Gordon starts 5th at Homestead
It’s all about the possibility of a fairy tale finish to one of the greatest racing careers ever.
And befitting one of the legends of sports, Gordon has a chance to ride off into the sunset in the ultimate style – by adding one more championship to his belt.
“I couldn’t care less”, Pearn said. “Obviously you keep in mind that we all know who is racing for a championship and race them with utmost respect but we all want to win the race as well”, he said.
Kyle Busch never let doubt creep in, even with a mangled leg. Someone else with a double compound fracture in his right leg and a fracture of his left foot may have caved in emotionally. We’re just going out there to do our jobs to the best of our ability, and that’s what we’ve done all year.
Harvick has tried to diffuse talk that he’s the heavy favorite Sunday to hold off Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch at the same track where he clinched his 2014 crown. Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick will start 11th and 13th, respectively.
“I’m glad we qualified well”, said Earnhardt, another of the original 16 Chase contenders to have been eliminated from the title hunt before the final race of the season.
The teenager unseated two-time defending champion Matt Crafton, who gained a few consolation by winning his sixth race of the season but ended up third in the standings.
Gordon will race for his long-overdue fifth championship on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. At least this phase of his life, that is, as Gordon competes in his 797th and final Cup Series race, searching for his 94th win and fifth series championship.
Truex, the New Jersey-born son of a clam boat captain and second-tier Busch Series driver, landed with FRR only after he was kicked to the curb two years ago when Michael Waltrip Racing lost a sponsorship. “He was my guy”.
“Nobody can ever say anybody changed the face of the sport like Jeff Gordon did”. “I just totally messed up”.
“I don’t think anybody has done anything different”, he said. At least for me, when I get to the track, I focus on that. “We didn’t fall into it. We’ve run well all year”. I felt like the grip was good.
There were times this season, however, when things were not so great.
NASCAR will crown a champion Sunday in South Florida in its final race of the season. A win won’t necessary, just finishing the highest of those four drivers will achieve the desired result.
All of that will be forgotten, however, if the No. 24 Chevrolet crosses the finish line first on Sunday. Busch has not won since, but has finished in the top ten in ten of the last 15 races, easily making his way into the top 30, and qualifying on points. He’s got a lovely family, a reputation as one of the good guys and a popularity that transcends NASCAR.
“He was awesome”, said his team owner, Joe Gibbs. ‘OK, I want to be this, this and this.’ I didn’t do that.
When Jeff Gordon arrived in what was then called the Winston Cup series, he was the everything. On the last restart, he started a chain reaction, causing a controversial wreck that forced the race to end on the only green-white-checkered attempt. “It’s been pretty remarkable the way she’s went through everything, really inspiring to me”.
As for his recovery from a vicious crash last season at Indianapolis, Hinchcliffe said he is now fully recovered and in fact has spent most of the last month testing in the No. 5 Honda at Sebring, Road America and Phoenix.