J. Gordon lashes out after two costly spins

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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Jeff Gordon was staring a hard-fought third-place finish in the face.

Gordon had rallied from a first-turn, first-lap spin to run in the top five and appeared to have the fastest car at Watkins Glen International as the laps wound down Sunday in the Sirius at the Glen.

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"Oh, man, what a long fought day it was after that," Gordon said. "It was a great effort by the whole team, great cars, great setup. It's a lot of fun to drive a car like that. I didn't think we could get up to where we did. It's pretty amazing.

"The guys did a great job, (crew chief) Robbie (Loomis) made great calls. We've got to figure out the fuel-mileage thing because we've got to be able to make it to the end."

So instead of a triumphant top-three finish, Gordon found himself with a crumpled race car against the guardrail 150 yards from the checkered flag. Gordon ran out of gas in the final corner and was hit from behind by Kevin Harvick coming to the checkered.

Gordon spun backwards into the wall and couldn't get going. He ended up 33rd, the final car on the lead lap.

After a long ride to the infield care center -- "We were in bumper-to-bumper traffic in the ambulance trying to get there," Gordon said -- Gordon lashed out at Harvick.

"The 29 got to the outside of me, and I'm just trying to coast back to the line, and he thinks I'm racing for position and just wrecks me," Gordon said. "It sucks that I ran out of fuel and the car stopped, but all he had to do was drive right by me. It's pretty simple."

Well, no it wasn't, Harvick said.

"You're coming to the checkered, and he runs out of gas," a weary Harvick said. "I got into the back of him, and then he's zigging and zagging. I gassed it up again and spun him out. Not much I could do about it.

"Usually, when you're out of gas, you get out of the racing groove."

	Jeff Gordon is met by emergency personel. Gordon was critical of their response time. Credit: Autostock

Not so fast, Gordon said.

"The easiest car to pass out there is (one) running out of (gas)," Gordon said. "I shouldn't blame him. It's our own fault for running out of fuel. It's unfortunate."

Gordon ended losing 88 points to Winston Cup leader Matt Kenseth, who soldiered to an eighth-place finish.

But Gordon had other things on his mind after Sunday's race. Harvick, for one.

	Jeff Gordon

And Greg Biffle, for another.

Gordon started on the pole and got a good jump at the green flag. But before the field got through Turn 1, Gordon was sideways off the track. What happened?

"I have no idea," Gordon said. "I got a great jump and went down into 1. It's the first lap, there's no reason to blast the thing down in there. I don't know if the 16 was racing the 6 and they both drove in there real hard or what happened. He just blasted me."

	Kevin Harvick

Biffle told his crew over the radio that he felt "terrible" about the contact, saying he couldn't stop before touching Gordon. Biffle ran out of room, as Roush Racing teammate Mark Martin tried to sneak to the inside, too.

"We were kinda underneath the 24 so we were kinda in a bad position," said Biffle's crew chief, Randy Goss said. "Mark had his brakes locked up, and we were trying to get down. I think we just ticked (Gordon).

"For sure, it wasn't on purpose. The thing that eased my mind a little bit, Jeff Gordon's my hero, too. He's an awesome race car driver, and you don't like to see a guy get turned around on lap 1.

"Our teammate wasn't cutting us a whole lot of slack. He wasn't going to run into us, but it wasn't like we could get down and miss Jeff. It wasn't on purpose - just a bad deal for Jeff. He had a terrible day."