From Sports Illustrated: Jeff Gordon once was the master of Watkins Glen International. Now, he can't seem to catch a break at the storied road course.
Relegated to starting 31st after the worst qualifying effort of his career, the four-time Cup champion was making headway despite some damage to his No. 24 Chevy in Monday's rain-delayed race at Watkins Glen International.
WGI is a road course equivalent of Talladega Superspeedway, always capable of precipitating a big crash. Last year an 11-car pileup in turn 11 caused a 43-minute stoppage. On Monday, a multicar crash involving Gordon and Sam Hornish Jr. on lap 63 brought out a 19-minute red flag.
Kasey Kahne caused it when he dived inside Hornish coming out of turn 9 and sent Hornish off onto the grass on the left side. Hornish's No. 77 Dodge caromed off a tire barrier and back onto the track, and Gordon's No. 24 Chevy slammed head-on into it, spinning violently around into the guard rail lining the track.
Both Gordon and Hornish climbed from their cars and were uninjured.
"It's just not what I needed,'' said Gordon, who suffers from chronic back pain. "You take three or four steps forward, take a hit like that, and take a couple back. I knew he was going to ricochet off. I just hoped I could get by him.
"It took a toll on my back again,'' Gordon said. "If we were going to Bristol next week, I'd be concerned. Every time I take a hit, it seems to recover. We'll be all right.''
Gordon completed 61 of 90 laps and finished 37th, his first DNF of the season, and remains third in the standings.
Read more
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment