Jeff Gordon’s crew chief explains costly pit strategy

Jeff Gordon dominated much of Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, leading a race-high 161 laps. But instead of contending for the victory Gordon didn’t factor into the outcome due to some curious pit strategy.

In the lead with 19 laps remaining when a caution waved, Gordon did not come to pit road while the majority of lead lap cars stopped. But while Gordon maintained track position, the move backfired when the race resumed as those with fresher tires had the advantage.

Facing a no-win proposition, Gordon’s and crew chief Alan Gustafson had a decision to make when another caution came four laps after the restart. Without new tires Gordon wasn’t going to win, but if he pitted there weren’t enough laps to get back to the front.

Ultimately Gustafson called his driver to pit road with five laps to go, and Gordon finished 10th instead of possibly winning. Gustafson took blame for the ill-fated strategy in an interview Tuesday on SiriusXM Radio.

“Really the first stop, when us and Denny (Hamlin) and ... a few other cars stayed out, that was the one that really hurt us,” Gustafson said. “That’s on me. It was a mistake I made. I tried to keep the track position. I felt like that was going to be the highest percentage decision and it ended up not being. That put us behind unfortunately. I think we had the best car. The team deserved to win the race. It was a bad decision from my part and I’m going to learn from it.

“It would be really easy for me to make a lot of excuses and say, ‘Hey, there are a lot of circumstances that play into it’ -- and there are and it is a very tough thing to do -- but that’s my job and in that situation I feel like I didn’t do it to the best of my capabilities.”

Not winning Sunday was especially disappointing considering the circumstances leading into Homestead. Regarded as a championship favorite throughout the regular season and into the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Gordon was unexpectedly eliminated the week before by a single point.

Despite posting a pair of runner-up finishes in Round 3, Gordon was bounced from the playoffs when Ryan Newman executed an aggressive last-lap pass of Kyle Larson. Though winless on the year, Newman advanced. Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, won four races in 2014, his most seven years.

”I’m still not at piece at what happened in that final (Chase) segment,’‘ Gustafson said. “I don’t think we got by any stretch of the imagination what we deserved. That’s something that I’m just going to try to work through in the offseason and get to a point to accept it and use it as motivation moving forward.

“I know in my heart this is a championship-caliber team and we deserve the opportunity to race for that championship. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do it. I’m not saying that in a spiteful way, I’m using it as ... a way to stay motivated to push through this offseason and come out next year better than ever.”