Violent crash at Glen takes more toll on Gordon's back

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Jeff Gordon walked gingerly out of the infield hospital, his ailing lower back killing him, his No. 24 car in pieces after a vicious accident at Watkins Glen International. A golf cart was waiting to whisk him away, even though a handful of laps still remained in the race. It wasn't the way NASCAR's road-course king was accustomed to leaving such a circuit behind.

Gordon's strange slump at Watkins Glen continued Monday in painful fashion, when the four-time winner at the historic road course was involved in a dramatic accident that left his problematic lower back hurting him again. Exiting Turn 9 on the 2.45-mile NASCAR circuit, Kasey Kahne forced Sam Hornish off the track and into a tire barrier, causing the No. 77 car to ricochet back into traffic and strike the vehicles of Gordon and Jeff Burton. It was a crash almost identical to one involving Nationwide Series driver Jason Leffler in practice on Friday, and it provided another reminder of just how fast and perilous this track in the picturesque Finger Lakes region can be.

Dale Jr. finishes the race without much of a front end.

Watkins Glen video

• Hornish caroms into Gordon
• Junior loses brakes, hits wall
• Harvick hits spinning Stremme
• Leffler crashes in practice

All the drivers involved in Monday's accident walked away, although Hornish said he banged up his knee and hand, and Gordon's back -- which has been the subject of numerous MRIs and a treatment in May designed to alleviate the pain -- emerged as an issue once again.

"I'm hurting," Gordon admitted. "... It's not what I needed, you know? You take three or four steps forward to this point, and you take a hit like that and take a couple of steps backward."

The accident unfolded with 27 laps remaining in the event, which had been postponed a day because of rain. As Hornish and Kahne raced through the corner side-by-side, the No. 9 car appeared to bobble and make contact with the No. 77. Hornish went sliding off the track and through a grassy area, and hit a tire barrier hard enough to spin back into traffic. Gordon tried to evade him, but didn't have enough time. The impact was hard enough to send the No. 24 head-first into the guardrail on the opposite side of the race track, and send Hornish spinning into the air. Burton, coming up fast behind, had nowhere to go.

"Once I saw him start to go around, I knew he was going to get to the outside wall and kind of do what we saw with Jason Leffler in [Nationwide practice]," Gordon said. "I was just trying to pick where to go. I don't know if there was any safe place to go from where I was sitting. I just nailed him. I tried to squeeze by him on the outside, and there was just no way. I just nailed him, spun him around like a top, and it took a toll on by back. Nothing else hurts. Everything else is good. Just the back. Then I got into the outside wall, the other side, and was just sitting there on the track hoping nobody was going to hit me again."

Burton felt beat up, too. "I'm too old for this. It hurts too much," he said with a laugh. "But I think everybody is OK. That was a big hit for everybody."

The accident forced NASCAR to halt the race for nearly 20 minutes under a red flag. Kahne drove away and completed the event, finishing 17th. Although he could not be located for comment afterward, Hornish seemed to hold no grudges.

"Kasey got a little loose beneath me and tried to correct," Hornish said. "It was the same thing I would have had to do if I were below him, because if you're on the bottom and you're spinning anyhow, you're going to hit the guy on the outside. It's unfortunate. I'm just really thankful that we do all the precautions that we do, and make the cars as safe as they are. I thought hitting the tire barriers was going to be the tough one. I didn't think I was going to get hit by two more cars. It was a rough day for us, a rough week for us." (Continued)