Gordon all smiles leaving Daytona
— -- DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Halfway into the 57th running of the Daytona 500, everything was going to plan for Jeff Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team.
The No. 24 Chevrolet was dominant from pole position, leading 87 of the first 110 laps in an unusually clean restrictor-plate race. Out in front of the pack, the car was handling well, and after holding the lead through a round of pit stops under caution, Gordon radioed a message to his crew.
"It's going to get wild now, but that's what we came for," he said.
Unfortunately for the four-time Sprint Cup Series champion, the second half of the race was pretty much the opposite of the first. Gordon lost the lead on the subsequent restart and never really caught a glimpse of the front again as Team Penske's Joey Logano fought off Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to score his first Daytona 500 victory.
Gordon fell as far back as 12th place before rallying back into the top five. But he ended up being swept in a multicar crash on the final lap to end the race with a disappointing 33rd-place finish.
Still, he couldn't stop smiling after what was in all likelihood his final run in the Daytona 500.
"It is disappointing because things were going so well, especially that first half," Gordon said. "That first half was amazing. I was enjoying that moment very, very much ... just being out front, being in control of the race. I felt like we were just doing everything perfectly and the car was amazing.
"I knew it was going to be crucial to maintain that track position," he continued. "That one restart I chose the outside, and that line just didn't go. From that point on, we were just playing catch-up."
It was the classic story of a car that was dominant out front picking up an aero imbalance when running deeper in the pack. This was a day when being in the lead meant even more than usual, especially when the pack started racing three-wide in the latter stages of what was scheduled to be a 200-lap contest.
"There weren't a lot of lead changes out there because the leader has such an advantage," Gordon said. "We were just dominating, and it was really easy in some ways. I was just really having to watch my mirrors.
"But once we got shuffled back, we just never recovered after that. We were doing everything we could. I think we were between fifth and 10th, and I could just never break through to get any further forward."
Although Gordon's final full-time season will unfold at a leisurely pace over the course of the next 10 months, he is in the unusual position of starting that long farewell tour with NASCAR's biggest race.
Knowing that he fell short in what will probably be his final Daytona 500 must be a bitter pill for Gordon, yet after the race, he was at peace with how his 23-year run here ended.
"This was an amazing week and an amazing day," he said. "I am just in a different place that is so foreign to me, but it's so incredible to just be taking it all in and enjoying every moment.
"Yeah, right now I'm a little bit sad this is my final Daytona 500, but I'm more upset we didn't have a shot at winning there at the end."
What should have been at least a top-10 finish ended when Gordon's Chevrolet got bounced around like a pinball on the backstretch on the final lap. The result was not indicative of the quality of the No. 24 team's effort all week long.
As he stood on pit lane talking to reporters, Logano celebrated with his crew about 100 yards away in Victory Lane. It's a scene Gordon is familiar with, having won 92 races, including three Daytona 500s.
He didn't manage to win Sunday's race, but he served notice that he is going to fight to the finish in pursuit of that fifth Cup Series title that has eluded him for the past 14 years.
And he's going to have fun along the way.
"I'm not going to miss those final laps; that was just crazy," Gordon said. "But I enjoyed every moment of it. I enjoyed the prerace and the race, all the way up to that wreck.
"For some reason I'm still smiling and enjoying every moment of it."
