DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Unlike the past three years, Jeff Gordon is taking all the suspense out of the Winston Cup championship.

By holding off hard-charging Bobby Labonte to win Saturday night’s Pepsi 400, Gordon virtually assured that he’ll clinch his third title in four years before the season finale at Atlanta.

It’s the kind of killer instinct that often marks a dominant era. If Gordon can carry his momentum through one more week, he will have the championship with two races left.

“We can’t change the way we’re doing things,” Gordon said after his 11th victory of the season and 40th in only six years on the circuit. “We can’t say the championship is ours yet.”

That is likely to come soon, however. Saturday night’s rain-delayed win increased Gordon’s lead to 358 points over second-place Mark Martin, a virtually insurmountable advantage.

As long as Gordon finishes among the top 32 in each of the final three races, he’ll win the title. He’s missed that only once this year, finishing 37th in June’s Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond, Va.

Since then, he’s never been out of the top five – a stretch of 17 races. In 13 of those events, he has finished first or second.

Maine driver Rickey Craven came on with a solid outing Saturday night while replacing Ernie Irvan.

Irvan, plagued by headaches since crashing last week in Talladega, lasted just 13 laps.

Craven drove the No. 36 car to the 39th qualifying position, but gave up the ride when Irvan was encouraged by his reaction from 13 practice laps Friday.

“I felt fine,” Irvan said. “But I’m not sure that my body is ready for the bouncing and beating of 400 miles. I might get out at the first caution if that is the best scenario for myself.”

That’s exactly what happened. When raindrops brought out the yellow flag after 12 laps, Irvan climbed out and gave his position back to Craven.

Starting the race meant Irvan would receive any points earned by the No. 36 car. He entered the race 14th in the standings with 10 top-10 finishes. Craven drove the car to an eighth-place finish Saturday.

Craven sat out 12 races earlier this season while recuperating from post-concussion syndrome and later lost his ride with Hendrick Motorsports.

If Gordon earns 12 more points than Martin next week, the championship chase is over. Dale Earnhardt was the last driver to clinch with two races left, when he won the last of his seven titles in 1994.

“We’ve got three races left,” said Gordon, whose win Saturday was his first in the months of October or November. “If we have trouble, it brings the championship race back to life.”

Gordon speaks from experience. Before winning his first title in 1995, he watched a 302-point lead with four races left shrink to 34 over Earnhardt at the end.