Gordon's team misses setup, struggles to 30th

CONCORD, N.C. - When approached by a reporter following the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday evening, a puzzled Jeff Gordon had to ask why in the world anyone would want to interview him following a 30th-place finish.

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"I didn't do anything," he managed to chuckle.

Despite the dismal outcome - Gordon finished seven laps down - the reporter begged to differ. Gordon had battled an ill-handling car for four and half hours and managed to bring it home in one piece, while his protégé, Jimmie Johnson, cruised to victory.

"The 48 car was good all day. We're going to go back and look. If he won with (my) setup, man, he gets the gold star, purple medal or something," Gordon said. "We don't normally have the same setups, but I want to compare and just see if we can figure out where we were off, and where they were on."

Crew chief Robbie Loomis concurred.

	Gordon: "we were lucky to bring the car back in one piece." Credit: AP

"We thought we were going to be okay, but the handling went away about 20 laps into the race and we didn't have the cautions to correct things," Loomis said. "I can tell you when we come back in October, we're going to have the No. 48's setup on our car."

Gordon's first career victory came in the Coca-Cola 600 a decade ago, and he has won the event three times overall. His last May win at Charlotte, however, came in 1998. Sunday was the hardest he's ever had to drive.

"Yeah, and it figures it'd be 600 miles and hot as can be, and no cautions," Gordon said. "It was frustrating, but more than frustrating it was just a handful. I was just holding on, trying to keep control. You know the sun's going to go down and that you're going to be able to make adjustments."

Normally, yes. But Sunday's race included few cautions, disallowing the No. 24 crew from assisting their driver with adjustments.

COCA-COLA 600 Johnson celebrates his dominating victory at Lowe's Play video Waltrip and McMurray review their strong performances Play video Johnson cruises to the his second Coca-Cola 600 win Play video In separate incidents, Andretti and Newman spin off of Turn 4 Play video  •  Results  •  Standings

"We just needed a caution really, really bad and didn't get it," Gordon said. "We needed big, big adjustments and didn't get the chance. Once the track temperature cooled down we were better, but whew, that was not a lot of fun."

Loomis missed part of the weekend tending to his ill mother, and after the race said his priorities were a determining factor in the uncharacteristic finish.

"What's one man's trash is another man's gold," Loomis said. "It was a good night with Jimmie winning, but it was a horrible night for our team. We really missed the setup and I take full responsibility because I haven't had my head in the game here lately.

"It's easy to get behind. My mom just called and she's had a real good day. She actually told my sister to leave the hospital, so I like the sound of that."

Gordon lost a position in the championship standings, falling from third to fourth. He now trails leader Dale Earnhardt, Jr. by 144 points.

"We lost so many laps that we were lucky to bring the car back in one piece," Gordon said. "It was just very frustrating."