CUP: Gordon Comes Close In California

Sprint Cup

CUP: Gordon Comes Close In California

Jeff Gordon returned to his native California this weekend for the Auto Club 500 and gave race-winner Matt Kenseth everything he could handle...

Tom Jensen | Posted February 22, 2009 Fontana, CA

Pit crews have undergone some changes ahead of the 2010 NASCAR season. (Photo: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Jeff Gordon is still looking for victory lane in a NASCAR Sprint Cup points race for the first time since October 2007, but at the rate he’s going, he’ll get there awfully soon.

Gordon returned to his native California this weekend for the Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway and gave race-winner Matt Kenseth everything he could handle before ultimately wearing the tires off his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and coming home in second place.

Officially, the four-time Cup champion now has gone 43 points races without a victory since winning the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but it’s clear he and crew chief Steve Letarte have got the No. 24 Chevrolet Impala SS headed in the right direction.

All told, Gordon led 64 of 250 laps at the 2-mile speedway and appeared headed for victory when he passed Kenseth on Lap 198 to assume the point. But on Lap 209, the fifth and final caution came out after Kevin Harvick’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet lost an engine and smacked the wall.

Under the ensuing round of pit stops, Kenseth’s Roush Fenway Racing crew got him the lead on pit road, and for the rest of the race, the No. 17 Ford Fusion held sway at the front. Gordon closed on Kenseth several times and appeared ready to challenge for the victory, but the clean air on the nose of Kenseth’s car, combined with the overheated tires on Gordon’s car, decided the issue, with Kenseth taking the victory by 1.463 seconds.

Afterwards, Gordon understandably had mixed emotions — pleased by the improved pace of his Chevrolet, but frustrated that he had a chance to win and didn’t. “This is a new team and they showed it tonight,” said Gordon. “We’ve still got a little bit of work to do, but, man, I’m so excited because on one side, we ran so good and we started off the season so great, but I’m so mad on the other, because I felt like we had what it took to win tonight.”

And although he didn’t criticize his own pit stops, Gordon knew the race was lost on pit road. “Matt Kenseth, you’ve got to give those guys a lot of credit on that 17 team,” Gordon said. “They had great pit stops. They adjusted there (on the final stop) and made his car a little bit better, and we made an adjustment that made mine a little bit too tight. When I caught him, I just couldn’t do anything with him. He drove a great race, didn’t make any mistakes.”

AUTO CLUB 500 CALIFORNIA NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE RESULTS

On balance, Gordon reckoned, it was a good night. “It was bittersweet, but we’ve got to come away with this with a lot of positive feelings,” he said. “Because we’re a long ways ahead of where we were at this time last year. I’m pumped. I’m really excited about this season.”

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 past 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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Tom Jensen

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