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Jeff Gordon and
Carl Edwards seem to be moving in different directions as they try to
secure a wild-card spot. Photo courtesy of nascar.com
Nascar...
Pocono madness
shakes up wild-card picture
Gordon in second spot on tie-breaker; Kyle Busch’s woes costly to Chase
hopes
LONG POND, Pa.- Talk about silver linings.
Thanks in part to Jimmie Johnson’s late-race misfortune Sunday,
Hendrick Motorsports went from having two cars in position to make the
Chase for the Sprint Cup to having four, just as owner Rick Hendrick
predicted prior to the season.
Jeff Gordon’s win Sunday at Pocono Raceway flipped his status from
also-ran to Chase contender.
Gordon was tied for 15th in the points standings entering the race, but
his first victory of the season vaulted him into a tie with Ryan Newman
for the second of two wild-card spots. Because each driver has one win
and one fourth-place finish and neither has a second or third, the
tie-breaker comes down to fifth-place finish. Gordon has the edge
because he has one -- at Indianapolis -- and Newman does not.
Teammate Kasey Kahne, who holds the first wild-card slot by virtue of
his two wins, solidified his standing by finishing second.
“All I will say is we’ve been on a nice streak of finishes,” said
Gordon, who was 22nd in points after finishing 19th in the June 10 race
at Pocono. “Even though they haven’t been wins, they’ve been really
solid finishes -- top-fives, top-10s -- that have gotten us further up
in the points. The last several weeks, we’ve had something to build on.
“We knew how badly we needed a win, and we got it. But that’s half the
battle. In my opinion, this only puts more pressure on us over these
next several weeks, but we’re ready for the challenge.”
If Gordon can make the Chase, the four-time Cup champion could be just
as much of a threat as Hendrick drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson.
Earnhardt tops the standings, while Johnson is in fourth place, eight
points behind. With five races left before the Chase field is set, the
two are virtual locks to be included.
Kahne knows it.
“Now we’ve got to watch out for them,” said Kahne, who has a smidgen of
Chase security as the only driver outside the top 10 with two
victories. “If those guys get a little confidence, as fast as they’ve
been, they can be pretty tough each week.”
Alan Gustafson, Gordon’s crew chief, acknowledged his team’s outlook
appeared “bleak” early in the season, primarily because it was shooting
itself in the foot.
“Obviously [Sunday] was a great day for us,” Gustafson said. “We gained
some momentum the last several weeks with performance in points. But we
know we needed a win to put ourselves in contention for the wild card.
Winning [Sunday] was a huge deal. We didn’t have the fastest car, I
don’t think, but I think we had a good enough car to drive from 27th to
top five.
“I always felt like we could do it. When we do get it right, we’ll have
a chance to win a lot of races. We just needed something to go our way.
It went our way [Sunday].”
The break Gordon was looking for came when Johnson and Matt Kenseth,
running in the top two, got loose on the Lap 92 restart, triggering a
five-car pileup that cleared a path for Gordon.
“Man, I’ve never seen the seas part quite like that, like they did
going down into [Turn] 1,” Gordon said. “I got a great restart and was
able to dive to the inside in front of Kasey [Kahne]. I saw the No. 48
[Johnson] get sideways, and it just took them all out. And I was like,
‘Wow.’”
“And then it started raining. I tell you what, with all the things that
have gone wrong for us this year, I’m hoping that this is the one that
makes up for it all.”
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