Jeff Gordon’s Pit-Road Mistake Didn’t Turn Out To Be So Bad

Remember the mistake Jeff Gordon made last night? On the final pit stop, while he was running in the top three, Gordon initially missed pit road and had to come around again.

But when a caution came out and Gordon was on pit road, he was actually ahead of the leaders and was able to remain the last car on the lead lap.

So his mistake actually didn’t turn out to be so bad, even though he wasn’t happy with himself for losing the track position.

“We were going to come in and pit a little early and take two (tires), I just didn’t signal the guys behind me and I was going to get run over,” he said. “I just didn’t get slowed down good enough. My fault. Of course, Steve (Letarte) is saying if we had pitted and the caution would have come out, we might have been in worse trouble, but I still don’t like making mistakes like that.”

Nevertheless, Gordon finished fourth after driving back through the field (he restarted 13th) and seemed to be gaining on the leaders. But asked if he could have won the race, Gordon seemed unsure.

“If we’d gotten out front, I think we had something for them,” he said. “But I don’t know if we were ever going to get out in front of the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin). He was good. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened there.

Gordon once again led the most laps but failed to come away with a win. His winless streak extends to last April at Texas.

Many of his setbacks this year have come due to a late green-white-checkered finish; but in this case, it would have seemed to help Gordon, not hurt him.

“The one time we needed it and we didn’t get it,” he said. “That’s kind of the way it’s been for us for this year. I’m hoping we keep running the way we’re running when those moments really count for these wins and this championship.

Gordon gained two spots in the point standings and moved up to fourth, 147 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.