For Gordon, even good might not be good enough

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Fans observed from behind a blue chain separating the No. 24 pit box from the pedestrian traffic along pit road, a few even setting up Texas Longhorns camp chairs in a grassy area next to a spare racecar nose. It was the perfect place to watch Steve Letarte pace, listen to Jeff Gordon fret over the radio, and soak up the drama of seeing a four-time NASCAR champion cling to a series lead that seems to be slipping away.

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They threw everything at Jimmie Johnson on Sunday -- staggered pit stops for track position, duck-ins to top off the fuel cell, adjustments that made Gordon's blue and red racecar one of the best at Texas Motor Speedway by the end. And still, it wasn't enough. Gordon parked on pit road after the Dickies 500 with another top-10 finish in a season full of them. And then he watched his Hendrick Motorsports teammate perform celebratory burnouts along the 1.5-mile track's frontstretch, Gordon's championship lead disappearing like the clouds of white smoke fading into the night sky.

He finished seventh, salvaging a more than respectable finish out of a car that was terrible in race practice Saturday and troublesome for long stretches of Sunday's event. He now has 28 top-10 finishes, six more than the next closest driver. In the eight races of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, he hasn't finished worse than 11th. And in the past three weeks, he's watched his lead in a series he's dominated all season drop from 68 to 53 to nine to now a 30-point deficit.

"They're spanking us," he said of Johnson, who won his third consecutive race and ninth of the season, the most in one year since Gordon won 13 in 1998. "They're putting it to us, and I don't like it. We're very competitive, and we're just getting beat. We've got to go to work. We've got to get it back. Those guys have done an excellent job coming from behind the last couple of races. Now here they are with three in a row. They're on a great roll. We have to answer back, that's all there is to it."

But time is running out, much like it did Sunday, when crew chief Letarte adjusted and cajoled and massaged a vehicle that didn't give the driver much help until too late. For much of the race, Gordon battled a loose rear end that prevented him from getting enough grip in the back of the car. Knowing how much track position helped them in the track's spring race -- where Gordon led 173 laps but finished fourth after slapping the wall late -- Letarte had Gordon stay out during a pit sequence, which put his driver briefly into the lead. But the car just wouldn't cooperate. Gordon fell back to 16th, and struggled to make up ground in traffic.

"That's as fast as I can go," he told Letarte over the radio.

"Do the best you can with it," the crew chief replied. (Continued)