Motor trouble spells doom for Gordon

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- For 300 miles Sunday, Jeff Gordon was a staple of the top-five at Talladega Superspeedway. Having paced the field for 27 of the first 120 laps, he was an obvious threat to win his fourth race of the season.

That all changed on lap 126. Gordon was running 13th when he suddenly fell off the pace, the victim of a broken valve train that dropped him from competition. He finished 42nd, his worst finish of the season and worst ever at Talladega.

"Lost a retainer in one of the valve springs and dropped a valve, and probably some more things went from there," Gordon said. "That was probably the first thing to go. I felt it lose power there and drop some rpm; it didn?t seem the same. That thing was pretty strong."

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Gordon's engine was the first of six Hendrick engines to suffer a broken valve train Sunday, the team said.

"I was having a lot of fun. I could go to the back and come right back to the front. Man, I was just having a ball," he said. "My guys were just cranking out great stops, but that's unfortunate."

Aside from back-to-back wins at Bristol and Darlington earlier this summer, the No. 24 team has struggled the week after posting a victory this season. Following the win at Darlington, Gordon finished 40th at Richmond. He won last week at Kansas City. Now this.

"That's been our misfortune all year long. We can't seem to get back-to-back great finishes and wins and kind of carry the momentum," Gordon said. "This is a big bummer today.

"It seems like once we get something going our way we can't back it up. Either a problem or a crash. When the fortune's there, we're going to be on top. I hope this doesn't knock us too far out of the (points)."

He lost nearly 100 points. Gordon entered the day in fourth position, 109 points behind his protege, Jimmie Johnson, who also had trouble Sunday. Though tied with Matt Kenseth with 3757 total driver points, Gordon now ranks seventh, 201 points behind leader Tony Stewart.

Kenseth ranks ahead of Gordon because he has four wins to Gordon's three.