Jeff Gordon's fight with Brad Keselowski following Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Texas, brought on by his spin after Keselowski's faster car got into him late in the race, was another in a series of misfortunes he has endured at the 1.5-mile track. While Gordon did win the spring race there in 2009 - his only win between Charlotte in October of 2007 and Phoenix in February of 2011 - other races at the Fort Worth speedway have not been kind to the four-time series champion.
Gordon crashed in the first four Cup races at Texas. In 1997, Gordon was caught up in a crash after starting on the outside front row and finished 30th. In 1998 he was in a big wreck on the first lap and finished 31st. In 1999 he crashed yet again and finished dead last, and in 2000 he finished 14 laps down. After that, Gordon had good races at Texas for the next few years. In 2005 a second race weekend was given to Texas in the fall. In 2010, Gordon was caught up in a big wreck in the spring race, and in the fall race he wrecked with Jeff Burton under caution and then got in a fight with him on the track. Burton, who got his first series win in the inaugural race in 1997 and won at the track again in 2007, reminded fans about Gordon's short temper at Texas on Twitter a few minutes before the scuffle on Sunday. Finally, in the spring race this year Gordon led on a green-white-checkered restart, but dominant driver Joey Logano took the lead back from Gordon and won.
So it's fitting that Gordon's latest moment of bad luck and anger came at Texas, where he's had many forgettable races in the past. This one is definitely one to remember, since it had a big effect on the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings. But now he and the other seven Chase drivers can look forward to Phoenix for one last shot to get into the Championship round.
No comments:
Post a Comment