(By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Saturday,October 29th, 2011
MARTINSVILLE, Va.—In retrospect, Jeff Gordon can empathize with Trevor Bayne’s decision to abandon him and go with Ford teammate Matt Kenseth late in last Sunday’s race at Talladega.
But in doing so, Gordon said, Bayne may have deprived himself of a victory.
After the race, Gordon criticized the Daytona 500 winner for promising to work with him on the final restart, then leaving Gordon’s bumper to help Kenseth, who lost his drafting partner when David Ragan’s engine blew on the restart with two laps left.
On Friday at Martinsville Speedway, following several conversations with Bayne throughout the week, Gordon tempered his remarks.
“I spoke to Trevor numerous times,” Gordon said. “Poor guy. I felt for him, to be honest with you. I think that it was sort of an at-the-moment call that he had to make based on what was happening in the Ford camp during the week of saying, ‘Hey we’ve got to help one another out the best we can.’ I think that when the No. 17 (Kenseth) lost his drafting partner … he (Kenseth) got right in there behind Trevor and put himself in the right position and Trevor had to make a decision.
: Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, sits in his car during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 29, 2011 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“It was unfortunate for me, and really it was unfortunate for them because they fell back also trying to get connected. At that time I definitely questioned what the intentions were and maybe what the radio transmission was and whether their intentions were never to work with me. After talking to Trevor, I feel confident that was not the case, that it was ‘The No. 17 lost his drafting partner, he could use your help or he needs you,’ whatever, and he had to let me go at that point.”
Gordon felt, however, that the sort of mandate that restricts drivers from working with other makes of cars can be detrimental.
“I unfortunately think it took away an opportunity for Trevor Bayne to win that race by doing that, and I told him this,” Gordon said. “I said, ‘Listen, one way you can think about it, OK, yeah, the No. 17 is trying to win a championship. I don’t know if that helped him or hurt him by connecting with you.’ But from a Ford standpoint, if he had pushed me all the way … and we could have battled those two guys up there for the lead (Jeff Burton and race winner Clint Bowyer) and then he could have dumped me coming to the line like Clint Bowyer did and finished ahead of me and got possibly a win or a very good finish for that team.
“I think this whole manufacturer thing, all of us have to be careful with saying we cannot work with them because you might take away the possibility of you winning the race for your manufacturer by being too strict with those guidelines. That’s just the way I feel about it. I mean, if I feel like on the last lap restart I can push a Toyota to get to the front and then leave him out coming to the line, I think that’s a win for me and for our manufacturer—and I feel like I used them to get me there. So I think that’s even an added bonus.
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