Lost opportunity: Late speeding penalty costs Jeff Gordon dearly
After getting off to a rough start for the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, it appeared everything was going Jeff Gordon's way in the closing laps of Sunday's STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was peaking at the optimal time of the race, Gordon was able to take the lead from Matt Kenseth with less than 60 laps to go and had eight past Martinsville wins to lean on.
Yet in the end, it was Gordon who cost the team a shot at victory.
Leading the field down pit road during the final caution of the day on Lap 461, Gordon was too fast entering pit road and was black-flagged by NASCAR. Forced to restart at the tail end of the longest line, Gordon immediately apologized to his crew over the radio and took complete blame for the penalty.
Over the final 44 laps, the four-time Sprint Cup Series champion fought and dug his way through the field and was able to work his way to ninth on the final lap when Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag and the win.
"The car was amazing. I couldn't believe we're in the top 10, I thought we were just trying to get to 25th," Gordon said after the race.
Gordon's day was up-and-down throughout the entire 500-lap event, and just as it appeared things were going to end on a strong note he was hit with the speeding penalty.
Climbing from the car, Gordon could not help but feel bad for his entire team after costing them a shot at a victory and a guaranteed spot in the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup field that determines the season's champion.
"It's one thing when you don't feel like you have the car underneath you or you're missing something, but when it's on you -- whether it's a pit crew guy, a crew chief or the driver -- it hurts," he said. "That's the way I feel right now. I feel pain because we had a golden opportunity right there and I ruined it for us. We're going to get it all together. We just haven't been clicking all at one time. As hard as everybody work, gosh, I just hated that I made that mistake."
The ninth-place finish was Gordon's third consecutive top-10 finish, after starting the season off with two wrecks and finishes of 33rd or worse.
