Gordon builds cushion in Chase points standings

CONCORD, N.C. – Even after a runner-up finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon knows he’s not safe.

"My first question when I got out of the car was, ‘How many points did we gain?’” Gordon said.

As it turns out, he is currently in sixth place in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, 17 points ahead of the eighth-place cutoff position to advance to the Eliminator Round.

“That is not what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear that we were 35 or 38 (points) or something like that up on ninth,” Gordon smiled. “But we knew that that was going to be tough to do.”

What the No. 24 team did accomplish, however, is providing a little momentum going in to the final race of the round – the always-unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway.

Many of the Chase contenders have pointed out how tough it will be to race there with advancing to the next round on the line. After all, “the big one” is always one false move away, and it might not even be the wrecked driver’s own mistake that causes it.

“Nobody wants to go to Talladega -- everybody would like to take the weekend off there,” Gordon said, noting that Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick don’t have to worry due to their wins in the past two weeks. “We've got a little bit of a cushion, but not near enough to be comfortable by any means. We're going in to race the way we normally do there, which is just try and be smart, try to stay out of the mess and then put ourselves in a good position to get a good finish.”

With so many positions in the Chase still up in the air, Gordon said the new format has proven to bring even more excitement, intensity and drama than expected.

And it will all come down to the final race of the round.

“Today's performance by us was huge and crucial, I think, because we do at least have a much bigger buffer than some other guys do,” he said. “Certainly these last two weeks have shaken things up quite a bit. I like our chances. I think we've got an excellent race team and I really hope we make it through Talladega because I think the next round suits us very, very well."