[nascar] Jeff Gordon resents Texas clash w/ Brad Keselowski

Jeff Gordon says he now resents his Texas clash with Brad Keselowski even more after having failed to make the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase shootout at Homestead.



Second place behind Kevin Harvick in Sunday's Phoenix race was not enough to put Gordon among the quartet who will fight for the championship in the finale. He had also finished second in the opening race of the Eliminator round at Martinsville, but a 29th place at Texas after contact with Keselowski as they fought for second at a late restart proved costly. That incident also prompted a pitlane fight between the two drivers and their crews.

"It's tough to swallow that with two second-place finishes and staring down a potential win or at least top-five last week, we didn't get it done," said Gordon. "I was looking forward to this round ever since they announced this Chase.

"I felt like this was a round where we could really shine, and we did. But it still wasn't enough. I really thought second [at Phoenix] would get it done, but obviously it didn't. It makes last week that much even tougher to swallow.

"Some things are out of our control, and I felt like we did a great job putting all the effort into the things that we could control."

Gordon was on course to make the Chase cut with second until Ryan Newman moved up to 11th place by colliding with Kyle Larson on the last lap.

Newman said he had no qualms about the tactics he had used.

"I did what I had to do and tried to keep it as clean as I possibly could," he said. "I don't like racing that way, but there's a lot on the line here."

Asked if he thought Newman's driving had been acceptable, Gordon replied: "It was acceptable last week, it's acceptable this week." But the four-time champion added that he chose not to do likewise.

"Don't think that that's not going to come back to you," said Gordon. "I could have taken out Harvick, too, to make it in, but I didn't."