HAMPTON, Ga. – Jeff Gordon's final full-time Sprint Cup Series season hasn't started exactly the way he envisioned it.
Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS was caught up in a late-race incident that ended his day and left him with a 41st-place finish.
"We were struggling but I'm proud of the way we were fighting through," Gordon said. "We had gotten ourselves into the top 10 right there. We might have had a shot at a top-five, but we won't know now."
That result came after a Daytona 500 that also found Gordon caught up in a late-race incident. It turned a day in which he led a race-high 87 laps into a 33rd-place finish.
"I hate it for this team," Gordon said. "Obviously it's not the way we want to start our season."
Regardless of the two subpar results, Gordon was on track for a pair of top-10 finishes to start the season.
So the numbers may be a bit misleading – and there's plenty of time to make up ground.
The last time Gordon had a similar start was in 1996, when his first two results of the season were 42nd and 40th.
He went on to win three of the next four races.
"It's unfortunate way to start the season," Gordon reiterated. "We just have to dig ourselves out of this hole."