Jeff Gordon qualifies 19th for his final Brickyard 400
INDIANAPOLIS – Jeff Gordon’s final qualifying lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a disappointing one.
The few thousand fans sitting in the frontstretch grandstands let out a huge groan as Gordon, an adopted Hoosier, failed to crack the top 12 in the first round of Saturday’s qualifying session for the Jeff Kyle 400.
Gordon will start 19th in Sunday afternoon’s race, which presents a speedbump for the track’s all-time winner in trying to score another victory on his way out the door.
“I’m really disappointed,” he said. “The car was plenty good enough to make the top 12. It was just on me. I didn’t get the lap.”
After Gordon’s lap, he radioed his team and said the car felt good. But he was surprised the lap didn’t match the feeling in the car, which meant there was more speed in the track than he anticipated. He simply didn’t drive it hard enough.
“The car was fine, I just really underestimated the amount of grip that was out there,” he said.
As for the race, Gordon said it won’t be clear how the cars really handle with the new high-drag aero package until the green flag waves. But he cautioned restarts could be “wild and crazy” because cars get a big draft down the straightaway and then get extremely loose behind other cars in the corner.
He said restarts would require aggression, followed by “walking on eggshells” trying not to lose the car.
“Being that far back, it’s going to be a real handful,” he said. “… But just because we’re starting further back than we want, it doesn’t mean that we can’t get it done tomorrow.”
The last time a Brickyard 400 winner started 19th or worse was in 2005, when Tony Stewart won from the 22nd spot. It has only been done three times in 21 years.
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