Jeff Gordon was on a mad dash to catch eventual race winner Paul Menard. Jeff came up just a bit short from his 5th Brickyard 400 but the day belonged to Menard who won is first ever Sprint Cup race.
Jeff Gordon post race pit road interview after a 2nd place finish at the 2011 Brickyard 400.
Jeff Gordon post race press conference at the Brickyard Media Center.
July 31, 2011 by admin
Filed under Feature, Race Audio
Time wasn’t on Jeff Gordon’s side in the closing stages of the Brickyard 400. After leading 36 laps during the event, he found himself in 16th place with less than 30 laps to go. The assumption was that the cars ahead of Gordon would need to stop for fuel. He drove the final 25 laps harder than the drivers ahead of him, but came up short to one driver — Paul Menard — on the final lap. The 2nd place effort was Gordon’s sixth top-10 finish in the last 8 races.
Gordon started 8th and moved to 6th within three laps. He entered the top-5 with a pass on Kurt Busch and took 4th from Jimmie Johnson on lap 8. Ten laps later he moved into the runner-up spot with a move around David Ragan. However, his progress stalled as Kasey Kahne held a comfortable 4-second lead. Gordon led a lap when Kahne darted onto pit road on lap 25. Two laps later, Gordon came in for a four-tire change. Following the stops, Kahne’s lead ballooned to more than 8 seconds over Gordon. A debris caution on lap 34 slowed the field and erased the gap to Kahne. The top-2 elected to stay on the track and hold their spots. Gordon remained distantly behind Kahne before a caution on lap 50 for David Reutimann’s cut tire. Gordon restarted in 4th after changing four tires. On lap 58, he took 2nd place from Ragan and closed in on Dale Earnhardt Jr for the race lead. He took the lead from his teammate and led the event through a green flag pit stop cycle on lap 82. A caution on lap 94 brought the field to pit road. Gordon opted for 2 tires and restarted in 4th place on lap 98. He moved to 2nd place by lap 105 before a caution for Kyle Busch’s wall contact on lap 113. Gordon restarted 12th due to several drivers opting for two tires.
A caution for Landon Cassill’s spin brought the caution out with 40 laps to go with Gordon in 9th place. With 33 laps to go, Gordon moved up to 6th place. He advanced up to 2nd place with 29 to go — but needed a pit stop for fuel before the finish. He moved into the lead with 28 laps to go as drivers pitted for fuel. Gordon pitted for right side tires and fuel with 27 to go. Gordon returned to the race in 16th place. With 10 laps to go, he moved into the 10th position as he made up 1 second per lap on the leaders who were in fuel conservation mode. With 7 to go, he took the 7th position and was less than 8 seconds behind Jamie McMurray for the race lead. Gordon took 5th with 6 laps to go as he ran nearly 1.5 seconds per lap faster than the leaders. With 4 laps to go, he took 4th from Regan Smith. He took 3rd from McMurray and passed Mark Martin for 2nd place on the backstretch. Gordon closed in on Paul Menard for the race lead with 2 laps to go. However, Menard held him off for the win by less than one second.
Road ahead: The series heads to Pocono Raceway for the second time in 2011. Gordon dominated the June event en route to his 84th career victory. Based on the team’s flat track performance of late, the Pocono race should produce solid results.
source:gordonline.com
Race Results
Drivers Standings
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In-Car Audio with spotter chatter
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June 26, 2011 by admin
Filed under Feature, Race Audio
It was truly a tale of two races for Jeff Gordon as he struggled with handling at the outset. However, a pit call to stay on the track with 20 laps to go brought the DuPont Chevrolet to life as Gordon rallied for a runner-up finish. It was his 3rd top-5 finish in the last 4 races. Gordon struggled with drive off the corner at the outset and fell from 12th to 16th in the first 9 laps. Carl Edwards went by on lap 11 and dropped Gordon back to 17th place. One lap later, Gordon slipped to 18th as Martin Truex passed. He came to pit road for a green flag stop on lap 19. Gordon ran in 16th place when the pit stop sequence cycled through the field. Gordon ran in 17th when the first caution waved on lap 32 for Casey Mears stalling on the racetrack. Gordon pitted for chassis adjustments during the caution flag. He restarted 23rd and avoided a wreck in turn 11 after Tony Stewart shoved Brian Vickers into the corner. Gordon moved up to 17th after working his way around the carnage. On the restart, he entered the top-15 after avoiding Martin Truex’s spin in turn 11. A debris caution on lap 48 slowed the field, which brought a round of pit stops. Gordon restarted 28th on lap 51 due to the first 14 cars staying on the track. Gordon moved up to 22nd by the time the next caution waved on lap 59 for Bobby Labonte’s crash. He made his way up to 16th on lap 64 before fading back to 23rd place. He ran as high as 5th place during a green flag pit stop sequence, but eventually pitted on lap 79. Gordon returned to the race in 26th place. He ran in 24th when Vickers intentionally wrecked Stewart as payback in turn 11. However, Gordon stayed on the track and moved up to 8th for the restart with 19 laps to go. With 18 to go he took 6th place from David Gilliland, but lost the spot to Juan Pablo Montoya who had fresher tires. Gordon moved into 5th when Montoya and Kasey Kahne got together on the track. With 12 laps to go, Gordon eased around Truex for the 4th position. He took 3rd from Brad Keselowski with 9 laps to go. Coming to the white flag, he took the runner-up spot from Carl Edwards.
