Indianapolis delivers Gordon another missed opportunity as Chase nears
[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”237″]
[/media-credit]Throw away the good luck charms. Forget the prayers. Stop the hoping and pleading. Everything Jeff Gordon and his fans have been doing the season’s first 20 races – and he admits to trying the good lucks charms which were sent to him – isn’t working.
It’s time to start looking for a miracle if he’s going to make this year’s Chase. The driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet is having a season he’s never experienced before. Statistically one of the worst in his career, realistically a nightmare as bad luck has been the only thing Gordon’s got going for him.
Sunday even a track that had crowned him a winner four times wasn’t too kind. Gordon finished fifth in the Crown Royal presents the Curtis Shaver 400 at the Brickyard in Indianapolis. Yet, just as could have been the case in Daytona, Martinsville, or Dover, Gordon didn’t have enough on his side.
“I’m pretty disappointed really,” he revealed afterwards. “It’s always nice to finish in the top five but at this point in the season, the way our season has gone with so many missed opportunities that we’ve had, I feel like it was a little bit of a missed opportunity today.
“We needed track position there at the end and we didn’t get it when it counted most and it cost us.”
It was a hard fought finish as it’s been all season for Gordon and his Alan Gustafson led team. They qualified ninth but hung around the top five all day. Mostly running in the tire tracks of dominant teammate Jimmie Johnson. Midway through the race it appeared Gordon was going to overtake Johnson and flex his muscle, but was never able to.
He did earn the lead during a round of green flag pit stops, yet found himself unable to run down the leaders and make a pass for the lead during the 160-lap event. He stayed with Johnson though, and did everything he could to make the best of the situation. Hoping something would give him the break he needed.
Gordon’s final pit stop took away any chance of that happening. A car he felt at one point was the one to beat, or at least was second to Johnson, wasn’t going to finish there. The team had a 15 second stop on pit road and lost their track position and a shot at clean air.
“I have no idea. I have to review it,” said Gordon of the stop. “The one thing about this pit road is that if you get a little behind, once you get up here, you’re way behind because they pull out in front of you and the next one pulls out in front of you and that’s what happened.
“We lost more than we should have but that wasn’t so bad. The worst thing was when you start on the outside lane; my car would just not go on that outside lane. And then they got all jumbled up and we lost even more spots. And then we had another caution on the outside lane again, so it just wasn’t out day.”
Just six races before the Chase starts Gordon can’t afford to have anymore days not go his way. It’s too late to fight for top 10s or claw out a top five, he needs wins and he’s yet to find Victory Lane in 2012.
And one win wouldn’t cut it either. In order to make the Chase from a wildcard position he needs to win a few races. Teammate Kasey Kahne currently sits in the first WC spot with two wins, Kyle Busch holds the second WC spot with one.
Gordon sits 15th in the standings but Sunday was just his third top five finish. The good news is that he’s won at each of the next six tracks leading to the Chase. That would be 23 times: five wins at Pocono, four at Watkins Glen, two at Michigan, five at Bristol, five at Atlanta and two at Richmond.
Gordon will need days like those to save his season. And he’ll need more cars like the one he drove on Sunday to make it happen.
“I was happy with the car. Other than the first run, I was happy with the car all day,” he said of his race. “We were a little bit too tight. We freed it up and from that point on, I thought we had the car to beat. We just never could quite get that track position and get close enough to that No. 48 [Johnson] to try to make a pass on him.
“But it was a good solid day for us. You know I love this place.”
Johnson dominates the Brickyard, sights locked on 6th Sprint Cup title
Jimmie Johnson had an extremely confident look on his face during pre-race before Sunday afternoon’s running of the Brickyard 400. He went even as far to tweet on Saturday ” I can’t wait for tomorrow, Our car is awesome”. Jimmie Johnson proved beyond all doubt on Sunday afternoon how awesome that car was.
On a sun splashed afternoon in Indianapolis, Johnson and the No.48 team showed why without doubt they are the favorite to win their 6th NSCS championship. Denny Hamlin set the pace early on leading the first 27 laps in which time Johnson went from 6th to 2nd and then took the lead after a pit stop. He only relinquished it during pit stops. Johnson led 99 of the 160 laps and beat 2nd place Kyle Busch by 4.7 seconds to secure his record tying 4th Brickyard win in a dominating fashion .
Johnson and the No.48 team are quietly putting together one of their best seasons in NASCAR since his rookie season in the series in 2002, posting 3 wins,10 top 5’s, and 15 top 10’s all which are series best. He also leads the series in laps led, with 912.
A look deeper inside the numbers tells why Johnson is the favorite heading into the chase. On non restrictor plate tracks in 2012, Jimmie’s numbers have been absolutely mind boggling. In 17 starts on the non plate tracks, he has 3 wins,10 top 5’s, and 15 top 10’s to go along with an average finish of 5.2 in those races which is the best in NSCS.
There are 6 races to go before the 12 driver cutoff for the Chase for the Sprint Cup and by all appearances the No.48 team is really starting to hit their stride. It wouldn’t surprise this guy if they put a couple of more wins on the board before the chase starts . It seems like they unload fast off the truck every weekend and they have the ultimate X factor in crew chief Chad Knaus calling the shots from the pit box. Today’s win should put the garage on notice that this is indeed the team to beat come chase time starting in Chicago in September.
The only thing standing in Jimmie’s way of a 6th cup series title is an October visit to Talladega. Where the plate tracks have been unkind to the No.48 team this season, but if they can navigate the treacherous close quarter racing at Talladega and come out of there with a top 10 and judging by the numbers this season on the rest of the chase tracks. NASCAR could have a very familiar face holding the trophy at the end of 400 miles at Homestead in November and that face is Jimmie Johnson. Right now I wouldn’t bet against him.
