Ryan Newman rolls away with his eighth Winston Cup victory.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) – Ryan Newman’s gas-mileage gamble paid off with another Winston Cup win Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

Newman elected not to take part in a flurry of pit stops with 65 laps to go, then held off a furious challenge from Bill Elliott to win the Banquet 400 – his series-leading eighth victory of the year.

Jeremy Mayfield, who stayed out of the pits along with Newman, was third as Dodges took the top three spots.

Elliott, third after a restart with 14 laps to go on the 11/2-mile tri-oval, got held up momentarily by Mike Skinner’s lapped car. He passed Mayfield with 11 laps to go but could not manage a serious challenge to Newman.

“I think it’s pretty obvious who had the best car out there today,” Mayfield said, referring to Elliott.

Jeff Gordon finished fifth behind Tony Stewart, failing in his bid to become the first driver to win the first three Winston Cup events at a new venue. Gordon won at Kansas in 2001, the track’s first season, and repeated in 2002.

“We were about a third-place car most of the day,” Gordon said after his third straight fifth-place finish. “I’m pretty happy with how things turned out.”

Points leader Matt Kenseth’s struggles continued with his second wreck of the weekend and his second frustrating finish in as many weeks.

Kenseth, starting 32nd in a backup car after he wrecked in practice Friday, crashed in the backstretch Sunday. Kenseth was trying to avoid Michael Waltrip’s car after Waltrip spun out in the 68th lap.

Kenseth returned to the race in the 114th lap – 46 laps down. He finished 36th and saw his lead over Kevin Harvick shrink to 259 points – down from 354 points last week and 436 two weeks ago.

Last week at Talladega, Kenseth lost his engine and finished 37th.

Elliott, who led 115 of the race’s 267 laps, dropped to 15th after the flurry of pit stops that Newman avoided.

The field tightened after the 249th lap, when Johnny Benson hit the frontstretch wall on the 249th lap after contact with Mark Martin.

Harvick finished sixth, followed in the top 10 by Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd.

Johnson’s finish came after he was forced to start from the rear in a backup car. He set a track qualifying record in winning the pole Friday, but wrecked during practice Saturday.

Before the wrecks by Waltrip and Kenseth brought out the first of the day’s nine cautions, Elliott led 45 of the first 69 laps by margins of up to 6 seconds.

AP-ES-10-05-03 1709EDT