Jeff Gordon wins the 2015 Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway

Jeff Gordon earned an opportunity to win a fifth NASCAR championship in his final season before retirement by winning Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

An incredibly popular victory, his first of the season, saw an elated Gordon emerged from his No. 24 car and jump giddily up and down waving the checkered flag. He now automatically advances to the deciding round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“We’re going to Homestead!” Gordon said. “This is the sweetest, most amazing feeling. You talk about holding back emotion.”

For much of the afternoon Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski had the strongest cars, but a pair of late incidents sidelined each. Following a restart Logano, Keselowski and Matt Kenseth were running 1-2-3 when contact between the three saw Keselowski clip Kenseth, sending both crashing.

Logano continued only to his bid for a fourth straight win come undone when Kenseth, 10 laps behind, appeared to intentionally wreck Logano as they raced into Turn 1. Kenseth has been upset with Logano stemming from Logano spinning him out of the lead two weeks ago at Kansas Speedway, which essentially prevented Kenseth from transferring out of the second playoff round.

With Logano’s car severely damaged, that handed the top position to Gordon, who then pitted for tires and conceded the spot. A.J. Allmendinger then assumed the lead, but that was short lived as Gordon passed Allmendinger with 22 laps to go.

Jamie McMurray finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch. Rounding out the top 10 were Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart.