Updated Nov. 9
Three laps into Sunday's race at Texas, Jeff Gordon was sitting pretty.
He had his 24 car out front and the unthinkable had just happened. Championship points leader Jimmie Johnson was headed back to the garage with a mangled piece of machinery, the result of contact with Sam Hornish Jr.
Though Texas hadn't been his best track throughout his career, his luck had changed in recent visits. Last fall he finished second, and back in the spring he finally broke through with his first victory at the track.
Johnson's accident was seemingly yet another indication that Gordon's fortunes had indeed changed at the track. As they ran at that very moment, with Gordon in first and Johnson 43rd, Gordon was within 31 points of Johnson in the standings.
Alas, races don't end after three laps -- there were 331 more to be run.
When the race returned green, Gordon wasn't able to keep his car up front very long. After 11 laps he lost the lead and would never regain it. As the laps progressed, he continued to slip back through the field.
| Chase standings | |||
| Driver | Points | Deficit | |
| 1. Jimmie Johnson | 6,297 | --- | |
| 2. Mark Martin | 6,224 | -73 | |
| 3. Jeff Gordon | 6,185 | -112 | |
| 4. Kurt Busch | 6,126 | -171 | |
| 5. Tony Stewart | 6,119 | -178 | |
| Complete Chase | Traditional points | |||
He settled in around 18th as his team worked desperately to make an adjustment that would send him surging forward. But the 24 team never found a magic elixir. Instead, only the fuel failings of others helped him pick up a few spots in the waning laps for a 13th-place finish.
With Johnson finishing 38th, Gordon was still able to make a dent in his points lead (from 192 down to 112), but he knows full well he missed a golden opportunity to really put the heat on Johnson heading into the final two races of the season.
"I'm just terrible at this place," Gordon said. "I don't know what it is. It just challenged us all day today. We seemed to be the best at the beginning of the race, and we made some adjustments trying to make it better based on what I was telling them, and we just went backwards from there and lost some track position. So it was a frustrating day."
Power Rankings after Texas:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Next to Martinsville, there probably isn't a better track for Johnson and his 48 team to try to rebound than Phoenix, where he has three wins, seven top fives, 10 top 10s and an average finish of fifth in 12 starts. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| Martin was OK in the first half of Sunday's race but really came on in the second half to snag a top five. That allowed him to close the gap on Johnson from 184 to 73 points. And there's even more good news for the 5 team as the series shifts Phoenix: Martin won at the track in April. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| Troubles at Talladega and Texas left him outside the top 10 in back-to-back races for the first time since May. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| A good, solid effort from the 14 team throughout at Texas, just didn't have enough to challenge the Busch brothers for supremacy. | ||
| 5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 4 |
| He started 20th and had made gains into the top 10 until he got loose running next to Carl Edwards, taking them both out. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| He was stout early, racing from 25th into the top five, but poor pit stops and contact with the wall had the 11 car reeling in the second half of the race. So his team gambled and won on fuel mileage to pull out second. | ||
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| Not only did he have a great car, but great fuel mileage as well. He was always one of the last to pit after every long green-flag run at Texas. | ||
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| On the verge of an historical triple victory weekend at Texas, he runs out of fuel just a couple laps from the finish. Tough way to end Dave Rogers' first race as crew chief of the 18 car. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| Struggled with a loose car at Texas, running just 61 laps in the top 15. | ||
| 10 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| His 17 team continues to show late-season improvement. He had the best finish (third) of those who pitted for gas instead of gambling. | ||
| 11 | Clint Bowyer | 14 |
| A steady run for Bowyer, who finishes in the top 10 at Texas for the third time in his past four visits. | ||
| 12 | Greg Biffle | 13 |
| Notched his second consecutive top 10 and third of the Chase. | ||
| 13 | Kasey Kahne | 8 |
| After starting second, he dropped like a rock. Ran in the teens most of the day until his engine went sour in the waning laps, leading to a 33rd-place finish. | ||
| 14 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| Four consecutive finishes outside the top 10 including two finishes of 39th. There wasn't a whole lot he could do to avoid Montoya getting up into him Sunday at Texas. | ||
| 15 | Kevin Harvick | 15 |
| Earns his fourth top five of the season at Texas, his first since a second-place run at Atlanta in early September. | ||
