I feel Jeff should be in, so I guess the 22 [Logano] would be on the outside looking if they removed one. That's a good team. They won the championship last year with the 22 car, and Joey is doing a great job and earning a lot of points. It changes the dynamic of the Chase quite a bit with 13 cars. Gordon was already reeling from a sequence of events at Richmond involving Michael Waltrip Racing that left him outside the man Chase, including a suspicious late-race spin by Clint Bowyer and a series of pit stops by Brian Vickers that helped elevate Bowyer teammate Martin Truex Jr.
That was enough to drop Truex out of the Chase and elevate Stewart-Haas Racing's Ryan Newman , who was in position to win the Richmond race and qualify for the Chase prior to Bowyer's spin. During the subsequent caution period, Newman lost the lead in the pits and finished third in the race, denying him the victory he needed to qualify as a wild card.
Gordon was the next odd-man out, until radio conversations were exposed in which Front Row personnel appeared to indicate that the team had struck up a deal with the Penske organization, trading track position for unspecified future favors. Gordon said he empathized with Truex for being removed from the Chase field, but his sympathy ended there.
That, to me, is the only reason I'm accepting being in in the 13th, because under normal circumstances I would say no, that's not right. But under these circumstances, I feel there is enough reason for us to be in. I know how hard we worked and that we earned the right to be in.
Logano was not individually penalized and also will be included in the man field. He will start the Chase from the pole after posting a lap of We can't go back and run the event again, but we are trying to be as fair and equitable as we can with all the teams. We determined that the right thing to do was to put him in the Chase.
NASCAR has scheduled a meeting Sunday morning with team owners, drivers and crew chiefs to confirm the series' ethical expectations from its teams and drivers. Whatever our decision is on how that changes the playing field for the teams, we'll have to shift our officiating with it. If we can use technologies going forward to be more fair and precise and informed about what happens on the racetrack in order to regulate the sport, we'll chase that. During the course of his minute media availability, France made repeated mention of the importance of maintaining the integrity of the sport.
He made it clear that NASCAR will take a hardline stance in the future on anything it perceives as race-fixing or collusion. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. He also indicated that payback had to be done. It was his 93rd career victory and put him in position to ride into retirement with a fifth title. His last title was in The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City.
Clippers rally from point deficit to beat Heat and extend win streak. NFL: Dolphins wins second straight, stun Ravens. High School Sports. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. In fact, for the most part it's stunk. This is where Gordon comes in to save the day or at least this Chase, and by turn this entire season.
Logano was leading at Martinsville last Sunday when Kenseth, nine laps down, obviously ran him over with deliberate intent. Although Kenseth offered up some lame excuse afterward, saying something was wrong with his car and "it wouldn't turn," he never actually denied the crime and probably even expected to do some time for it. He was the great beneficiary of Kenseth's diabolical plan to get even with Logano.
As Kenseth took out Logano, the race leader and one of the obvious favorites to win this year's championship, it was like the Red Sea parting for Gordon at Martinsville. The four-time Cup champion not only surged into the lead, but by virtue of hanging onto it for the win became the first driver locked into the Championship 4 who will battle for the title in the one-race duel at Homestead. Gordon, 44, announced prior to this season that this would be his final season racing for a championship.
Bottom line, this is Gordon's last chance in what was billed as "The Drive For Five" after he won his last championship, and fourth overall, way back in The win at Martinsville, his first of this season that has been full of more than its shares of struggles for Gordon and his No. Of all years. I mean, of all years, I cannot believe this. And it has provided NASCAR with a lifeline to pull itself out of the muck that the governing body itself has created by allowing the drivers to go too far in this Chase before doing something about it.
Now Gordon goes to Homestead with the full power and the considerable resources of Hendrick Motorsports completely behind him. He's the only Hendrick driver left in the Chase. The next big NASCAR controversy may come if one or more of his three Hendrick teammates blocks for him to aid his championship run at Homestead, which they very well may do if it comes down to it.
But if Gordon wins the title in his final season, really, who is going to complain much about it without looking terrible for doing so?
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