The four drivers eliminated from the Chase reflect on their final run at the title
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AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Last weekend, Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon were the central figures in a post-race rumble on pit road. Sunday, after a tense final stretch at Phoenix International Raceway, the former pugilists were interlocked not in a physical altercation but by heartbreak, both among the four drivers knocked out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.
Gordon and Keselowski joined Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards on the short end of the Eliminator Round finale, halting their title eligibility ahead of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship race next Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Homestead-Miami Speedway. All four drivers led the Sprint Cup Series standings for multiple weeks during the season, but they will compete for fifth place at best next weekend.
Gordon's fall from Chase grace came by the narrowest of margins on two counts. For one, he finished second to race winner Kevin Harvick by 1.636 seconds, missing out on the automatic berth to the championship round. That shortfall only amplified the hit Gordon took in the standings last weekend, when late-race contact with Keselowski sent him spiraling to a 29th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
"Kevin Harvick was in another zip code. I'm not going to wreck a guy that's racing me clean all year long just to make it into the Chase," Gordon said after his second runner-up finish in the Eliminator Round, the other coming last month at Martinsville. "That's not what it’s all about for me. You're not going to go win the championship next week by doing that. So, it's just unfortunate. It's just unfortunate. We did everything so good this year. That one race, that one race is going to stick with me for a little while. I got over it this week, knowing that we could come here and compete like this. Now it makes it sting that much more."
The second factor contributing to Gordon's demise came when Ryan Newman nudged rookie Kyle Larson out of the way on the final lap; his one-position gain snatched the last slot among the final four by a single point. Just 10 laps before the checkered flag, Harvick, Gordon and Ryan Newman were all tied for third place on the cut-off line for the final four, but Newman's last-ditch move meant a virtual end to Gordon's magical four-win season and his drive for a fifth title.
Gordon's incident with Keselowski last weekend was treated as a postseason barometer for testing the code of what's out of bounds and what's not. Sunday, Gordon said Newman's maneuver was within the limits of race-day decorum with what was at stake. With all the championship pressure, Gordon and Keselowski raced each other fair and square within the top five at Phoenix, a point he hoped resonated with his Texas rival.
"We have a lot to hold our heads up high about; the way that we raced this race and this whole Chase and the whole season," Gordon said. "We raced hard. We raced together as a team. But I hope we taught somebody that you can race clean and still go out there and give it your best. You don't have to wreck people to make it in the Chase or win the championship. I'm afraid if it was that ugly these last couple of weeks it's going to get really ugly next week."
Keselowski started second, but faded slightly after the drop of the green flag, grappling with the handling on his Team Penske No. 2 Ford. Though he had one of the faster cars, Keselowski was never quite able to dent Harvick's Phoenix dominance or overcome the points deficit caused by his 31st-place performance in the Eliminator Round opener at Martinsville Speedway.
The fourth-place finish left him seventh in the standings, just seven points shy of keeping his bid for a second Sprint Cup title intact.
"We were a little bit short," Keselowski said. "I'm obviously a little disappointed. I'm not disappointed with the effort, just disappointed it didn't work out. We just couldn't overcome the Martinsville hurdle. We had a decent day, but we needed a win to overcome the week we had at Martinsville where we broke the gear. We just weren't quite fast enough to pull that off the last two weeks and that's what it was going to take."
Kenseth recorded his best finish in any of the three Eliminator Round races with a solid third-place run, but the sour taste of a sixth at Martinsville and a subpar 25th at Texas offset his progress at Phoenix, leaving him just two points out of the final transfer spot. He'll have a chance to salvage a silver lining next weekend, looking for his first victory of the season.
"I was pleasantly surprised that we've been able to advance from round to round because we just haven't been that fast and we've had a lot of bad things happen," said Kenseth, the 2003 series champion. "We got wrecked out of Loudon and had a lot of things happen here or there. Glad we were in and wish we were still in it."
Edwards won twice during the regular season, but his last title pursuit for Roush Fenway Racing ended with a 15th-place finish at Phoenix. Combined with his 20th-place finish at Martinsville and a ninth at Texas, Edwards wound up last among the eight drivers in the Eliminator Round standings, 14 points short of advancing to the championship race.
He'll make his final drive for car owner Jack Roush next weekend at Homestead before joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2015.
"We just didn't have enough speed, so that's how it goes," Edwards said. "These guys dug deep and worked hard. I've never been a part of something like this where everybody just doesn't give up. This means the world."
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