Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet fell victim to track problems for the second time in 13 months. Credit: Autostock

LMS surface comes apart, Gordon's car hit

Four-time champ no stranger to dealing with track surface debris

CONCORD, N.C. -- The front valence on Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet was damaged Sunday when a piece of asphalt crack repair material dislodged from the Lowe's Motor Speedway surface between Turns 1 and 2 and impacted the left front side of the car.

Gordon was running second to teammate Kyle Busch on lap-115 when the piece broke apart.

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NASCAR threw the caution flag and repaired the damage to the track, removing the material from a crack that measured some 1.5 inches deep by 2-4 inches wide and 9-to-10 feet long.

Meanwhile, Gordon pitted several times to cover a substantial gash in the valence of his Chevrolet with patches of duct tape.

He returned to the track and surged back into the top-three, but was caught up in an accident on Lap 380 when teammate Brian Vickers got into Bill Elliott to bring out the 21st of a record 22 cautions.

He finished 30th, dropping him from third to fifth in the championship standings.

"I was pretty disappointed that happened to us," Gordon said. "It certainly set us back."

"All these tracks have cracks in them from the weather over the years, especially at the seams, and you have to constantly patch them," said NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter.

"Last night they went in in both turns and cut out the asphalt filler, and put a new concrete-based filler in them. So far all those places have held."

The same situation occurred in Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race.

"The sealer that's in the cracks started coming out, and they had to put some epoxy in Turn 1, there's a crack they filled in, and if you look off of Turn 2 there's a crack that came undone," Jimmie Johnson said.

"That stuff came out in a big wad and went through the radiator in my car last night."

Hunter said the track surface issues are not the result of the recent "levigation," technique used to grind the track.

This marks the second time in 13 months Gordon has fallen victim to a racetrack coming apart.

In April 2004, Gordon was the leading the Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville Speedway when a large chuck of concrete dislodged in Turn 3 and destroyed the front end of the DuPont Chevy.