Sports highlights: NASCAR surprises in Phoenix and Vegas

The sports week started with Jeff Gordon winning the Sprint Cup series race in Phoenix and ended with Danica Patrick finished 4th in the Nationwide series race in Vegas. Jeff Gordon is 5th on the all-time NASCAR's winner list. So it should not have been a big surprise except he hasn't won in his 66 prior races. And this victory was an impressive one as he battled the talented Kyle Busch at the end. Busch was really good at late race restarts usually and had won 2 other events on the same track that weekend already. It sounded like lots of fans rooted for Gordon to win and I was one of them, which was another mild surprise, because Gordon dominated NASCAR in the 90s to the point that it got really boring (just like Jimmie Johnson did in the past few years) More surprising was Danica's good finish. This race really showcased her skills as you could see her passing other cars with confidence. And it's a continuation of the trend started this season: she looked much more comfortable racing stock cars than last year. Obviously she learned a lot from her experiences. BTW, it was nice to see Mark Martin winning that race. He is a class act. Also glad to see Justin Allgaier finished 2nd. This guy got talent.