Gordon turns in standings, but where's he going? (cont'd)

But running back in traffic had its limits, and Gordon could get no better than sixth, behind Chase contenders Juan Montoya and Kurt Busch, in the race's final run. To say passing was difficult was an understatement.

"I already knew that earlier in the race," Gordon said. "It was very challenging. It was like driving a different race car when you get fifth or sixth on back. We had already made adjustments to the car to be up front like we had been. You take that risk when you adjust the car.

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"We were trying to make it better and compete with the No. 48 and then you get behind, I think we were seventh, eighth or ninth or something like that [before the last stop]. We were just a sitting duck. We couldn't go anywhere."

Gordon's seeking his fifth Cup title but, he pointedly reminds anyone who asks, his first in the current Chase format. He sees this championship shaping up as an all-Hendrick party, but when he speaks of it, it's as if that isn't his team.

"I think a lot of people thought that Hendrick could be the team to beat and right now they certainly are -- we're racing them plus other guys [and] we've got work to do, that's part one," Gordon said. "We saw Mark [Martin] win and finish second here and he's tough. Jimmie [Johnson] dominated [Sunday] and finished fourth last week."

And as tough a row as he and his team have to hoe, and as indefinable as the solution to something as vague as luck can be, he's optimistic heading to Kansas next weekend.

"It certainly was an improvement over last week," Gordon said. "It can always be worse -- you have to remind yourself of that -- but right now I don't want to remind myself of that. I will [Monday] or the next day, but right now I'm just disappointed.

"We just can't get things to go our way. That's what it takes to win a championship. We're certainly not out of it yet and we're going to keep fighting hard like we did [Sunday] and like we did last week. We're eighth in points and we'll just keep on going. I think the next two tracks are really good tracks for us so I'm looking forward to those."