Retirement? No way, Gordon all-in on drive for five

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Nascar

Four-time series champion has his eyes on NASCAR’s most coveted prize

The question, broached before the season even began, hasn’t gone away and maybe that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

After all, if folks want to talk about winning the championship and potential retirement in the same breath, well, that’s not all bad.

Not when you’re Jeff Gordon and you haven’t really been in the title picture in more than a decade.

There are far worse questions out there.

FULL CHASE COVERAGE

• Chase hub page
• Chase Grid games
• #MyChaseNation

What’s wrong with your team?

Why didn’t you make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup?

Will you be back with the team next year?

Fortunately for the 43-year-old, such questions have rarely, if ever, been asked.

But retirement? Yeah, it comes up from time to time.

And with the Hendrick Motorsports driver back in the title picture, it makes for good copy. One of the sport’s greatest drivers has chance to win title, and sail off into the sunset hoisting a fifth championship trophy.

There’s only one problem. Gordon isn’t buying the retirement part. Or selling it, for that matter.

"The majority of my focus is on winning the championship," Gordon said last week in Chicago, before this year’s 10-race Chase got under way.

Easing off the throttle? Not now. Not as long as his back holds out, his team continues to perform at its current level and Gordon keeps finding a way to get back to Victory Lane.

"I was asked ‘would you consider it?’ and I said I would because I think it’’an exciting way to end a career – to go out on top," Gordon said. "But at the same time, I’m having too much fun. I’m enjoying myself too much. My back is doing well and I don’t see any reason to quit anytime soon."

One of the favorites in this year’s championship run, Gordon admits it’s been "a long time, too long" since he won his fourth, and to date, last title. That was in 2001, 13 years ago. He turned 30 earlier that summer.

No one expected the domination, which included 58 wins at that point, to slow anytime soon. But it did.

That he’s back in the title picture, and a legitimate contender, he said, has as much to do with those around him as the driver himself.

"We haven’t had a team like this since 2001," Gordon said. "In ’07 we were close; ’04 we were close but I don’t think we ever really had this type of momentum, this kind of chemistry since we won our last championship.

"And you know … that’s what it takes to win the championship. Who we’ve been up against, they’ve had that. We’ve got that back this year and that’s why I’m really excited about our chances."

He’s seen others go through similar circumstances. Former teammate Terry Labonte went 12 years in between winning championships in 1984 and 1996. In fact, Labonte’s chief competition in his final title run was none other than Gordon.

"He’s one of my heroes," Gordon said. "I would love to do something similar to what Terry has done. I raced against him in that ’96 season when he won that championship and his experience, his calmness, the Iceman (persona), he blew me away that year with his ability to really just stay so consistent and strong and pull off that win.

"So I’ve got firsthand experience to see a guy that hasn’t done it in a long time get it done."

Gordon has finished in the top five of the final standings on five occasions since his last championship, including the runner-up in ’07. But as he noted, it’s only been recently that he felt his team had the tools and the chemistry to be considered a legitimate threat.

The key players from ’01 are still around, although most of the support staff has scattered here and there. Steve Letarte, wrapping up a final year as crew chief with Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., was a part of Gordon’s title-winning efforts in ’97 and ’98 as the team’s tire specialist. In ’01, he was a mechanic as well as the team’s rear-tire carrier.

Chad Knaus, who would go on to lead Jimmie Johnson to six titles, was a part of the crew that won the title in ’95 and ’97 as well, but had departed by the time Gordon won No. 4 in ’01. Johnson, Knaus and the 48 team are seen as one of Gordon’s chief opponents for this year’s crown.

The wait for Johnson to try and add to his championship total has been brief. Barely 10 months ago he was celebrating a sixth title.

For Gordon, it’s been years.

"That was a long time ago," Gordon said of his ’01 title run. "The only thing I remember that reminds me of this year is having confidence in myself and the team, enjoying what we are doing and knowing we have a shot at winning races each and every weekend."

MORE:

READ: Latest
Chase news

PLAY: Monitor your Chase Grid Game picks

WATCH: Latest
NASCAR video

FOLLOW LIVE: Get
RaceView

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Holly Cain

Cain: Don’t expect these guys to lay off in the postseason

As Kyle Larson juked and jived his No. 42 Target Chevrolet to a near victory at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday afternoon, his ultra-determined effort served as NASCAR’s ultimate spoiler alert.

Even in a season featuring 16 title contenders — the largest Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship field ever — it should surprise no one if one of the super talented, highly motivated non-Chase drivers hoists a trophy in the remaining nine races, stealing a Chaser’s fast pass to the title round.

After all, non-Chase drivers have won races in four of the last five postseasons.

FULL CHASE COVERAGE

• Chase hub page
• Chase Grid games
• #MyChaseNation

And not only is the rookie Larson a leading candidate to win before the season winds down, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Jamie McMurray has earned his late season television time, too. His No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet has led 180 total laps in the last four races and is keeping the Chasers honest.

A couple other veterans, Clint Bowyer and three-time Cup champ Tony Stewart, boast resumes that absolutely make them favorites in the season’s final races as well.

For the 22-year-old Larson, it’s been simply about "when" he’ll score his maiden Sprint Cup victory. His third-place effort in a back-up car that started last in the Chicago field is proof of how driven he and that team are to win.

Far from backing off and letting the Chase drivers settle the checkered flag in Chicago, Larson demonstrated exactly the kind of grit and gumption that makes this Chase portion of the season so exciting and potentially the most competitive in history.

Nearly half the field has something to prove, whether it be a championship run or scoring a season- or career-first victory.

There are sponsors to attract and scores to settle.

No one is backing off or playing it safe. It’s go time from the front to back of the grid.

"(People might think) those guys might be a little bit more cautious, won’t race you as hard,” Larson said. "I didn’t feel that way at all. I felt everybody was racing as hard as they do all season long.

"We definitely have to be a little bit more careful around those guys, too, because we don’t want to hurt their chances of advancing.

"(But) like I said, I had a lot of fun racing Kev (Harvick), Jeff (Gordon), Brad (Keselowski) and Junior (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) at some points in the race. I didn’t feel like anybody was holding back at all."

As good as Larson was Sunday, his teammate McMurray also furthered his case as someone who will have to be dealt with each week. In fact, McMurray is definitively the champion Chase spoiler of the last five years — winning more Chase races (three) than any non-Chase eligible driver during that time.

Four of McMurray’s seven career Cup wins have come at Chase tracks. He’s won twice at Charlotte and twice at Talladega, where he is the defending winner of the upcoming Oct. 19 race at NASCAR’s biggest track.

Bowyer, a preseason Chase favorite who like Larson just missed making the field, is another driver who has proven himself a contender at the 10 Chase tracks, venues where he has recorded five of his eight career Cup victories. He has a pair of wins at this week’s stop, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a pair of wins at Talladega and also a victory at Charlotte.

Perhaps the biggest unknown in all this is the most accomplished racer not to earn a Chase berth — three-time champ Stewart, who may view the race track as a focus for his off-track distractions and heavy heart. He has won in all 15 previous seasons competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but is still looking for his first in 2014.

He has victories at all nine of the remaining Chase venues and 19 of his 48 career wins have come at these venues. He has three victories apiece at New Hampshire, Dover, Martinsville, and Homestead.

Certainly this week’s venue — the notoriously tight and tough 1.058-mile Loudon oval — is a prime opportunity to shake up the Chase order. But it’s not just the championship contenders that see the opportunity, which makes the 2014 version of the Chase that much more compelling in ways that weren’t even anticipated.

MORE: