Jeff Gordon blew an engine with five laps remaining in the Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas Speedway, and watched any last hopes of a championship in 2011 go up in smoke. The blown engine resulted in Gordon finishing in 34th. He leaves Kansas tenth in points, 47 behind leader Carl Edwards.
Gordon entered the Chase as one of the favorites. Many people believed that this was the year that he would get that elusive fifth championship. He came into the Chase with three wins at Phoenix, Pocono, and Atlanta. He finished second behind Kevin Harvick in the regular season finale at Richmond. He was riding a wave of momentum that came crashing down in the first Chase race at Chicagoland Speedway.
Due to running out of gas with two laps to go, Gordon finished 24th in Chicago. He immediately found himself playing catch-up on the rest of the Chase drivers. He followed that up with a solid top-five finish in New Hampshire. Gordon then finished twelfth in Dover. It seemed that he had righted a sinking ship. After Dover he was only 19 points back, although he was in eighth place.
But now Gordon is 47 points out of the lead. That is over a full race behind Edwards. Gordon is still mathematically alive, but realistically it will be very tough to overcome that spread.
To get back into the hunt Gordon needs to win a couple of the remaining races, and hope that the drivers in front of him have a lot of trouble.
It is possible that Gordon could still come back, but with six races left, it may be time to revive the drive for five in 2012.
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