Jeff Gordon overcomes ‘horrible’ day to finish 10th at Kansas

Indicative of how he’s performed throughout much of NASCAR’s playoffs, Jeff Gordon lacked speed and fought an ill-handling car and yet, still managed a top-10 finish Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

Though he started sixth, Gordon quickly fell backwards during the Hollywood Casino 400 and spent most of the afternoon running on the fringes of the top 20. But gradually the No. 24 car improved and somehow Gordon recorded an “ugly” 10th-place finish.

“Absolutely horrible,” Gordon said describing how he ran. “We were absolutely as far off as you could be. That was one of the hardest top 10s I’ve ever had to go through. I’m proud of the team. They fought hard and that’s why we’re where we’re at. But gosh, that was ugly.”

Gordon battled a loose car and felt as if he was going to wreck nearly every lap. And even has he began inching up the running order, he never felt comfortably behind the wheel.

Kansas unfolded similarly to how Gordon raced last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the first of three races in Round 2 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. During that event the four-time series champion who is retiring at the end of the season also struggled, but again mustered a top 10 (eighth).

“That’s what we’ve been doing lately a lot of,” Gordon said. “Last week we did the same thing. I thought we actually had our car pretty decent by the end of that race, but we never had it good today. And it’s not from a lack of effort. We just didn’t have it.

“I don’t know what I’m missing in the feel and what I’ve got to do to give these guys the feedback they need to adjust on it, but gosh; I had zero confidence today. It was just edgy and I just felt like I was wrecking in every corner.”

With consecutive top-10s, Gordon enters next weekend’s Chase elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway provisionally in position to advance, seven points above the cutline. The lowest four ranked drivers without a win will be trimmed from the 12-driver playoff field.

While restrictor-plate racing can be volatile and unpredictable, Gordon is buoyant about his prospect of winning at Talladega. He led the most laps in the season-opening Daytona 500 and nearly won the May Talladega race before incurring a late pit road speeding penalty.

“I’m real confident in our racecars and our race team,” Gordon said. “I’m excited about our chances at actually winning there. I just don’t like the chances of being in a wreck because they are usually high.

“We are going to go and approach it where we are going to be aggressive and race hard. We will just see where the points end up.”