2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase: Jeff Gordon's 'Drive for 5' Falls 1 Lap Short

When it comes to postseason sports, close just doesn't cut it.

Jeff Gordon was reminded of that on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway when his quest for a fifth championship—his first since 2001—came up one race, one turn and one point short.

The 43-year-old finished second in the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 right behind a dominant Kevin Harvick. Gordon would still have advanced to the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway next week by points alone, but Ryan Newman had other ideas. The 36-year-old bumped and passed Kyle Larson on the last turn of the race and ended up finishing in 11th place.

That was enough to move Newman to fourth in the Chase standings, one solitary point above Gordon.

"It's disappointing," Gordon said on ESPN after the race. "I'm not happy about it, but at the same time I'm really happy with what we've done this year."

Gordon's four wins this NASCAR season were his most since 2007, and he was at the top of the points standings for a large portion of the year. However, the legend hadn't had a win since the first round of the Chase, and despite finishing as the runner-up in two of the three races in the Eliminator Round, his 29th-place finish at the Texas Motor Speedway last week kept him from advancing.

Matthew Bishop/Associated Press

His worst finish was also his most notable, however, due to the way it came about. In Texas, Gordon was racing for the lead at the end of the race along with Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski when Keselowski tried to pass Gordon by going through a tight opening. Keselowski ended up taking out Gordon's tire, and Gordon went plummeting down the standings.

After the race, Gordon, Keselowski and their teams got into a big fight, and the veteran expressed frustration with Keselowski's approach to racing and unwillingness to apologize for his on-track aggression.

He didn't name names, but Gordon did address this on ESPN after his heartbreak on Sunday:

"

"I hope we taught somebody that you can race clean and do your best," says Jeff Gordon, undoubtedly passing along a message to Keselowski.

— NASCAR on ESPN (@ESPNNASCAR) November 9, 2014"

Gordon was the last member of the Hendrick Motorsports team to be eliminated from the Chase, a shocking statistic considering how dominant he and his teammates, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, were this season. Earnhardt, Johnson and Kasey Kahne were all eliminated in the previous round of the Chase, leaving Gordon to carry the torch.

Many thought that this was Gordon's last best chance to win a points title, something he did four times in seven seasons from 1995-2001. He's one of the oldest drivers in the Sprint Cup Series right now, and his back has been bothering him for years.

He won't be competing at an elite level forever, and retirement will come sooner rather than later. That's not a slight on his skills; that's just reality. 

Earlier in the Chase, Alexander Goot wrote about Gordon's decline for Sports on Earth: 

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Like the sport that made him a household name, Jeff Gordon has also come back to earth over the past decade. That fourth championship, won in 2001, is still his most recent. Since then, he has watched Jimmie Johnson, a man he helped bring to NASCAR, win six titles, and replace him as the sport's standard bearer. Gordon hasn't gone anywhere of course. He still takes the green flag every week, and in fact, could break NASCAR's "iron man" record for consecutive starts next fall. He still wins his share of races too, including an exciting victory at the Brickyard earlier this year. But the days of Gordon as the untouchable master, lapping the field and piling up trophies, are long gone.

"

Still, not being as good as he once was doesn't mean that Gordon doesn't still have it. His four wins, 14 top fives and 22 top 10s in 2014 certainly prove otherwise.

In comparison, Gordon's vanquisher, Newman, has zero wins, four top fives and 15 top 10s this year. But Newman's consistency paved his way to NASCAR's final four; he only finished outside of the top 15 once in the Chase and had five straight top-10 finishes. 

The reason Newman got away with his no-victory resume is because he had no disastrous races in the Chase—good was good enough because he was never awful. The new Chase format places a premium on winning, but it also rewards steadiness. 

Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty Images

As with most other playoffs in other sports, NASCAR's Chase this year is all about peaking at the right time. Regular-season wins don't mean anything anymore once the Chase begins, just like they don't in the NFL, NBA or NCAA basketball tournament postseasons.

It's not a perfect system, and it's certainly frustrating for fans of drivers who dominated during the regular season. But it's also necessary to attribute the appropriate weight to the Chase.

Despite the fact that Gordon's one awful finish kept him from moving on, he's still a fan of the new Chase format.

"This is the most interest we've had in this sport in a long time, so obviously it's been good," he said, as reported by Mike Hembree for USA Today Sports. "The only thing I don't like right now is that I'm not in it next week."

Newman will join Joey Logano, Harvick and Denny Hamlin to see who will become the 2014 NASCAR champion. No matter what, there will be a first-time champion crowned at Homestead. 

Gordon won't have a chance to go for his fifth points title, but he will have a chance to get his fifth title of the season. In a sport where one turn can make or break you, that's still a pretty prestigious position to be in.