LONG POND, Pa. – A top-five finish didn’t appear to be in the cards for Jeff Gordon on Sunday.
“It wasn’t looking good at times,” Gordon said.
But as more and more cars ahead of him began to run out of gas or head to pit road to refuel, that top-five finish became a reality.
“Boy, it sure looked good when we crossed the finish line and got the checkered flag,” he smiled.
Gordon took home third place at Pocono Raceway, and he credited crew chief Alan Gustafson for staying true to their fuel strategy.
“There at the end we were one of the last ones to pit, which allowed us to run hard all the way to the finish not having to conserve or save fuel,” he explained. “I thought we were trying to get maybe 10th or 12th and all of a sudden they said you're third, and I think I was probably the most shocked person out there on the racetrack when I found that out. I knew cars were peeling off, but I just didn't realize that many were either running out or coming to pit road.”
Gordon laughed that the ending of Sunday’s race was perhaps one of the craziest he could recall at the “Tricky Triangle.”
“It would be a long, long list if we talked to a bunch of people in the grandstands and myself, and everybody on pit road and probably people watching at home to find out who was more surprised,” he said. “That was crazy.”
But after expecting something around a 15th-place finish, the driver of the No. 24 AARP Member Advantages happily accepted the third-place result.
Particularly after his final Brickyard 400 last weekend was cut short by an incident on Lap 50 that left him in 42nd.
“Today finally one went our way for a change, which is really nice to bounce back after last week's unfortunate incident where we lost so many points,” Gordon said. “I think it's not about carrying momentum, it's about getting momentum, and I think this is the beginning of hopefully what can get us the momentum we need to get where we need to.”
Though he is still firmly in the Chase Grid via points, Gordon’s lack of a win in 2015 leaves him “not in a safe position.” But he is confident in the No. 24 team’s ability to make the Chase – and see what happens from there.
“We've seen in the past where anything can happen when that Chase starts, but you've got to be in it first, and we're going to try to secure our way in there over the next few races,” he said.