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MIKE READLINGThe pressure of the Chase for the Championship will shorten some careers says the winner of four Cup titles.
HOMESTEAD - Jeff Gordon got out of his No.24 Chevrolet after the Ford 400 Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway and went through what has become a typical routine.
He drank some water, put on a baseball cap, loosened the collar of his driver's suit and waded through a crowd of reporters, stopping to answer some questions before he made for the team hauler and a clean change of clothes.
It didn't matter right then that Gordon had just competed in one of the most exciting runs at a NASCAR championship in the series' 56 seasons. It didn't matter that he had just captured third place in the new Chase for the Championship, one spot behind the car he owns and 16 points behind new champion Kurt Busch.
It didn't even matter that had NASCAR kept last year's championship system, Gordon would have cruised to his fifth title, just two short of the record.
"This is the new system," he said. "Those are the points we're going with."
All that mattered to Gordon was that it was over and he didn't have to look at another race car for more than two months. That's a new feeling for the 12-year veteran.
Every driver in the Nextel Cup Series learned something during the past 10 weeks as the new points system took hold. Gordon, 33, found out he may not be driving quite as a long as he originally planned.
"This points system is only going to make drivers and crew members careers' shorter," he said. "The intensity has increased to where it's greater than it's ever been before. The pressure is unreal.
"The way I feel right now, I can't wait to get out of this race suit, get away from this race track and not see another one for a few more months."
The new format produced what it was designed to, a tight finish for the championship. But the fatigue that comes from being one of three drivers with a clear shot at a championship with one race to go takes a toll, Gordon said. Double- and triple-checking everything that could go wrong and driving around slower and less experienced drivers all day while trying to protect his car and his chances creates great weariness, he added.
The little things pulled Gordon's focus from the big picture.
"It's not that we weren't thinking about it. I just wasn't talking and asking about it," Gordon said. "I could pretty much see in my mirror what was going on. I knew it didn't matter until it was all over. I knew Jimmie (Johnson) was behind me and Kurt was back there.
"Anything can happen down to the last lap and it got wild on that last lap. We just did what we could."