Jeff Gordon not giving up hope for Sprint Cup yet – NASCAR news
Jeff Gordon will be hoping he can follow in Jimmie Johnson’s footsteps after he crashed down into 10th place in the Chase Cup.
He had a dismal finish at Hollywood Casino 400 at the Kansas Speedway on Sunday, October 9, 2011.
Gordon had driven in the top 10 most of the afternoon at Kansas but had an engine blow up 7 laps from the end and finished in 34th position. The finish was Gordon’s worst in his last 21 races since he ended up 39th at
Richmond in May. The finish is also his worst at Kansas in 5 years, and only the second time he has finished outside the top 15 in 12 starts at the track.
Going over his experience at Kansas, Gordon said that he had realised a long time before the blow up that things were not going to end up well.
“I started seeing smoke inside the car,” Gordon said. “We had a really bad restart there and got shuffled back. Our day was pretty much over anyway and we were going to finish maybe 15th or something.”
“Right there I started what smelled like burning oil and I saw the oil temp start to come up and I felt like it was just a matter of time before it blew up. I've got to thank Quaker State because the thing lasted a lot longer than I thought it would,” he
said.
Two weeks ago, Jimmie Johnson was 10th in the standings as well but pulled off a second place finish at Dover and followed it up by a win in Kansas to jump up to third place. Johnson managed to make up 25 points in two races, which
will only be of slight comfort to Gordon as he lies 47 points behind Carl Edwards in the table.
With only 6 races left in the season, Gordon knows that time is not on his side. He needs to get back up into the race and start at Charlotte. The next race on the schedule is the Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has two wins at the
track in his career and now will be the perfect time for him to make it three.
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