WRAL Sports Fan

NASCAR

Gordon comes close to NASCAR cup vistory - again

By SceneDaily.com

Mar 30, 2009

No matter how strong Jeff Gordon runs these days, it seems that a NASCAR Sprint Cup victory seems to still elude him.

Such was the occurrence again in Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway, where the Hendrick Motorsports driver spent 147 laps out front only to fade down the stretch. He finished fourth, crossing the finish line behind race-winning teammate Jimmie Johnson, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Tony Stewart.

“We were the third-best car,” Gordon said after netting his fourth top-five in the season’s six races. “Unfortunately on that last restart, I just couldn’t get around the lapped cars and catch Tony. But still another great top-five for the DuPont Chevrolet and a heck of a race for the win and I think the fans certainly got a great show. I’m thankful for them to come out here at Martinsville.”

Starting from the pole, Gordon put on a show as he paced the field early and often. But as the race wore on, Gordon began to fade, especially at the end of the longer green-flag runs.

When Gordon wasn’t leading though, he was often in the tire tracks of Hamlin, who spent a race-high 296 laps out front and was Gordon’s only real challenger for a significant portion of the event.

As the laps ticked off, however, the handling on Gordon’s Chevrolet deteriorated and he began to lose positions.

“It changed quite a bit,” said Gordon, who had to battle Johnson, Stewart and Richard Childress Racing’s Clint Bowyer to stay in the top five before the final round of pit stops. “That's what we were afraid of. We were so good in practice on Friday that it seemed like the tires were going loose. The setup that we went to was just so strong in practice that it was hard to get away from it. …

“You know, Jimmie is so good here. He really has just dominated and taken a hold of this place - both he and Denny. I was just really impressed with him today.”

Restarting fifth after the race’s final pit sequence with around 70 laps to go, Gordon was unable to make up much ground, gaining only one spot.

“We were better than that,” said Gordon, who held on to his series points lead and now holds an 89-point cushion over second-place Bowyer. “That was pretty much the end of our race at that point. That number one pit stall can help you but it can’t take your from fifth to first. It might be able to take you from fifth to third or something like that.

“I knew if we were second or third coming in the pits, we had a shot at winning the race just by the pit location and my pit crew. We just slipped back that one time, we were just real tight all day once the rubber laid down on the track [and] just way too tight in the middle of the corner.”

Even though Gordon was happy to run so strong, he wasn’t totally pleased with the final outcome. And the four-time champion also reaffirmed his desire to win soon and snap what is now a 47-race stretch without going to victory lane.

“It is great to run in the top-five but if we are going to contend for the championship, especially in those final 10 races, we got to start winning races,” said Gordon, an 81-time winner in NASCAR’s top series. “I am not really concerned with this streak of how many wins we haven’t had in a row. I am more concerned with what we have to do this year to win races and win this championship.

“You certainly don’t want to give that No. 48 [of Johnson] momentum. I know that we are capable of winning. We have a team capable of it. I thought we were going to do a lot better than we were today.”