RELATED: Updated Chase Grid | Full results from Watkins Glen
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are NASCAR’s most dominant road course racers and needed a strong showing — ideally a victory — in Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen to boost their tenuous 2015 playoff outlook.
Instead their shared history at the world famous road course would also include a similarly disappointing afternoon of rights and lefts. Stewart, the Glen’s all-time winningest driver, finished last in the 43–car field. Gordon, the all-time laps leader, finished 41st.
The good news? Most of the other winless drivers they are competing against in the points standings for a Chase bid also struggled mightily.
Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kasey Kahne finished 42nd. And Jamie McMurray was 40th on the leaderboard. The results were particularly costly in the standings since four-race winner Kyle Busch cracked into top-30 in points and has seized a Chase berth if he remains there through the four races remaining to set the 16-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field.
“It’s disappointing, but I mean right now I just feel like we can’t afford to have these kinds of finishes if we are going to make the Chase,” said Gordon, who had brake problems early on Sunday and spent four laps in the garage while his team made repairs.
“I have no idea where we are right now in points or how all that worked out, but just when you think you get something that is going to go your way and something like this happens. We just keep fighting and digging and try to get the finishes that we need to get ourselves solidly in there.”
MORE: Brake woes ruin Gordon’s day
Eleven drivers have wins this season — and all of them except Kyle Busch have clinched Chase berths. That leaves five other points positions as the standings are now.
Heading into next week’s race at Michigan, McMurray holds the first of the five points positions currently Chase eligible, followed by Paul Menard, Gordon, Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer. Kasey Kahne‘s poor finish plus Busch’s good finish at the Glen, knocked Kahne out of the Chase Grid and behind 16th-place Aric Almirola in the standings.
McMurray held a 97-point cushion inside the top-16 entering the weekend and now holds only a 73-point edge. Gordon had been just behind McMurray, but now trails Paul Menard by two points.
Newman, who made it all the way to the final round of the playoffs without a victory in 2014, is only 22 points behind McMurray and Bowyer, only 23 back.
Stewart’s situation was a little more dire. Ranked well out of the top-16, back in 26th place, his best chance to qualify for the Chase is with a victory.
RELATED: Stewart’s day ends early at the Glen
Stewart’s third-place starting position in the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevy this weekend was his best of the season, but the car suffered a mechanical failure with 34 laps remaining.
Still Stewart, a five-time race winner here, left the track feeling encouraged.
“I guess for me it’s (the) big picture,” Stewart said. “The way our season has been we’ve picked up. Indy we picked up, Pocono we picked up, we picked up here … in qualifying at all three places for sure.
“At the end of the day the results won’t show it, but I think for us it’s — granted it’s three totally different disciplines and packages and all that — but I feel like we are starting to gain some momentum. Like I said, it won’t show it at the end of the day on the results, but I feel good about our weekend.”