Gordon makes a statement in final Challenger Round race at Dover
Sept. 28, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
DOVER, Del.—Now we are 12.
Jeff
Gordon took the checkered flag in Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover
International Speedway, but four other drivers got the axe in the first
Chase for
the NASCAR Sprint Cup elimination race in the history of the sport.
AJ
Allmendinger, 2004 series champion Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Aric
Almirola missed the cut for the next round of the Chase, as the field
was pared
from 16 drivers to 12 following the third and final Challenger Round
race.
After
the dominant car of Coors Light Polesitter Kevin Harvick had a major
issue with the left front wheel on Lap 254 of 400, Gordon took control
of
the event on Lap 305, passing runner-up Brad Keselowski for the lead on
Lap 305.
After a cycle of green-flag pit stops, Gordon led the last 71 laps, pulling away to win by a comfortable 4.352 seconds.
Jimmie
Johnson ran third, followed by Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth, as all of
the top-five drivers advanced to the Contender Round, a three-race
elimination
with visits to Kansas Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega
(Ala.) Superspeedway.
Harvick
(13th Sunday), Kyle Busch (10th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (17th), Ryan
Newman (eighth), Carl Edwards (11th) and Denny Hamlin (12th) also
advanced
to the Contender Round.
The
victory was Gordon’s fourth of the season, fifth at the Monster Mile
and 92nd of his career, third most all-time behind Richard Petty (200)
and
David Pearson (105).
And
victory No. 92 had special significance beyond an automatic ticket to
the next round of the Chase—especially after a blown tire last week at
New
Hampshire produced a 26th-place finish and put the four-time champion
one disaster away from elimination from NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.
“I
think this is huge,” Gordon said in Victory Lane. “We came in here with
a little bit of extra pressure because we weren’t guaranteed to be in.
If
we hadn’t finished where we were running at New Hampshire last week
(sixth when the tire blew), it would have been kind of an easy day for
us.
“But
all we did was focus on executing as a team and trying to win this race
and nothing else. It wasn’t about the points; it wasn’t about just
squeezing
by to get to the next round. It was about making a statement. I don’t
know how you make a bigger statement than what this team just did right
there.”
If
Gordon took the suspense out of the closing laps, making what he called
a “statement” with the victory, there was plenty of drama mid-pack, as
Kasey
Kahne rallied from four laps down to claim the 12th and final spot in
the next round by two points over Allmendinger, who finished 23rd to
Kahne’s 20th.
On
Lap 161, Kahne brought his No. 5 Chevrolet to pit road with a loose
left rear wheel and lost two laps in the process. He lost two more
during a
subsequent green-flag pit stop.
Thanks
to a wave-around and a timely caution for Harvick’s issue on Lap 254,
Kahne ran the rest of the race one lap down and gained enough positions
to knock both Busch and Allmendinger out of the Chase.
Keselowski already had a victory in the Chase and a guaranteed spot in the Contender Round, but he wanted more.
“Yeah,
we've had a really good start, so we can't really complain that much
having won a race, and a second and a seventh,” Keselowski said. “But
it's
hard to look at that. All I can think about is how I wanted to win all
three races, and now it's time to move forward.
“Three
more races, a new start, and what we were able to do in these last
three, other than getting us to this next round, really mean nothing.
We've
got to keep our head on straight and push forward these next three like
we have these last three.”
All
12 remaining Chase drivers start the Contender Round with a baseline of
3,000 points. Any Chase driver who wins at Kansas, Charlotte or
Talladega
will advance automatically to the Eliminator Round. The Chase field
will be reduced from 12 to eight drivers at Talladega.
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