Gordon comes up short in final race in home state
SONOMA, Calif. — The finality of his last race at Sonoma Raceway — his last NASCAR event in his home state of California — hit home for Jeff Gordon before the engine ever fired on his No. 24 Chevrolet Sunday. Pre-race commemorations and a rousing welcome from a healthy crowd in driver introductions drove the point home.
During the race itself, though, the deeper personal significance was secondary to the heat of the battle and what the result meant to his final championship run.
“It would’ve been emotional if I was over in Victory Lane,” Gordon joked as Kyle Busch celebrated his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of the season. “Coming into today, seeing all the 24 flags, driver introductions was kind of overwhelming and it was cool. I hadn’t really thought about it since then. You get in the race and you get so focused on the race that you don’t think about anything other than just trying to get the best finish that you can, but I’ve got a lot of friends and family out here and they’re here because this is my last race here. That means a lot to me, and then a good day overall other than we didn’t get a better finish.”
The four-time champion’s Golden State swan song in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 featured a little taste of everything — a flat tire, a pit-road penalty, a major handling adjustment and a bold strategy play from crew chief Alan Gustafson near the finish. The composite result was a 16th-place finish for Gordon, who couldn’t overcome the combination of factors to make his Sonoma farewell sweeter.
Gordon spent most of the 110-lap race’s first half among the top five, but he pitted the No. 24 Chevy on Lap 51 as his handling began to deteriorate. As he returned to the track, his Hendrick Motorsports crew told him that the left-front tire was cut and low on air pressure. “Still something’s not right, but I’ll make the best of it,” Gordon answered through the team radio.
But the car’s feel didn’t drastically improve, and by Lap 76 during the race’s third caution period, Gustafson took the time for an extra-long pit stop to remove the No. 24’s spring rubbers to emulate the setup of Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson, who wound up leading the most laps Sunday.
“That’s the opposite of what we usually race here,” Gustafson said of the altered setup. “The stuff we had unfortunately wasn’t very good today and we improved it. Just part of the exercise was learning to see what we were off on. We had a flat left-front during the middle of the race which got us behind. If we wouldn’t have had that, we could’ve executed and kept our car up front and probably got a top-10, but just rough right now. Got to fight through it.”
Whether it was the effect of the lengthy stop or the subsequent penalty to his team for throwing equipment over the pit wall, the visit left Gordon at the back of the pack in 26th place for the restart that followed. Gordon inched back into the top 20, but when the race’s final yellow flag emerged with 11 laps remaining, Gustafson opted to keep his driver on the track to help him move up the leaderboard.
Gordon lined up third for the seven-lap sprint to the finish, but wasn’t able to make the gained ground pay off. He slipped to his 16th-place finishing position on well-worn tires.
“I just tried to make something happen there at the end and who knows, we may have lost a spot or two because of it,” Gustafson said, “but trying to make a big reward, it didn’t work out that way. That’s part of it. You’ve got to try. You can’t just sit on it.”
The bigger reward beyond Sunday’s checkered flag would be the virtually automatic berth into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs that accompanies it. Busch was the latest to potentially punch his ticket, though he’ll need to finish the regular season in the top 30 in Sprint Cup driver points to officially enter playoff contention.
The turn of events left Gordon in the 14th of 16 spots on the provisional Chase gird, third-best of the five winless drivers this season who are in playoff position. With 10 races remaining before the Chase field is set, Gordon said it’s too early to let scoreboard-watching or panic alter the No. 24 team’s approach.
“We’re just trying to go out and perform the best we can every weekend,” Gordon said. “I’ve always said, it’s not about making the Chase, it’s about being a factor in the Chase, and while there is meaning to being in it, we want to be more than just in it. So we’ve got some improving to do, we know that. We’re working on it. I really thought we were going to be good today, and I don’t know how good Kyle really was, but he certainly was good when it counted at the end.”