Jeff Gordon's four wins weren't enough to put him in the Nextel Cup Series top 10 in 2005. Credit: Autostock

In Review: Jeff Gordon

Four-time champ faced summer of discontent in drive for five

There are mysteries, and then there is Jeff Gordon's 2005 campaign.

Still unexplained is Gordon's 21-race stretch without a top-five finish. From May 15 to Oct. 15 -- exactly five months -- the four-time champion had nary a finish better than seventh.

Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Jeff Gordon in 2005 Race Start Finish Daytona 500 15 1 Auto Club 500 28 30 UAW-DaimChrys 400 11 4 Golden Corral 500 25 39 Food City 500 4 15 Advance 500 16 1 Sam/RadShack 500 7 15 Subway Fresh 500 1 12 Aaron's 499 2 1 Dodge Charger 500 14 2 Chevy 400 20 39 Coca-Cola 600 2 30 RacePoints 400 5 39 Pocono 500 31 9 Batman Begins 400 9 32 Dodge/S Mart 350 1 33 Pepsi 400 15 7 USG 400 14 33 New England 300 21 25 Pennsylvania 500 21 13 Allstate 400 7 8 Sirius at the Glen 14 14 GFS Marketplace 400 2 15 Sharpie 500 2 6 Sony HD 500 6 21 Chevy 400 6 30 Sylvania 300 2 14 RacePoints 400 25 37 UAW-Ford 500 12 37 Banquet 400 3 10 UAW-GM 500 10 38 Subway 500 15 1 Bass MBNA 500 24 2 Dickies 500 2 14 Checker 500 10 3 Ford 400 12 9 Average 11.5 17.7 Fast startGordon opens the year by winning the Daytona 500 Out of controlTony Stewart spins Gordon out at Dover in June Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Luck had a major factor in the streak. There was the blown transmission while leading at Sonoma. He careened into the spinning Bill Elliott at Charlotte. Brake failure while running amongst the leaders at Loudon.

You get the picture. And yet, Gordon's season was phenomenal. Considerable. Cyclical.

Gordon started and ended the season running up front. In between, he missed the Chase for the Nextel Cup, separated from his crew chief of six seasons, and won his third Daytona 500.

He won four races in all, pushing his career total to 73.

But the year will be remembered by a summer in which everything went wrong. It was a collection of little troubles that eventually morphed into a perfect storm of low morale and lost propulsion.

"The Daytona 500 doesn't guarantee you anything," said Gordon. "You never know how your season is going to go. I thought we were going to do much better than we did."

The weird thing is that the team got it all back. Gordon was nearly unbeatable in the first nine weeks of the year -- he won three times -- and he finished the year with a win and three top-fives in the last five races.

"I was just really thrilled the way we ended the season," said Gordon, 34. "All that matters to me is battling for wins and being competitive and if we're doing that, then like I said the points work themselves out.

"I really never focused one time on points throughout these last ten races."

Pressure intensified on longtime crew chief Robbie Loomis through the summer, and before the circuit hit Loudon in September, it was announced that Loomis would return to Petty Enterprises, where he worked before joining Hendrick in 2000.

When Gordon missed the Chase, Hendrick Motorsports accelerated car chief Steve Letarte to the role of Gordon's crew chief. Letarte, a lanky 26-year-old from New England, had been promoted swiftly through the Hendrick organization, rising from anonymous tire specialist to head wrench for NASCAR's winningest active driver.

Letarte's first few weeks at crew chief were trying. Gordon was caught up in crashes at Dover, Talladega and Charlotte, bringing his DNF total to a staggering nine on the year. His 23 lead-lap finishes and 581 laps led were his fewest since 2000.

Gordon and Letarte won in their sixth race together as Gordon won his second in a row at Martinsville.

Gordon's four wins in 2005 came at restrictor-plate tracks (Daytona, Talladega) and a short track (Martinsville), exposing a maddening inconsistency for the high-banked downforce tracks that grow more important with each passing year.

"We [were] just not finding the ingredient that it takes to be fast and compete for wins and top fives and go out there and be consistent," said Gordon.