Daytona 500.
"I couldn't believe it," Gordon said. "I kept saying, this is it, right? This is it. I thought when we took the white flag it was over. So thank goodness we got a little luck on our side today with what happened.