You could hear the howls of protest from Vallejo, Calif., to Pittsboro, Ind., to Charlotte, N.C., and in all places in between. On message boards, fans posted angry, passionate screeds containing an abundance of exclamation points and question marks. Supporters of Jeff Gordon's race team want crew chief Steve Letarte fired. They want their driver reunited with Ray Evernham, with whom he won three championships. They're lambasting the call to take two tires late in Sunday's Sprint Cup event as the worst decision since Elin Nordegren told Tiger Woods "I do."

Jeff Gordon and team at LVMS.

Gordon is a guy who sees the bigger picture, who knows how important these early season bonus points are.

Who could blame them? After all, their man had led 219 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway until he came to the pits with 37 circuits remaining. It had been vintage Jeff Gordon, a performance that harkened back to the days when he piled up race victories so fast that people ludicrously wondered if he could catch Richard Petty, a reminder of just how overwhelming the guy can be. On the final stop, Gordon took two tires. Jimmie Johnson took four. And in short order the No. 48 car zoomed by, giving the four-time defending champion a second straight race victory, and leaving fans of the No. 24 team slapping their foreheads in anguish.

It was a deflating end to an otherwise outstanding effort, ultimately denying Gordon his first victory since Texas in the spring of last year, and providing an armory full of ammunition to those who think Letarte is in over his head. And yet, nobody should have been surprised. Because if you've been following Gordon at all this season, actually listening to what the guy has been saying, you knew something like this was coming. You knew that his No. 24 outfit had laid out a game plan that centered around taking big risks in an effort to gain an early edge on Johnson, and that you don't take risks by adhering to the status quo.

Goodness, he basically spelled out the plan on Friday. "I really think that right now we're really being more aggressive," he said in his media availability at Las Vegas. "I think for the first five races we're going to be real aggressive to try to get the wins to try to get those bonus points and try things out that are kind of unknowns to us. That's where we're going to take more risk and hope that pays off for us further down the road." (Continued)