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Gordon finds silver lining in 42nd-place Michigan finish

By SceneDaily Staff

Sunday, August 17, 2008

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Marc Serota / Getty Images

Marc Serota / Getty Images

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BROOKLYN, Mich. - If there is any good news from hitting the wall and finishing 42nd for Jeff Gordon, it’s that he doesn’t have to points race any more.
 
Gordon cut a tire down and slammed the Turn 2 wall Sunday during the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway, eventually dropping out with a 42nd-place finish.
 
He fell three spots to ninth in the Sprint Cup points standings, and he’s less than 100 points from falling out of a possible Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup berth. That means he and his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team no longer will simply try to get the best finish they can. Instead, Gordon will go all-out in each of the three races remaining before the Chase.
 
“I feel like we’ve been in a situation where we’ve kind of been just stuck in the middle, and I don’t want to be where we are in the points right now, but in some ways, this is an easier position to be in because we just go out there and run hard every weekend and we can take chances and do things that can maybe get us that win,” Gordon said. “We’ve been stuck in the middle where we can’t take too big a risk. You can’t risk fuel mileage, you can’t risk putting two tires on. We’ve got to stay with four tires. And we can’t
get too risky with our setups, all that stuff.
 
“You’re just trying to ride along there and not make mistakes. And now a mistake is made, and I’m just glad we were running good finally.”
 
Gordon made a mistake during the Michigan race when he slid into teammate Jimmie Johnson during a four-wide battle off Turn 4. Johnson was forced to pit road with a cut tire, but Gordon’s car suffered more damage when his tire went down.
 
“Well, the first thing that happened was we just had a bad pit stop that put us back there, and we shouldn’t have been back there to begin with,” Gordon said. “So we just can’t seem to get it all lined up this year. We finally had a great car. And when we’ve had great pit stops, we haven’t had the car to back us up.
 
“It’s a pretty disappointing day. That got us back there to begin with. They were three-wide, and I came off of (Turn) 4 there and my spotter at the last second said, ‘Two cars outside of you,’ and it was too late. But in looking at the replay there was still enough room.
 
“It just looked like Tony [Stewart] kind of came off the wall and touched Jimmie a little bit and Jimmie came down and there was just no room to move there because we were all so tight coming off there. I’m just more upset that we were back there to begin with.”
 
Gordon is 82 points ahead of 13th place, but he’s only 80 behind sixth-place Stewart. It has been a frustrating year for the winless Gordon, but the four-time champion knows only one way to handle it: Keep on working.
 
“I’ve had crazier years,” Gordon said. “But this has definitely been a frustrating year, up and down, and one that only challenges our whole team to see what we’re made of, and I don’t see that as a bad thing. …
 
“All we can do is go out there and focus and do our jobs. We’ve had one of the best weekends we’ve had in a long time and that was just really unfortunate.”

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11 responses to "Gordon finds silver lining in 42nd-place Michigan finish"
  1. 1
    jorge gutierrez said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 6:24 AM

    I like latarte but i think he has know idea what gordon needs is a veteran crew chief that gets it. please can you say RAY EVERHAM only wishing.

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  2. 2
    Anonymous said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 6:49 AM

    I do not understand why Hendricks Motorsports (who they say exchange info)can have a car #48, #88 doing great and other cars doing so poorly. Is it Letartes fault?? the pit crew?? Is Chad really sharing ??? Jeff is a 4X champ for gods sake ! what is going on ???

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  3. 3
    77 F said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 7:20 AM

    My take on Jeff's quotes from this article. Sounds like the 24team had a really good car. Just unfortunate about the bad pit stop which put them back and that's when their luck ran out...4wide! Glad the 11 and 9 also had problems so the 24's drop wasn't as bad as it could have been. Three races till the chase. Looking for a win or a good finish for the 24team at Bristol (Sat night).

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  4. 4
    Kim Palmer said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 10:58 AM

    Why doesn't Jeffie drive a few Nation Wide races to get his Moe Joe back? That would help get more focus and more practice is obviously needed. The 24 needs to get FOCUS and Jeffie needs to get P.O.ed!!!...LIKE HIS FANS!

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  5. 5
    Anonymous said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 12:08 PM

    I agree Why doesn't Jeff get angry?? He says he has a great team?? Well their doing really good in hiding that fact!! No #5 this year. I just want him to win at least ONE race to kep record going, I remember the year and Jeff and divorce--he was about the same as he is now . Do we see any personal problems??? Come on Jeff we want a win!!!

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  6. 6
    MILTON BRANNON said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 1:46 PM

    I take an offense to this part of the report: "Gordon made a mistake during the Michigan race when he slid into teammate Jimmie Johnson during a four-wide battle off Turn 4." Gordon did nothing wrong. Stewart got loose (nothing really wrong either) and while trying to correct it, got into Johnson, who in turn got into Gordon. The only "mistake" would be dropped lug nuts that got Gordon into 15th spot on the restart and then into the 4-wide situation. Prior to that, Gordon had a strong car and had driven from 12th up to 4th under green flag runs!!!

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  7. 7
    Timothy Schultze said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 2:10 PM

    I agree Milton and great comment as far as Steve Letarte Let it ride the year has not been that bad they have not won but i really cant see this streak going all year as far as Ray Evernham i dont see a lot of magic wand waving going on over any dodges and how many of the teams cars are in the chase soon he will own no part of that organization.

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  8. 8
    sandra medura said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 3:56 PM

    i have been saying for a long time now that jeff won't be driving for allot more years and he deserves to go out in style, but latarte just doesn't have the know how. jeff should not have to suffer with a want-a-be crewchief. he is problaby a nice guy, but jeff needs a seasoned crewchief. i don't think that the 48 shares. he said a couple of years ago that he was gonna be better then jeff. and as far as the18, i think that he is getting the best of everything because gibbs wants to show up hendrick. jeff deserves better.

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  9. 9
    Jan Strawder said:
    Aug 18, 2008 at 6:33 PM

    The reason that I am such a huge Jeff Gordon fan is because Jeff has so much class. Here is a driver that has had 2 very difficult weeks and yet he can still find postive things to focus on and share with the media. For example not giving up. He knows what he and the team has to do to make the chase,and even though the pit crew did not have their usual fast pit stops,he encouraged them to do better next time,and to let him know if it was something the he was doing. He did not bash on his crew,like some other drivers, ex No 18 and No 11. And speaking of the 11 Denny Hamlin shoud listen to Jeff and not give up or feel sorry for yourself, like Denny did yesterday. With an attitude like that,you are not going to win a championship.

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  10. 10
    Kim Palmer said:
    Aug 19, 2008 at 11:07 AM

    I agree, Denny was sniveling way to much, but I bet cooler heads will prevail.

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  11. 11
    Kim Palmer said:
    Aug 19, 2008 at 11:07 AM

    I agree, Denny was sniveling way to much, but I bet cooler heads will prevail.

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