Road ahead: The series heads to Daytona for the annual early July 400-miler. Gordon qualified on the outside of the front row for the Daytona 500 and was strong at Talladega in April. Gordon led the white flag lap, but finished 3rd in a 3-wide battle to the finish.
source: gordonline.com
Race Results [PDF]
Driver Standings
MP3 Download - without spotter chatter
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MP3 Download – with spotter chatter
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May 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under Feature, Race Audio
May 2 – - The scene was all too familiar to Jeff Gordon fans. Their driver was leading the race in the closing stages — and pulling away. However, a late race caution flag at Richmond International Raceway wiped out Gordon’s lead in the Crown Royal 400, and he eventually lost the top spot with just five laps remaining.
Gordon started 4th and passed Jimmie Johnson for the 3rd position on lap 2. Three laps later he took the runner-up spot from David Reutimann. He held the second position until the first caution on lap 45 for Joe Nemechek’s cut tire. The field came to pit road with Gordon exiting in 4th place after swinging wide to exit his stall because of Denny Hamlin directly in front. On the restart, Gordon moved to the outside line and took 3rd from Jamie McMurray. He took 2nd from Kevin Harvick on lap 62 but ran distantly behind race leader Kyle Busch on the long green flag run. Gordon inherited the lead when Busch came to pit road on lap 143. Two laps later, Gordon came to pit road for tires and gave up the top spot. When the stops cycled through, Busch remained as the leader with Gordon in 2nd place. A debris caution on lap 154 brought the leaders back to pit road with just 9 cars on the lead lap. Gordon exited in 3rd place after a four-tire change.
On the restart, Gordon immediately took the 2nd position from Clint Bowyer on lap 162. Debris on the backstretch necessitated a caution flag on lap 171. Pit stops followed and Gordon exited in 3rd behind Ryan Newman who took two tires, and Busch. On the restart, Gordon dove low to pass Newman and ran side by side with Busch for the race lead. Busch held the top spot, and Jeff Burton took the 2nd position from Gordon on lap 180. Gordon passed Busch for 2nd on lap 240 and closed to less than 1.5 seconds behind Burton for the race lead. On lap 250, Gordon got a run off turn four and took the lead from Burton. He came to pit road for a green flag pit stop on lap 268 and held the lead through the cycle. Gordon continued to lead the race and came to pit road for a green flag pit stop with 37 laps to go. The complexion of the race changed with 34 laps to go when Elliott Sadler cut a tire and spun on the frontstretch.
Gordon stayed out and started on the inside with 23 laps to go. He pulled away to the lead, but David Ragan’s spin with 21 laps to go slowed the field. Gordon led the field to the restart with 15 to go, and hauled the mail into turn one to get the lead. With 11 to go, Sam Hornish destroyed his car on the backstretch to bring out the caution. Gordon and Kyle Busch came to the restart with 5 laps to go. Busch took the lead on the outside line and Gordon washed up the track in turn three battling Kevin Harvick for the runner-up spot. Busch pulled away to win his first race of the season. With the runner-up finish, Gordon moved from 10th to 6th in the series points standings.
Source: gordonline.com
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Full Race Recap and In Car Audio can be found here
Post Race Comments
Top 5 drivers comment on their finishes, and Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch express their opinions about their contact on the track.
Post Race Press Conference
Jeff talks about his battles with Kasey Kahne to finish second and shares his thoughts on the wild double-file restarts.
Jimmy vs Denny vs Kurt
The lead changes hands multiple times in just a few laps as Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin work the bumper and Johnson and Kurt Busch trade paint.
July 12, 2009 by admin
Filed under Feature, Race Audio
July 12 – - Jeff Gordon posted a solid runner-up finish at Chicagoland Speedway after a late rally from handling problems. Gordon battled a tight handling condition at the outset and struggled getting off the corners virtually the entire race. He fell out of the top-10, but rallied back through pit stops to crack the top-10 with 50 laps to go. Gordon moved up to 8th with 25 laps to go and closed in on Kurt Busch for a position before the final caution with 21 laps remaining. Gordon was the first car to come onto pit road. Contact between Busch and Jimmie Johnson forced Gordon onto the track apron with 15 laps to go where he got around both drivers to take 4th place. With 13 to go, he dove low on the backstretch to take 3rd from Kasey Kahne. Three laps later, he took the runner-up spot from Denny Hamlin.
A caution for Kyle Busch’s spin brought out the caution with 6 laps to go. Gordon restarted on the inside of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin with 2 laps to go. Martin took off on the restart and Gordon slipped behind Kahne. He grouped to take 2nd from Kahne on the final lap, but was distantly behind Martin at the finish. Martin and Gordon collected $1 million from the race’s title sponsor for the 1-2 finish, since the pair finished 1-2 in the Michigan race sponsored by the same company in June.
Gordon is scheduled to be a presenter at the annual ESPN awards on Wednesday night.
Source: gordonline.com
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JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS — Finished 2nd:
GOOD CALL BY YOUR CREW CHIEF TO GET YOU SOME TIRES, WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END? “Well we had our struggles. We had a good car, we were just a little too tight there at the beginning and we were making adjustments. Carl Edwards and I got racing really hard and he got loose underneath me and we about wrecked so we had a long battle from that point on. It was an incredible call that (crew chief) Steve Letarte made and the whole pit crew just did a fantastic job getting us off pit road. It was four tires then it was just a battle maneuvering through traffic with cars slipping and sliding all over the place. That last restart Mark (Martin) went a little early and I just spun the tires when I tried to get it going. It’s still a great finish, one-two for Hendrick. Got to thank the Patriot Academy and DuPont. It’s a privilege having them on board. We could certainly use a night like this and that’s important in the Chase. We’re running really strong and showing them what we’re made of on these tracks.”
