Jeff Gordon as everyone knows is entering the final full-time season of his hall of fame career. However, whether it is the new rules package NASCAR installed this season or the 24 team trying to press due to the fact that it is Gordon's last full-time season, the team hasn't been able to gain the kind of speed they have liked all season long especially on 1.5 mile tracks.
Everything looked bright as Gordon won the pole position at the Daytona 500 and he even led 87 laps during the race. Until he crashed during the late stages of race finishing 33rd. Then Gordon followed the next two races at Atlanta and Las Vegas finishing 41st and 18th respectively after getting into two more wrecks. What is happpening with the 24 team?
To Gordon and the 24 team's credit as a whole, they have managed to finish in the top 10 in each of the last four races so things are starting to look a little bit better as Gordon finished seventh at Texas. But things still don't feel right according to Gordon via JeffGordon.com.
"Yeah, Texas is tough when everything is working right for you. Our Panasonic/Tough Books Chevrolet was just….I don’t know….just trying to get the balance right in it. Obviously our teammates have it worked out because all of them were fast and obviously we have got some work to do and I have got to figure this package out."
Right now from the outside looking in, Gordon has been racing on talent alone a good amount of the time because the cars have been giving him a lot of handling issues over the course of a race and whether it is crew chief Alan Gustafson or the 24 pit crew no one has an answer for it.
Despite all of the inconsistencies surring the 24 team, Gordon is currently sitting in 13th place in the points standings looking to climb to the top as NASCAR heads to Bristol Motorspeedway this week.