Bad day at Black Rock for the Hendrick gang

   Jeff Gordon: 27th, and problems (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    By Mike Mulhern
    mikemulhern.net
  
    BROOKLYN, Mich.
    What in the world is going wrong over in the Rick Hendrick camp?
    Sure looks like Hendrick's guys have hit a slump, and just as the NASCAR championship race is getting ready to kick off.
   Sunday was a bad day all around for teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
   Gordon and Johnson both had potentially winning cars and ran strong, but then things simply started falling apart.
   Gordon, who appeared ready to battle for the win at the end, only to cut a tire, finished a disappointed 27th.
   "We had a great run going, and I was really excited about how good the car was -- to be able to drive up from 36th, and I really thought we were going to give those guys a run for the win," Gordon said.
    "But everything that could have happened did happen.
     "We cut the front tire, and got damage to the right rear. And we had a problem with the vacuum system; I don't know if we caused that, or if the system failed. We've never had a problem with it.
     "Everything just went wrong there at the end."
     It appeared for a moment that Jeff Burton had tagged Gordon, triggering his problems. Burton did hit Gordon, but that was after the cut tire. That incident took Burton out of the game too, but then Burton had struggled much of the day anyway.
    "I went in the corner....actually it was about halfway down the straightaway when I felt it go," Gordon said.
    "I tried to pull to the inside, but I couldn't steer it."
    Between that and Martin tagging the wall almost at the start of the race when his car simply got away from him, well, it wasn't a great day.
    But it certainly was a good day for Richard Childress and Kevin Harvick and crew chief Gil Martin.
   "They're strong....they showed it all day," Gordon said. "All three of their cars are pretty strong...especially Kevin's.
    "This is the time to get momentum going into the chase...And leading the points they've shown strength.
    "They haven't gotten the victories on these types of tracks -- and these are very important tracks to win on right now. So that was a huge win for them...and I'm obviously disappointed for us."
   Martin was kicking himself: "I ran into the back of Scott Speed. He lifted for Juan Montoya, and I didn't know it was time to lift yet, and I pounded him pretty hard, and that really messed it up.
   "But I'd put us behind anyway earlier in the race getting up against the outside wall.
   "I'll call it my mistake...but we are racing hard. And that was a case of me racing too hard too early, for sure.
    "I was charged up and excited and amped up when the race started and had to hammer down a little bit more than I control."
    Johnson, 12th, led the Hendrick pack. Earnhardt finished 19th, Gordon 27th, Martin 28th.
   Johnson has had a very rough summer. "We overcame a lot....We started the race good and faded a little bit -- and in the middle of the race, when things started to slip from us, we did a good job of keeping our heads in the game and not letting it beat us down, and start making bad decisions," Johnson said.
    "It's definitely not the finish we wanted, but I think it was a big victory in a lot of other areas. At a few races this year we've had some struggles and you can all get frustrated and start making mistakes, but we kept our head in the game."
 

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