2014 championship push sets veteran’s sights higher
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Team: Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet
Rank in final 2014 standings: Sixth
Wins: Four (Kansas Speedway in May, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Michigan International Speedway in August, Dover International Speedway in September)
Year in photos: Recap Gordon’s 2014 season
Strides: Gordon’s four wins marked his highest season total in seven years. As important as the quantity is the fact he was winning down the stretch in an impressive title run that fell just short — a contender all the way until the final elimination round. Gordon nearly doubled his top-five (14) output from 2013 (eight), and his 23 top-10 efforts were the most since 2009. His 1,083 laps led were the most for the 24 team since 2007 and only the second time in the last decade he topped the 1,000-laps led mark.
Setbacks: For the first time in years, the four-time Cup champion can honestly say the biggest disappointment was not hoisting the Sprint Cup champion’s trophy. Gordon had a series-best eight runner-up finishes in addition to his four wins. He said after the season that he feels a pit road speeding penalty at Martinsville Speedway ultimately cost him his shot in the final four at Homestead — an uncharacteristic mistake by the veteran and one of the fine details he plans to fine-tune for a 2015 run.
Quoteworthy: “If they were making fun of me and I wasn’t at the (Sprint Cup Series Award) Banquet, it would bother me. … But I have to be appreciative of the effort to get here. I am the oldest guy in the Chase and I’m proud of that,” the good-natured Gordon said in response to jokes by emcee Jay Mohr during the banquet.
What’s next: Before the 2014 season, Gordon famously joked that if he won the championship he would consider retiring immediately — satisfied to go out on top. He reiterated after the season, however, that he was kidding. But he jokingly reserved the right to offer the same pledge in the days leading into the 2015 season (and ultimately did announce that 2015 would be his last full-time season). What’s clear is that Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson are in a championship groove boosting results and mojo that reminded longtime Gordon fans of his Hall of Fame-worthy title runs a decade ago. His well-publicized post-race tussle with Brad Keselowski at Texas should erase any notion that Gordon’s passion has waned one bit. He says the chronic back pain that has plagued him in recent years has become more controllable and shouldn’t be considered an issue presently. At 43, Gordon knows his shots at championship number five are decreasing, so there is an urgency he holds as extra motivation. In winning a record fifth Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and proving himself a force in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last year, he will arrive in Daytona Beach as confident as he ever has and a favorite for the 2015 championship.
“Week in and week out we were the strongest Hendrick team, which is not an easy thing to accomplish when you have Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne as your teammates,” Gordon said. “I was really excited about the year and how things went and it built a new confidence I have in myself as a driver and a new confidence in my team and we will definitely take that into 2015.”