Jeff Gordon's remarkable start to the 2007 Nextel Cup season continued on Sunday at the famed Darlington Raceway as he claimed his third win of the season to maintain Hendrick Motorsports equally remarkable record with the Car of Tomorrow.
On Mothers Day in the United States, the majority of the sold out crowd originally slated to attend Saturday night's aborted race returned to the 1.366-mile egg-shaped Darlington oval on an overcast and cloudy Sunday afternoon in South Carolina to watch the sternest test yet of the new Car of Tomorrow. However at the end of a typically gruelling outing at the ‘Lady in Black' the existing CoT pecking order was upheld with Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports specifically at the fore when the chequered flag fell.
Although Busch race winner Denny Hamlin led more than half of the 367-laps in his #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet it was current championship leader Gordon who found himself in the right place at the right time, clinging to the lead over the final 14 lap green flag run to the finish against a fast closing Hamlin and defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, both of whom had fresher tyres than Gordon.
The fact that Gordon was able to hold off Hamlin and Johnson on NASCAR's toughest track surface with older tyres and an engine that was rapidly overheating not only shows the current strength of the #24 DuPont team but also the strength of the Chevrolet Impala, especially in the hands of Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick cars have now won all five Car of Tomorrow races held so far and eight of the eleven races held all year.
![Jeff Gordon - DuPont Chevrolet [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/303466.jpg)
