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CUP: Long, Hard Climb Ahead For Gordon
Jeff Gordon is still 12th in points, despite a third-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway…
Tom Jensen  |  Posted September 24, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, climbs out of his car after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
If you want to understand how fiendishly difficult it is to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in this era of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, look no further than four-time series champion Jeff Gordon.

In the eight prior editions of the Chase, Gordon has finished second once, third twice and only missed the top 10 once, when he ended 2005 11th in points.

But a stuck throttle that put Gordon into the wall on Lap 188 of this year’s Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway may already have doomed Gordon’s Drive for Five for 2012. Gordon ended the Chicagoland race 35th, and 12th in points, 47 markers back of race-winner Brad Keselowski.

Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Gordon started from the pole in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and had a great run, finishing third. Yet he left New England still 12th in the standings, 45 points behind new leader Jimmie Johnson, who has finished second in each of the first two races.

That pretty much illustrates the problem — at least from Gordon’s standpoint — of the current points system: A bad race hurts you more than a good one helps. A lot more.

When you finish third in the race and only make up 2 points, the odds of making up 45 points in the final eight races of the season are remote.

And Gordon knows it all too well.

Unless something drastic happens, his title hopes are fading fast.

“It's still going to take a miracle for us to win the championship,” said Gordon after the New Hampshire race. “… You've got guys like Jimmie, (Brad) Keselowski and (Denny) Hamlin; I mean, these are guys that have been strong all year. You know, Jimmie's won five championships. These guys are not going to make huge mistakes. But we have to go and race every race. There's a lot of racing and a lot of different tracks that a lot can happen at. So this is step one and we'll go to the next one.”

So the only thing Gordon can do going forward is just take things one day at a time. But given the adversity his Hendrick Motorsports team already has overcome, he said he’s ready.

“We are just going to fight from here on out and try to get some consistent finishes and win races and fight and battle,” Gordon said. “I mean, this team has gotten kind of used to this stuff all year long. We just have had everything thrown at us this year, and I think it's made us stronger and more prepared to handle these type of things, even when the pressure is on for the championship.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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