Gordon takes what he can after rough day at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Jeff Gordon left Bristol Motor Speedway Sunday evening a thoroughly beaten man, a ball cap pulled firmly down on his head and a scowl fixed on his face as dark as the skies over Bristol had been most of the weekend.

Five-hundred laps around one of NASCAR's toughest venues will do that to you -- especially when it's spent alternately cursing your car's handling and desperately analyzing it and seeking solutions with your crew chief.

Food City 500

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
2.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
3.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
4.	Greg Biffle	Ford
5.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet
6.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
7.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
8.	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet
9.	David Gilliland	Ford
10.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
11.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet

• Complete Results | Points
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In the end, Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports pit boss, crew chief Steve Letarte, basically spent the day out in left field before finishing 11th. Not even a green-white-checkered restart on new tires -- a typical Gordon staple to make gains -- was a plus.

It was more than half an hour after the checkered flag dropped on Food City 500 winner Jeff Burton before Gordon made his way from his No. 24 Chevrolet's transporter.

"We were just regrouping," Gordon said quietly, before he laughed about being ambushed by a tight racecar. "No, we had a little bit of that in practice, but we felt like we worked on it and got it better -- but we didn't.

"We were not very good [Sunday] and to come out of here 11th -- we'll take that."

In his eminently professional style, Gordon politely answered every question posed -- and in the midst of a throng of fans, competitors and media outside Victory Lane, adjacent to the pedestrian tunnel leaving Bristol's infield, he even stopped to field questions from a couple TV crews.

Even though Gordon wasn't sure he had answers to what had troubled he and his crew all weekend.

"That's a great battle, though, for this team to come home 11th, with a car that, to me, was pretty far off," Gordon said. "So we've got some work to do before we come back here, but other than that, we survived, and that's an important part of Bristol."

Burton, despite leading a 1-2-3 Richard Childress Racing sweep, for one wasn't about to dismiss Gordon's potential either at Bristol or anywhere else this season. Burton talked about "awakening a sleeping giant" when he was asked if RCR had overtaken Hendrick as the overall league leader.

Though he considered his performance abysmal, Gordon's average running position Sunday was 11th. He never fell further down the running order than 21st. And when the final tally was run, he had actually gained a position in the Sprint Cup standings, to 14th.

Still, Gordon was searching for sunshine, which had been in short supply most of the weekend, as he left Bristol. (Continued)