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JImmie Johnson and Kyle Busch fight for the lead position during the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway. (Geoff Burke/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
The frustration and rage in Jeff Gordon’s voice were palpable after he was knocked out of the 3M Performance 400, his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet felled by a chain-reaction bump that ultimately cut his right-front tire and put him into the wall.
The incident occurred on Lap 90 of the 200-lap race. Tony Stewart was on the outside of a four-wide pack, with Jimmie Johnson a lane beneath Stewart and Gordon below Johnson. Stewart twitched and went down into Johnson, who in turn drove into Gordon.
The contact with Gordon cut Johnson’s left-front tire, which put him a lap down after he stopped to pit. Gordon wasn’t so lucky. His right-front tire exploded on Lap 97, putting him hard into the outside wall and dropping him to 42nd place. Johnson would go on to finish a disappointing 17th after last-lap contact with Travis Kvapil, while racing for 13th. But it was Gordon who was most frustrated.
Gordon’s usually bulletproof pit crew had had two consecutive bad pit stops, which had dropped him from the top five to pack in mid-pack when he tangled with Johnson. And afterwards, the usually calm and mild-mannered Gordon was visibly irate.
“My spotter didn’t say anything until the last second and he said two cars on the outside instead of three-wide but ultimately we’re responsible because our pit stops have just been terrible today,” said Gordon, who fell to ninth in points is now just 82 points ahead of 13th-place. “You know we finally had an awesome race car and just didn’t have the total package.
The fact that the incident involved his teammate made it even worse. “I just hate that that got the 48 (Johnson) involved,” said Gordon. “We always try to have a lot of respect for one another out there and it got really dicey there on that restart, and we got three- and four-wide and my car was really good rolling through the middle there and I guess Tony (Stewart) got to the outside of the 48. And even when my spotter didn’t say anything till late, I still gave him I felt like enough room, but it just got so narrow off of Turn 4.”
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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