 |
 |
 |
|
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -Jeff Gordon was in position for his 14th victory at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.
Then he made two costly mistakes.
First, Gordon moved up the track and allowed eventual winner Kyle Busch to pass him for the lead with four laps to go in the Coke Zero 400. Then, the four-time Cup Series champion had a sluggish restart with two laps remaining and got spun into the infield when he tried to block Carl Edwards.
What looked like a surefire top-five finish all of a sudden became a 30th-place showing.
"It's unfortunate," Gordon said. "We had such a strong run. I'm more made that I let (Busch) get around me when I tried to go up and get that high line. I should have stayed on the bottom. My car was so good around the bottom. I'm more mad at myself than anything else."
It was a rare error for a driver with so much success at NASCAR's most storied track. Gordon has three Daytona 500 victories, four wins in the twin qualifying races, two in the Budweiser Shootout, three in the July race and even an IROC victory.
But after racing near the front of the field for most of Saturday night, he looked more like a Daytona rookie down the stretch.
"My car worked good anywhere," Gordon said. "It was just awesome. I love having a race car like that. It's unfortunate what happened."
Edwards apologized for the accident, saying there was little he could do to avoid turning Gordon around.
"He was coming down and doing the best he could I think to get in front of me and he was up against my fender," Edwards said. "I thought that he would turn right at any moment, but that's all that happened there. I don't think he knew I was inside of him."
---
QUALIFIERS FALTER: Boris Said and AJ Allmendinger dropped to the back of the field to start the race. Jon Wood took the green flag, then drove straight to his garage.
They were among a handful of drivers who made the 43-car field, but faced an uphill battle because they were forced to stick with qualifying setups at Daytona. It was a calculated decision that got them into the race and gave them a chance to earn some much-needed points, but it also left them little chance to do much at NASCAR's most famous track because no changes could be made between qualifying and the race.
