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LONG POND — Jeff Gordon’s 32nd and final top-10 finish at Pocono may have been the strangest of them all.
With monuments to his final Sprint Cup race in the area dotted all over Pocono Raceway — a “THANK YOU JEFF” sign stood near the tunnel turn exit from the track — Gordon finished with a flair.
He just wasn’t expecting it.
Stuck in the middle of the pack and frustrated for much of the afternoon, the seas parted for Gordon’s No. 24 in the final laps as leaders began to run out of gas.
Gordon’s crew nailed the fuel strategy and the track’s all-time wins leader ended up taking third in Sunday’s Windows 10 400.
Somehow.
“I don’t know — you’d have to talk to a bunch of people in the grandstands and everyone on pit road to find someone who was more surprised than me that we finished third,” said Gordon, who will retire at the end of the season. “That was crazy.
“The script I had played out in my head was that we’re gonna be 15th. This one was way better than that.”
In a race that was plagued in the first half by cautions, just one late yellow flag might have sentenced Gordon to that 15th-place finish he was expecting.
Instead, it was green-flag racing all the way down the stretch, which caused race leaders Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. all to sputter short of the finish line.
Gordon crew chief Alan Gustafson, meanwhile, nailed the fuel strategy as Gordon was one of the last drivers to take his final pit stop.
“I’m not exactly sure where I started on the last restart,” Gordon said. “Maybe 15 or 16. I can’t say I passed many cars. Just hovered around that area. I wasn’t pleased how the car was in traffic. We lost track position early and weren’t able to move up.
“But we played the fuel mileage strategy early on. … I’m proud of Alan for sticking with it. It wasn’t looking good for awhile, but it sure looked good when we crossed the checkered flag.”
Gordon didn’t come into the weekend in a great mood. An early accident led to a 42nd-place finish, his worst of the season, a week ago at the Brickyard.
He averted disaster on lap 66 on Sunday, when Kurt Busch was bumped on a restart and lost control, sending a stream of smoke right into Gordon’s windshield, forcing him to drop back and surrender position.
It was just one more issue for the veteran, who didn’t think his car on Sunday compared favorably to what he had in his last trip to Pocono two months ago.
“I thought we were more competitive in June,” Gordon said. “I didn’t think we were as strong today as we were then.”
But Gordon has won six times at Pocono, more than any other driver. And as it turned out, he had one last bit of good fortune awaiting him at the track.
“All I can speak of is that my time here at Pocono over the years are great,” Gordon said. “I’ve enjoyed the challenge of this track form the beginning. … It makes for some frustrating moments at times but also a lot of fun when you complete it. We’ve had some great victories here over the years as well.”
He may now be done with Pocono, but Gordon still has one last charge left in him.
Gordon sits 12th in the Chase standings with five races to go in the regular season, giving him a good shot at making the 16-man playoff field.
He also is still looking for his first race win of the year, which would clinch a spot for sure.
“It’s not been the kind of season I hoped to have my final season,” Gordon said. “But we don’t quit. We fight for every race to build a better race car, and we do all we can to put the best car and the best team out there.
“Sometimes you just need something to pull you through it. Last week I was down quite a bit. This definitely lifts me back up.”