One Menz Opinion: Frustrations Mount for Jeff Gordon in Lackluster Final Season

This isn't how it was supposed to go down for Jeff Gordon in his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

With only two races left before the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff field is set, Gordon has yet to win and has only three top-five finishes in his first 24 starts of 2015.

At 13th in the points standings, he's still almost certain to be one of the 16 drivers to make the Chase unless something crazy happens in the final regular-season races at Darlington and Richmond. But he'll probably go in as the No. 15 seed, with no bonus points, and has given no real indication that he'll be able to stick around very long in the elimination format that was introduced last season.

It isn't what Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, expected.

"We are not where we want to be," he admitted.

But despite the mounting frustration that has come with each disappointing finish (he's had five of 31st or worse), Gordon remains determined not to give up. He also pointed out that he's not the only driver at venerable Hendrick Motorsports who has been struggling of late.

"You've got to work it one step at a time," Gordon told the media last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. "I think that we know that we are behind. I think we are behind as an organization. I think we are behind as the No. 24 team.

"I also think that if we can run to our potential or even what I think we are capable of right now, I think that we make the Chase. What happens when we get in the Chase? Who knows? 

Hey, maybe Gordon is channeling some Tony Stewart from 2011—when Stewart was winless and seemingly clueless before the 2011 Chase. If so, he needs to get on this immediately.

Stewart said then that he felt guilty about being in the Chase because he didn't deserve it, and that he was taking up the spot of someone who was. Then Stewart went out and smoked the competition, winning half of the 10 Chase races to take his third Cup championship.

Gordon and his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, are going to have to conjure up the same kind of magic out of nowhere to pull off anything remotely close.

The good news for them is that the points are reset when the Chase starts, although in the first round bonus points are awarded to drivers for each win they have posted over the first 26 races. So Gordon will be getting at least a mostly fresh start.

The bad news is that even Gordon, while hopeful, isn't sure it will make enough of a difference. There have been too many mishaps—brake failures, pit-road speeding penalties, wrecks—going wrong too often this season. Plus the No. 24 Chevrolet just hasn't been fast enough on a consistent basis to keep up with the Toyotas from Joe Gibbs Racing, the Fords from Team Penske or even the Chevrolets of Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch from Stewart-Haas Racing, which has a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports.

"When you get a reset, there are some tracks that are very good for us in the Chase," Gordon said. "Does that put us in championship contender mode? I don't know. We've got a lot of work to do to do that.

"We're missing some speed (in the car) and we're working hard to try to find it. It's very competitive out there. Some other organizations have gotten ahead of us. You don't just find that overnight."

In 2011, though, Stewart did. Gordon's only hope may be that history repeats itself.

Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

He said it

Gordon and his team brought back the rainbow paint scheme for the No. 24 Chevy at Bristol, but Gordon balked when he was asked if he planned to don a rainbow fire suit or partake in any other type of throwback tribute. "I thought the car was enough. Forgive me if I'm not sporting a mustache and a mullet," he said, laughing.

Thumbs up

To Bristol Motor Speedway, for announcing plans to name a grandstand section after Gordon (Jeff Gordon Terrace) beginning in 2016. "That means the world to me. This place is awesome," Gordon said.

Double thumbs up

To Tony Stewart, for lending his personal private plane to the family of IndyCar driver Justin Wilson, who died Monday following a head injury suffered when flying debris from another car struck him during Sunday's IndyCar race at Pocono. Stewart's gesture immediately after the incident enabled Wilson's family to quickly make the trip from their home in Colorado to Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, before Wilson passed.

In the fast lane

The Sprint Cup Series is off this weekend and will return to action for the always-entertaining Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday evening, Sept. 6. ... NASCAR's other two national touring series are in action this weekend. The XFINITY Series will race at Road America in Wisconsin on Saturday, while the Camping World Truck Series is at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on Sunday. ... Kevin Harvick, the defending winner at Darlington, finished second for the second race in a row and for the 10th time this season at Bristol. Only eight drivers in the history of NASCAR have finished runner-up more often during a season, led by David Pearson with 18 such finishes in 1969—when he made 51 starts and the NASCAR Cup schedule was comprised of 54 races. Harvick's crew chief, Rodney Childers, made note of the accomplishment on Twitter.

Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report while also working as a Digital Content Producer for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.