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CONCORD, N.C. – Robby Gordon had nothing to lose by staying on the track under the final caution period of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Monday.

His No. 7 Robby Gordon Motorsports Toyota was the final car on the lead lap as rain pelted the track, so the decision to stay out was a no-brainer.

And it paid off handsomely, as the rain eventually halted the race and helped give Gordon a third-place finish. That’s Gordon’s best result since a second at Watkins Glen in 2005 and his best on an oval track since winning at New Hampshire in 2001.

“Part of it was watching the computer screen,” Gordon said. “We were sitting there 20th or 21st, and we were like, ‘OK, if we come in and pit, we’re going to come out 21st. If we stay out, we’ve got an opportunity to finish in the top five.’

“I was just kind of bummed there were two other guys who went for the gamble.”

Gordon had used the same strategy earlier in the race when he stayed out under the race’s fourth caution to lead lap 73. When the chance came to do it again just past the halfway point, the choice was clear.

“I don’t think we had to say anything,” crew chief Kirk Almquist said. “We’d done it once earlier in the race. We stayed out and led a lap under the first red flag we had. We had talked about it and knew if we got in the situation again, depending on where we were on the track, we definitely were going to go for it and try it.”

Had the rain subsided and NASCAR ordered the cars back on the track, Almquist said he would’ve kept Gordon out there, “until they said one to go, just in case it started raining again.”

Gordon was 10 green-flag laps from having to stop for fuel, so the rain saved him. And it could help jump-start a team that had a best previous finish of 15th at Las Vegas this year.

“This is a momentum builder for us,” Gordon said. “We’ve had some decent runs. … How do you say it? Success breeds success. I think this will only help us.