Gordon revels in season of awe, ultimate frustration

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The sweet-and-sour reality of Jeff Gordon's second-place finish in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, was painted all over his face on Homestead-Miami Speedway's pit road following the Ford 400.

As if tickling a pit bull with a 5-foot swamp weed, Gordon was forced to watch his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson celebrate his second consecutive Nextel Cup championship by executing a fiercely smoking burnout merely 100 yards away on the frontstretch.

Gordon managed a smile when the juxtaposition prompted a reporter to ask if Gordon felt Johnson was yet again overshadowing him.

"He's been doing that for, well, I guess the last couple of years -- I was going to say four or five weeks," Gordon said, laughing. "Oh yeah, the year that almost was.

"Certainly I'm going to look back at this as a great year. But it wasn't a championship year."

Gordon had just battled an evil-handling Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the final time, for 400 miles and 267 laps -- and subdued it for a fourth-place finish. The "standard" cars will be replaced full time by the Car of Tomorrow next season.

But when Gordon climbed out to meet the press, he looked as drained as if he had also fought two hives of bees and a couple of wolverines at the same time.

To quantify losing a championship by 77 points after recording an average finish of 5.1 for the 10 races in the Chase, setting a NASCAR Modern Era record for top-10 finishes (30) and adding 21 top-fives, six wins and seven poles in a 36-race season was almost indescribable.

"I'm a big believer in when it's meant to be, it's meant to be," Gordon said. "You've got to work hard. You've got to prepare yourself and your team. And you know what? Jimmie and Chad [Knaus] and all those guys did a phenomenal job.

"I know how good my team was this year. They're one of the best teams I've ever been a part of. And for [Johnson] to come out 77 points ahead over 10 races [in the Chase] is very impressive.

"We're certainly extremely proud of what we've accomplished this year -- it's been a great year. But we want another championship and we know we've got to beat Jimmie and guys like Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart and a lot of other guys if we're going to get us another one."

Pondering that predicament may make Gordon look as if Grizzly bears were added to the racecar/bee/wolverine equation -- but Sunday evening, in less than 10 minutes after getting out of his car, 90 percent of which he spent answering question after question, save for a brief meeting with owners Rick and Linda Hendrick, Gordon looked remarkably recovered.

Gordon's affection for his owners was obvious when, after nearly five minutes of media questioning next to his multi-hued No. 24 Chevrolet on pit road, Gordon paused to greet the Hendricks. (Continued)