[/media-credit]Should Jeff Gordon fail to make the Chase after next weekend’s race at Richmond he might look back to one lap during the 2012 season. Not the many bad weeks he had to start the year, not the hard fought yet mediocre finishes, but one lap in Atlanta.The last lap where Gordon didn’t do what he says he should have. Or at least what the 41-year-old Gordon should have done. He finished second to Denny Hamlin in the AdvoCare 500, coming up short on the final lap after getting to the outside of the No. 11 going into turn three.
He settled for second, it seems. Instead he could have taken the win from Hamlin. Moved him out of the way and went on by and possibly into the Chase.
“What a battle. You know going into this race that it’s gonna be a fight,” Gordon said afterwards. “The track is just so slick and your car has a lot of grip for about five laps and all of sudden it starts going sideways. We just never could get my car tight enough.
“On the short runs we were really fast which worked to our favor, to get second place and almost that win. I’m just mad at myself right now. I don’t know, I guess I’m getting soft in my old age. I’m too nice. Fifteen years ago I would have just moved him right up the race track, I don’t know why I didn’t do that.”
On a night when Gordon and DuPont commemorated their 20 years in the sport, the No. 24 Chevrolet out of Hendrick Motorsports put on a show. Starting fifth and leading six laps early on, the fastest car on the track when the sun was still up. But once he lost the lead Gordon ran quietly in the top 10.
Then came alive again the deeper the night went. The second to last restart, with 46 laps to go, was a turning point as Gordon quickly made his way back into the top five and into second as the laps wound down. But Martin Truex Jr. had driven away and Gordon needed another caution in order to have a shot at the win.
He got it, along with a final pit stop in which he came off pit road third. The last restart was exactly the one Gordon wanted, he laid back and pushed Hamlin into turn one and then tried to grab the lead on the last lap.
It was all going according to his plan as Gordon wanted to get to Hamlin’s quarter panel and try to make something happen. Yet, when he got there, he was carrying too much speed and ended up pushing up the track. Hamlin earned his fourth win of the season and second straight, Gordon still has his lone win from Pocono.
More importantly, he still has a shot at the Chase. Heading into the final regular season race next weekend at Richmond, he’s 13th in points, 12 behind Kyle Busch. Busch won at RIR in the Spring and currently holds the second Wild Card spot. In order to make the Chase, Gordon will either have to win the race or finish ahead of Busch.
“Well, you don’t want to have to go beat Kyle Busch at Richmond, he’s pretty strong there,” said Gordon of his Chase chances. “We’re really going to focus on our own program like we always do. We focus on tuning the car, communicating and working the setup the best we possibly can. And try to have the fastest racecar out there and if we can do that, then we try not to make any mistakes. Driving on pit road and pit strategy. If we don’t have the fastest car then we have to switch it up.
“Puts little more pressure on the crew chief or maybe even on me if we try some tire strategy, fuel mileage strategy, whatever we do track position wise. You can’t predict any of those things, you just got to go out there and race. Got to race hard.
“I’m not going into it thinking that we got to finish 12 positions ahead of Kyle. I’m thinking we got to win. And if we don’t make it, as long as we put our best effort forward, we didn’t make it and we go try to win races in the final 10.”
Richmond is set up for a championship showdown. Only two spots remain up for grabs, the top 10 drivers all locked in after Atlanta. And Gordon knows all about trying to make the Chase at Richmond, he’s had to do it before. Most notably in 2005 and he failed to make it into NASCAR’s playoffs.
It’s what makes that one night in September an intense race and a crazy night. Now he’s back in the thick of it, his team has the pressure on, they’re going with guns loaded and ready to fight until there’s nothing left to fight for.
Gordon hasn’t won at Richmond since 2000 however, and admits his team badly missed the setup in the April race. Going back he has higher expectations and confidence. And, as he joked with Brad Keselowski on Sunday night, he’s going to race and end things differently on the final lap.
“It’s not going to happen twice,” he said.
