Nothing's changed for Gordon and his teammates

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jeff Gordon has had two weeks to listen to the questions and read the commentary. After providing the 48 team of Jimmie Johnson his setup notes, how could he just sit and let Johnson win at Martinsville? Will that put an end to those roundtable team meetings at Hendrick Motorsports? Are the two still friends now that the protege used the professor's textbook?

"If anything is going to get blown out of proportion, it's that one," Gordon said of the hoopla that's been made of the information sharing. "That had very little to do with it. We do that every weekend."

"It had everything to do with that I finished second and I felt like I had the car -- even with the setups being as close as they were -- I felt like I had a better car."

And it appeared he did.

Gordon caught Johnson as the laps wound down at Martinsville, stayed on the low line and tried the proven techniques to get around his teammate. He laid the bumper to the rear of Johnson's 48. He tried to beat him into the corner. He banged on the side of Johnson's car. But he couldn't get by.

"That was what was frustrating to me was that I wasn't able to make a clean pass," Gordon said. "And that when I caught him, we didn't actually have a good enough car to pass him."

So he settled for second, yet another week that Hendrick's lead man watched as a teammate did burnouts and parked in Victory Lane. It's happened that way for the last four races, three of which were won by Johnson.

That's not to say Gordon is the team's No. 2 man. Three second-place finishes and a third have him atop the point standings by 28 heading into Sunday's race. Meanwhile, Johnson is third after three victories.

Watching teammates celebrate, though, isn't the problem. It's watching anybody celebrate.

"I feel like we've been capable of winning already in a short period of time this season, and that's what I have to remind myself of," Gordon said. "But what's frustrating at Martinsville was that it was the third time this year that I felt like we had the car to beat and we didn't pull it off. But I'm a competitor. It's pretty hard when you're in that moment and the microphone is in your face right there and you're like, 'I wanted that win.'" (Continued)