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TALLADEGA, Ala. — Forget being simply satisfied with eking along in this Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Jeff Gordon thinks his No. 24 team has developed into a legitimate championship contender.
The 44-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver, in his final season, has advanced to the eight-driver, three-race Eliminator Round of the postseason, his dream for a fifth premier series title still very much alive following a third-place finish in Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
How he got here is a story of perseverance.
“All the things that we have been through that maybe could be looked at as negatives — the way we’ve run, a lack of execution — we learned from it,” an excited Gordon said on pit road after Sunday’s race. “We’re too strong of an organization. We survived, we’ve gotten better and we’ve gotten pretty good. It’s pretty amazing that we made it through this thing.”
A season removed from four victories, and plenty of speedy cars, 2015 had been a struggle for both Gordon and his No. 24 crew.
There was the lack of speed, some bad luck, some questionable decisions — even a very public spat over the radio with crew chief Alan Gustafson at Pocono in June.
He limped into the Chase winless, but snuck through the opening Contender Round and then powered through the Challenger Round. His worst finish in six Chase races is 14th — only Joey Logano, who swept the Contender Round with Sunday’s victory, has been better in that regard.
“They key is us coming together as a team,” Gustafson said. “We haven’t had the performance that we want across the board all year. But we stuck together. We’re definitely improving and giving ourselves more opportunities. And now, anything can happen.”
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Especially at the upcoming tracks. The Eliminator Round consists of races at Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway.
Gordon feels confident at all of them, particularly Martinsville, where he’s won eight times.
Racing on those surfaces was never the issue, though — it was actually getting there while still competing in the Chase.
Mission accomplished.
“I’ve been saying all along if we can get to Round 3 (the Eliminator Round), we’d have an excellent shot of getting to Homestead,” Gordon said. “This team is extra excited right now for the races that are coming up, and working extra hard to make that happen. The season that I’ve had, I’m just overwhelmed and shocked right now that we have turned this thing around the way we have.”