JOLIET, Ill. (AP) – Jeff Gordon spun out Matt Kenseth with four laps to go, then held on to win Sunday’s Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Fans showered the track with debris after the race, an apparent protest of Gordon’s racing tactics.

“I hate to win one like that,” Gordon said in Victory Lane. “Matt, he ran a great race.”

Gordon and Kenseth tangled earlier this year during a race at Bristol Motor Speedway, causing Gordon to shove Kenseth in a physical confrontation afterward.

Gordon denied that Sunday’s finish had anything to do with Bristol.

Gordon said he didn’t want to wreck Kenseth, insisting, “I wanted to race him.” But he added Kenseth was trying to block him.

“I’m not going to back down,” Gordon said. “I wanted to win.”

Kenseth crew chief Robbie Reiser said in a television interview: “We just got spun out, I guess.”

Second-place finisher Jeff Burton, a former teammate of Kenseth’s at Roush Racing, initially declined comment because he didn’t see what happened.

But after wincing during a television replay, Burton said, “Matt’s a hard-nosed racer, and there’ll be retribution for that, I’m sure.”

Burton said if NASCAR isn’t willing to issue rough driving penalties, it will be up to drivers to settle issues on the track.

“If NASCAR doesn’t handle it, then we need to handle it,” Burton said. “And that’s OK.”

Kenseth and David Stremme then crashed on the way to the start/finish line, sending Kenseth spinning again at the finish.

Kenseth dominated the second half of Sunday’s race and appeared to be headed to his third victory of the season, but a sudden surge from Gordon in the closing laps allowed him to catch Kenseth in Turn 2. Gordon then appeared to tap Kenseth’s rear bumper with his front bumper.

Earlier in the race, Gordon closed in on Kenseth’s rear bumper on a restart with 30 laps to go. But Gordon couldn’t pull off the pass and Kenseth got away.

It was Gordon’s first victory at the suburban Chicago track, and his second victory of the 2006 season. Gordon won two weeks ago at Infineon Raceway.

Burton, trying for his first victory since 2001, finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The race was slowed eight times for caution flags, with no major crashes until the Gordon-Kenseth accident. Michael Waltrip’s car was damaged when he brushed the wall with 40 laps to go, and Casey Mears – who won his first NASCAR race on Saturday with a victory in the Busch Series – spun and hit the wall with 34 laps to go.