Gordon won Sunday's Samsung 500 in his 17th Cup race at Texas and picked up his first victory in a points-paying race for the first time since October 2007 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

The four-time series champion led the most laps with 105, but had to hold off a late-race challenge from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson to record his 82nd career victory. He is one win away from tying Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time race winners list.

"How ironic is it that we go on this streak, and we end it here in Texas," Gordon said. "This place has eluded us for so long. This was an incredible team effort. This whole year has been amazing. What a great car. We've never had a car like this at Texas, and we finally put it in position.

Prior to his victory, Gordon had finished twice at Texas, most recently in November. His only two last-place finishes in his Cup career have also came at the one-and-a-half mile track. He finished 43rd here one year ago.

Homestead-Miami Speedway is now the only active track where Gordon has not won a Cup race. Homestead has been on the schedule since 1999.

Johnson, who won last weekend's race at Martinsville, struggled with an ill- handling car in the first-half of the race and fell back as far as 18th. After making adjustments during a round of pit stops, Johnson cruised through the field and rallied for a second-place finish, giving Hendrick a one-two finish at Texas.

"We worked hard on this race car today, and it shows how hard track position is," Johnson said. "Our car was off, and it wasn't the best, but we made it really good at the end."

It's the ninth time Gordon and Johnson have finished one-two in a Cup race.

Greg Biffle finished third, despite a pit-road blunder late in the race.

Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five.

Mark Martin, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards were sixth through 10, respectively.

Edwards, who was attempting to win his third consecutive race at Texas and fourth overall here, held the lead in the late-stages, but David Stremme spun and hit the wall on lap 302, setting up the final round of pit stops. Gordon captured the lead for the final time, while Edwards came out 11th after his crew had problems changing his tires.

Kyle Busch, winner of Saturday's Nationwide race, had a tough day at Texas. Busch made contact with John Andretti and cut his left-front tire on lap 109. He had to make an unexpected pit stop for new tires and fell one lap behind. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was also penalized for speeding on pit road during another stop. He ended up finishing 18th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s mistakes on pit road continued this season. Earnhardt Jr. was caught speeding on pit road early in the race, and then he had a loose lug not, which required him to pit again on a separate round of stops. Junior finished 20th.

David Reutimann started on the pole and ran among the leaders for a better part of the race. But Reutimann pitted outside of his box and lost a lap as a result. He fell way back in the field. Reutimann did recover slightly with an 11th-place run.

The only major incident occurred on lap 230 when Sam Hornish Jr. went sideways in turn two after running side-by-side with Clint Bowyer. Bobby Labonte veered to the right to avoid the Hornish's spinning car, but made contact with the wall. Labonte suffered heavy damage to his car and finished 40th.

With the victory, Gordon increased his lead to a season-high 162 points over new second-place Johnson, who moved up two positions in the standings.

The series takes next week off and then heads to Phoenix International Raceway for the first Saturday night race of the season, the Subway Fresh Fit 500, on April 18.