JOLIET, Ill – By far Jeff Gordon had the best performance of his final season of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.
Unfortunately, the five-time Cup champion doesn’t have anything to show for the performance.
When the yellow flag waved with 10 laps remaining for debris in Turns 1 and 2, Gordon along with then race leader Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin elected to stay out, while their competition pitted.
A five-lap shootout produced intense racing which sent Gordon, who restarted second, sliding backwards and eventually settling for 14th. While the move failed to work for Gordon, Hamlin, on the other hand went on to score the win and advance himself to the contender round beginning at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in three weeks.
“We had old tires me and Kurt (Busch),” said Gordon. “We were trying to battle the guys behind us that put tires on, but Denny, I felt pretty good about having him behind us because he had older tires, but (he) got a pretty decent start and I was blocking him. He was just pushing me down on the apron, I just came up a little bit too early off the apron to get to the turn and he was able to somehow squeeze in there. Great job to him.
I’m pretty frustrated that caution came out and we didn’t capitalize on that last restart, but I’m highly encouraged about how great our car was today.”
Despite the result Sunday, Gordon’s No. 24 team has plenty to be optimistic about.
It’s no secret that Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson have been unsuccessful in their bid to recapture the flame from last season, where the Pittsboro, Indiana native notched four victories en route to a sixth-place finish in the championship standings.
Still looking for their first win of 2015, Gordon gave his fans hope that despite just three top-fives and 13 top-10 finishes in 27 races this season, his 93rd career Cup win may not be too far away after all.
Time though is running out.
Gordon enters next Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway 12th and on the cutoff in the Chase standings, 21 points in the arrears from leader Matt Kenseth.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
