Jeff Gordon’s steady approach may be the right one

Jeff Gordon’s steady approach may be the right one


LOUDON, N.H.—Tortoise or hare?
Which one—specifically, which philosophy—is going to win the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup?
If Jeff Gordon wins the championship, he’ll validate the tortoise approach.
That’s not to imply Gordon is slow. It simply means he can bring to the Chase the maturity and experience born of previous championship battles—as he did Sunday in New Hampshire, where he bided his time, made a sensible choice and left with a sixth-place finish.
A mediocre qualifying effort put Gordon in the 17th starting position. Gradually, he worked his way toward the front of the field, running as high as second in the final 80 laps of the Sylvania 300.
But when others gambled on fuel mileage after pit stops on Lap 208, Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte weighed the risk versus the potential reward and brought the No. 24 Chevrolet to pit road for a splash of gas on Lap 225.
Clint Bowyer’s gamble on fuel paid off with a race win, but Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton weren’t as lucky. Stewart’s tank went dry with his No. 14 Chevrolet in the lead with barely more than one lap left. After an agonizingly slow trip around the 1.058-mile racetrack, Stewart inched across the finish line in 24th place.
Jeff Burton, running fourth at the time, experienced fuel pickup issues before Stewart did but managed to coast home in 15th. Burton and Stewart sustained deep wounds to their championship hopes.
Gordon and Letarte weren’t willing to take the risk, and the conservative choice paid off.
“It wasn’t our best day, but I felt like we really brought the No. 24 car home in the best position we possibly could,” Gordon said. “We had some high hopes when we got up there to third or fourth—even to second at one time.
“But I think Steve called a great race. He didn’t want to risk the fuel, and it just wasn’t worth it. We did a gas-and-go and probably just needed to make one adjustment on that last set of tires. We got real tight there at the end, but when those guys didn’t make it on fuel, it definitely made us feel that much better about the call that Steve made and coming home sixth.”
The net effect was enormous. Though winless this year, Gordon wiped out the 50-point advantage that belonged to teammate Jimmie Johnson, a five-time winner this year but a 25th-place finisher at Loudon. Gordon jumped from a tie for eighth in the standings to fifth, 75 points behind race runner-up Denny Hamlin but well within striking distance if Hamlin falters.
“I don’t think we played it cautious (Sunday),” Gordon said. “I just feel like Steve looked at whether or not it was worth gambling. That’s what we do every week. We came into this race saying we can certainly lose this championship this weekend; we can’t necessarily win it. We’ve got to go and grind it out and put out that kind of effort for 10 weeks.”
In five of the past six seasons, the Chase winner has come from the top six finishers at New Hampshire in September. The lone exception was Johnson in 2006, when he rallied from a 39th-place finish at Loudon to win the title.
In the past three seasons, Johnson has surged to the front by piling up victories in the Chase, but there’s nothing to suggest one team will dominate this year.
That’s good news for Gordon. “Slow” won’t win anything, but “steady” certainly could, and “steady” defines Jeff Gordon, whose trump card—more than anything else—is consistency.

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(September 20, 2010)