Any chance Jeff Gordon had of winning Sunday vanished when he sped on pit road.
There was nothing Jeff Gordon could do but admit he had committed a costly gaffe. A mistake that likely cost himself a potential victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Gordon's blunder occurred when he came down pit road for his final stop with 36 laps to go in the STP 500. At the time he was leading; a lead that vanished when NASCAR penalized him for speeding.
The penalty required Gordon to restart at the end of the lead-lap cars, erasing any chance of victory. Although he would rally to finish ninth, the result offered little consolation. Had he won, it would've been Gordon's ninth Martinsville win -- breaking a tie with Jimmie Johnson for best among active drivers.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so disappointed in myself," Gordon said. "I know I was pushing the limit. I didn't think I had done anything different than I had all day long when I was behind other guys, so, we've got to look at that. I'm very, very disappointed."
For much of the afternoon Gordon didn't have the car capable of winning. Eventual winner Denny Hamlin, along with Kevin Harvick (who led a race-high 154 laps), all showed more speed than Gordon, who ran mostly in the back half of the top 10.
But Gordon's car improved considerably in the latter stages, and he took the lead for the first time 58 laps from the finish. And then came the fateful penalty, which made it all for naught.
"I thought Denny had the best car," Gordon said. "But I thought with our track position there at the end, we had a shot at it.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so disappointed. I don't even know what to say right now. Of course, then the car is the absolute best it had been all day when I drove up from the back."
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