Gordon, Bowyer cap eventful week with one-two finish

• Jeff Gordon outran Clint Bowyer during the final laps to win Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400
• Gordon was fined and penalized by NASCAR for wrecking Bowyer last week at Phoenix
• With his runner-up finish, Bowyer finished second in the 2012 points standings

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Jeff Gordon's unusual week ended with an unexpected victory — one position ahead of the Sprint Cup racer who captured his ire seven days earlier.

Gordon outran Clint Bowyer during the final laps to win Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, placing a period — for now — on the feud between the two.

Last week at Phoenix International Raceway, crew members for the two teams brawled after Gordon intentionally wrecked Bowyer, who he accused of doing the same to him several times in the recent past.

After his win Sunday, Gordon sounded conciliatory and thoughtful.

"You can try all you want to move past the moment, but it just ate me up all week," said Gordon, who was docked 25 points by NASCAR, fined $100,000 and placed on probation for his actions. "I just kept going back and forth all week about the decisions I made. Should I have made different decisions about backing up the reasons (for the crash)? I just kept going back and forth. I went from being disappointed to being angry to feeling I had a right and didn't have a right."

Finishing second behind Gordon also ate at Bowyer.

"I'm frustrated and bummed out," he said. "I would've loved to have won that race, especially to beat him."

But his runner-up finish also carried room for thought and reflection. That, coupled with Johnson's 36th, enabled Bowyer finish second in the final standings by one point.

"To be honest, I didn't even think I could reach second," Bowyer said. "I knew we could get close to the 5 (Kasey Kahne), and that was the goal I'd set. That was no easy task; they'd been running well each and every week. We never could really separate ourselves."

Gordon's crew chief, Alan Gustafson, asked his driver to save fuel during the final laps, but Gordon said he was battling a troublesome No. 24 Chevrolet and that Bowyer was gaining ground.

"I was saving a lot of fuel," Gordon said. "What made me concerned was the run after that I'd gotten really tight in the center and loose off. I'd lost some speed at the end of the run, and the 15 was able to run me down."

Gordon's team owner, Rick Hendrick, endured the troubles of one of his drivers, Johnson, while enjoying Gordon's triumph. At the same time, he was able to quell the emotions still brewing between his team and Michael Waltrip Racing, Bowyer's team.

"Those kinds of things happen," Hendrick said. "You just have to accept them, especially as long as I've been doing this. You just move on to the next week."

Or, if you're Bowyer, you just move on to next year.

"It's been a fun year, but I'm glad that it's over," Bowyer said. "I'm going to do whatever I want to do next week. Exactly whatever I want to do."