Darkness Falls on the Sprint Cup Chase as Jeff Gordon Gets His Elusive Victory
Imagine a lone rose growing in a wasteland, its stem curling through a tangle of rusted metal.
| Win No. | Track | Date | Earnings | Runner-up |
| 1 | Charlotte | 5/29/1994 | $196,500 | Rusty Wallace |
| 25 | Pocono | 6/8/1997 | $166,080 | Jeff Burton |
| 50 | Talladega | 4/16/2000 | $159,755 | Mike Skinner |
| 75 | Chicago | 7/9/2006 | $327,761 | Jeff Burton |
| 93 | Martinsville | 11/1/2015 | $199,836 | Jamie McMurray |
Jeff Gordon's stirring victory at Martinsville Speedway was an iconic moment at the end of an untidy affair. It was akin to ending a war with milk and cookies. The knife fight had a classy ending. Gordon, an all-time great retiring at season's end, turned all sentimental in Victory Lane, celebrating in the arms of his loving wife and two fetching children.
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"This is the sweetest, most amazing feeling," Gordon said to NBC Sports after his first victory of the season and 93rd of his career. What might be the last victory of his Sprint Cup career was his ninth at Martinsville and placed him in the final four drivers who will go to the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 22 to settle the championship.
"You want to talk about holding back emotions? Right now, man! We're going to Homestead. I can't believe it."
So much for frivolity. So much for the feel-good story. So much for the rose. Now it's on to the junkyard.
Matt Kenseth could never get a role playing a gangster in a movie, and Joey Logano makes a laughable tough guy. Such roles came much cheaper at the final short track of the season.
Sometimes it's hard to assign blame when race cars collide. No such confusion was in place on the 454th lap of the aptly named Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500. Kenseth had been feuding, on track and off, with Logano for the previous two races, and his Toyota was back on the track, laps behind, after a crash involving Logano's Penske Racing teammate, Brad Keselowski.
Apparently Kenseth had had enough.
His Toyota couldn't have plowed Logano's Ford any more with a mule. Or a tractor, even. In spite of what Kenseth said later, it was a bald payback. He crossed a line. He lost respect.
And, of course, the fans loved it. They had just watched a beanball war, a cheap shot, and a high stick all rolled into one. It was what many of them love about short-track racing and what those who don't love short-track racing hate about it.
Kenseth talked to NBC. He sounded as if he'd gotten legal advice to supplement his native coyness.
"The splitter was dragging the ground, and got into the corner and certainly ruined [Logano's] day," Kenseth said. "I know what it's like to be that, too. Some days you're the bat. Some days you're the ball.
"It's never fun when you're the ball..."
The normally reserved, clever Kenseth went all vigilante on Logano, whom he thought had it coming.
Then Logano, an extremely talented twig, did the old "let me at him, let me at him," and sounded just as insincere as Kenseth and laughable, as well.
"I got wrecked," Logano said to NBC Sports. "What am I supposed to say about it? [Kenseth's] race was over...It's kind of a coward move, a really coward move for a race-car driver to do that, essentially, someone as mature and experienced that knows what this is all about."
When asked if he had tried to "resolve the situation with Matt," Logano said, "They won't let me get to him."
Logano was going for his fourth consecutive victory and was in position. Now, because mistakes hurt more than, well, anything but a victory helps, Logano is in a position of having to win either next week in Texas or the week after in Arizona to have a chance at a title he deserves by almost any measure of performance.
It's not as desperate a position as it would be if Logano hadn't won three of the last four races and been deprived the latest in rather outlandish fashion.
It's the whole problem with the segmented Chase format. In NASCAR's playoffs—they would be more accurately described as race-offs—the castoffs get to hang around. When the New York Giants take on the Green Bay Packers, the Seattle Seahawks don't get to lurk around on the sidelines, poised to make the occasional tackle.
Every driver who is still in contention is uneasy. Every driver who isn't has revenge in mind, or at least it's available if he needs a motive.
Denny Hamlin, who escaped to finish third, said, "The racing now is different than it used to be when I first came in the sport and it's just survival of the fittest."
Hamlin, who turns 35 on November 18, isn't exactly a founding father.
"The structure we have around us is not very strong as far as an authority figure saying, 'No, you cannot do this anymore.' It's just tough for us because this is what's been created. I love [NASCAR chairman] Brian France, but when he says that drivers are doing what they have to do, it seems like he's promoting this type of racing, so that's tough to crown a true champion when things go like this."
Kyle Busch (fifth) said, "It's boys being boys right now. You've got to be consistent. I definitely feel NASCAR has been very consistent in being inconsistent on calls. I think it's [familiar expletive for nonsense]. I say 'they better,' but they don't have to listen to me for squat. Really doesn't matter what I say."
The contretemps served the purpose of potentially clearing Gordon's path to a championship in his final season and directly led to his first victory since September 28, 2014, in Dover, Delaware.
Gordon said in Victory Lane, "This has turned into a fairy-tale year."
On Friday in a track media conference, Gordon made a few prescient remarks when asked about the key to his success at the .526-mile oval.
"I feel like I have done a pretty good job of handling my temper here over the year," he said. "Here, anyway. Other places? Maybe not so much, but here, for the most part."
Gordon now has a one-in-four shot at the championship, which no one else can say for at least a week. He's never won a Chase. All four of his titles—1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001—occurred before its implementation in 2004.
Martinsville was no fairy tale for Logano. Kenseth might as well have been Freddy Krueger in his Martinsville nightmare.
And something is probably going on Kenseth's "permanent record," according to one of the NASCAR principals, executive vice president Steve O'Donnell.
"In the case with Matt, we were certainly disappointed with what took place," O'Donnell said.
The NASCAR handbook has many little-known codicils. Come Tuesday, Kenseth may find himself on "double secret probation."
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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