KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Kansas City’s NFL team may have had its biggest victory of the year Sunday, but the city crowned a new chief.

NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon is unbeatable at Kansas Speedway at least so far winning the Protection One 400 for the second straight season Sunday, outrunning rookie Ryan Newman after a restart with three laps remaining in front of an estimated crowd of more than 85,000 fans.

“The track’s been good to us, obviously real good to us now,” said Gordon, who not only stayed perfect in Winston Cup races on the 112-mile tri-oval track in Wyandotte County, but also may have given himself the opportunity at another Winston Cup Series points championship.

Asked whether the win would propel him toward his fifth WCS championship, Gordon said, “I hope I get the chance to answer that question for you one day.”

The No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet driver, who finished 37th last week at Dover International Speedway after an accident, moved from fifth place to fourth place with 3,715 points in a battle where the top nine drivers are separated by just 201 points.

“These last seven races are going to be really interesting,” he added.

What wasn’t interesting Sunday was the challenge Gordon received for most the race. He led 116 of the last 121 laps in the 267-lap event and only surrendered the lead on lap No. 147 because of a pit stop.

The man known affectionately to his fans as the “Rainbow Warrior” was coasting to his third win of the season and 61st career victory until a red flag appeared with five laps to go. A four-car wreck in Turn 4 on lap 161 created a caution situation, and NASCAR officials rather a race not end under caution if there are enough laps left to create a competitive completion.

“We just weren’t in the right spot at the end,” said Newman, who was the runner-up in three of the last five races and second to Gordon at the Speedway for the second year in a row. “I feel if we were in front of Jeff, I think we could have held him off. I think a lot of guys could say that because that’s how big of a difference clean air makes.”

Newman’s Ford teammate Rusty Wallace finished third, followed by Joe Nemechek and Bill Elliott in the fourth and fifth slots. Pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. took sixth while Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Jeremy Mayfield and current WCS points leader Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top 10.

Sunday’s event was hampered by 11 cautions although all 43 racers made it around the starting lap, unlike during the inaugural race when there were 13 yellow flags, including one on the first loop. Still, Gordon had enough speed after a 13-plus minute wait because of the red flag.

Jeff Gordon celebrates in Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway. Gordon won the Protection One 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race Sunday in Kansas City, Kan., for the second year in a row.

“I wish I could be more excited, but I am just completely worn out right now,” said Gordon, who removed his helmet while waiting for the restart in Turn 2. “I’d like to see them get us some water and something cool when we’re out there during red flags.”

While all the competitors safely made it around the first lap, it didn’t take long for damage to be done Sunday.

On lap No. 7, nine cars banged into one another after Tony Raines’ car slammed into Ken Schrader down the front stretch.

“The guys are racing too hard,” said Pennzoil-sponsored Steve Park, one of twenty crash casualties Sunday, who smashed into the wall on lap 111 and thought Sterling Marlin cut him off.

“I was inside the No. 40 car for what seemed like 10 laps. It was a racing deal, but there are a lot of laps left in the race and we probably shouldn’t have been racing that hard. But what am I supposed to do? I should just pull over and let those guys go I guess.”

Marlin, who earlier in the season led the WCS points championship for 25 races, also crashed, dropping him to a 33rd finish and moving him from fourth to fifth in the points race.

While the venues of Arrowhead Stadium and the Speedway had a bigger combined population than every town in Kansas except Wichita on Sunday, many sports fans probably saw a better showing at the Chiefs-Miami Dolphins game until Gordon gunned through the late restart gamut and into the Speedway’s victory lane for the second time.

“I’m probably more excited about coming back here next year, than even this year,” Gordon said. “I was just glad to get out of Dover. It didn’t matter where we were going, I just wanted to go somewhere else and get another race under our belt and show that we could go out and win.”